#4,154 All-time worldwide

#19 1978 releases

Movie profile

Midnight Express

Name: Midnight Express
Genre: Drama, Crime
Released: 1978-08-31
Duration: 121 min

1978 · 121 min · Columbia Pictures

Drama Crime

IMDb View on FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.

Worldwide gross $35.0M

Budget $2.3M

Gross minus budget $32.7M

ROI 15.22x

Domestic gross

$17.5M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$17.5M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$3.2M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where Midnight Express ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.

Open rankings

All-time worldwide #4,154 All-time chart position of 13,006 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1978 releases #19 Release-year chart position of 89 titles Ranked against movies released in 1978. Studio / company #155 Columbia Pictures of 272 titles Position inside the mapped Columbia Pictures movie set. Primary genre #1,565 Drama of 6,006 titles Genre context based on the first mapped genre on this profile.

Nearby worldwide ranks

Comparable titles immediately around this movie by reported worldwide gross.

#4,150 My Week with Marilyn 2011 · $35.1M #4,152 Miss Potter 2006 · $35.1M #4,153 Alfie 2004 · $35.1M #4,164 Red Heat 1988 · $35.0M #4,165 Kingdom 2: Far and Away 2022 · $35.0M #4,166 When Marnie Was There 2014 · $34.9M

Quick answer

How did Midnight Express (1978) perform at the box office?

High confidence

Midnight Express (1978) earned a reported $35.0M worldwide against a reported $2.3M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about $32.7M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 15.22x. In this database it currently ranks #4,154 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #19 among 1978 releases.

Worldwide gross: $35,000,000
Budget: $2,300,000
Gross minus budget: $32,700,000
ROI: 15.22x

Source: Reported box office data. Last updated: Jul 8, 2026. Gross-minus-budget is not studio net profit. It excludes marketing, distribution fees, revenue splits, tax incentives and later home/streaming revenue.

Synopsis

Story

Synopsis is not available for this title yet.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date: Aug 31, 1978
Production: Columbia Pictures, Casablanca Filmworks
Countries: GB, US

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyColumbia Pictures Release year chart1978 box office Genre chartDrama Genre chartCrime

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1978, Midnight Express is positioned in this dataset as a Drama, Crime title from Columbia Pictures. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $35.0M, reported production budget is $2.3M, gross-minus-budget is $32.7M, ROI is 15.22x. For comparison, it currently sits #4,154 all-time in the current chart set and #19 among 1978 releases. Streaming availability should be checked against the selected United States region because provider rights can change.

AI-generated contextual summary based on available movie, genre, ranking and box office data. It does not replace official distributor notes or financial reporting.

Data noteGross minus budget is not studio net profit. It excludes marketing, distribution fees, revenue splits, tax incentives and downstream revenue. Domestic, international and opening weekend figures marked as estimated are modelled estimates.