Norma Rae backdrop
Norma Rae poster
#5,360 All-time worldwide
#35 1979 releases

Movie profile

Norma Rae

1979 · 110 min · 20th Century Fox

Drama
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $22.2M
Budget $4.5M
Gross minus budget $17.7M
ROI 4.94x

Domestic gross

$11.1M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$11.1M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$2.0M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where Norma Rae ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #5,360 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1979 releases #35 Release-year chart position of 94 titles Ranked against movies released in 1979. Studio / company #89 20th Century Fox of 209 titles Position inside the mapped 20th Century Fox movie set. Primary genre #2,130 Drama of 5,859 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.

#5,357 Pink Floyd: The Wall 1982 · $22.2M #5,358 Waitress 2007 · $22.2M #5,359 Emma 1996 · $22.2M #5,361 Reign Over Me 2007 · $22.2M #5,362 A Home Too Far 1990 · $22.2M #5,363 Our Russia: Eggs of Destiny 2010 · $22.2M

Quick answer

How did Norma Rae (1979) perform at the box office?

High confidence

Norma Rae (1979) earned a reported $22.2M worldwide against a reported $4.5M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about $17.7M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 4.94x. In this database it currently ranks #5,360 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #35 among 1979 releases.

Worldwide gross
$22,228,000
Budget
$4,500,000
Gross minus budget
$17,728,000
ROI
4.94x
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

Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
Mar 2, 1979
Production
20th Century Fox, Martin Ritt Productions, Rose and Asseyev Productions
Countries
US

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production company20th Century Fox Release year chart1979 box office Genre chartDrama

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Where to watch

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1979, Norma Rae is positioned in this dataset as a Drama title from 20th Century Fox. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $22.2M, reported production budget is $4.5M, gross-minus-budget is $17.7M, ROI is 4.94x. For comparison, it currently sits #5,360 all-time in the current chart set and #35 among 1979 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.