Nighthawks backdrop
Nighthawks poster
#5,709 All-time worldwide
#40 1981 releases

Movie profile

Nighthawks

1981 · 99 min · Martin Poll Productions

Action Crime Thriller
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $19.9M
Budget $5.0M
Gross minus budget $14.9M
ROI 3.98x

Domestic gross

$8.0M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$11.9M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$2.2M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where Nighthawks ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #5,709 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1981 releases #40 Release-year chart position of 138 titles Ranked against movies released in 1981. Primary genre #1,710 Action of 2,939 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.

#5,706 Unfaithfully Yours 1984 · $19.9M #5,707 Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever 2002 · $19.9M #5,708 Breathless 1983 · $19.9M #5,710 Get Over It 2001 · $19.9M #5,711 Hard Rain 1998 · $19.9M #5,712 Jane Austen's Mafia! 1998 · $19.9M

Quick answer

How did Nighthawks (1981) perform at the box office?

High confidence

Nighthawks (1981) earned a reported $19.9M worldwide against a reported $5.0M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about $14.9M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 3.98x. In this database it currently ranks #5,709 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #40 among 1981 releases.

Worldwide gross
$19,905,359
Budget
$5,000,000
Gross minus budget
$14,905,359
ROI
3.98x
Source: TMDb. Last updated: Jul 13, 2026. View source Gross-minus-budget is not studio net profit. It excludes marketing, distribution fees, revenue splits, tax incentives and later home/streaming revenue.

Synopsis

Story

When one of Europe's most lethal terrorists shows up in New York, an elite undercover cop is assigned to take him down by any means necessary.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
Mar 17, 1981
Production
Martin Poll Productions, The Production Company, Universal Pictures
Countries
US, GB, FR

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyMartin Poll Productions Release year chart1981 box office Genre chartAction Genre chartCrime Genre chartThriller

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1981, Nighthawks is positioned in this dataset as a Action, Crime, Thriller title from Martin Poll Productions. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $19.9M, reported production budget is $5.0M, gross-minus-budget is $14.9M, ROI is 3.98x. For comparison, it currently sits #5,709 all-time in the current chart set and #40 among 1981 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.