The Buddy Holly Story backdrop
The Buddy Holly Story poster
#6,661 All-time worldwide
#41 1978 releases

Movie profile

The Buddy Holly Story

1978 · 114 min · Innovisions

Drama Music
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $14.4M
Budget $1.2M
Gross minus budget $13.2M
ROI 11.97x

Domestic gross

$7.2M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$7.2M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$1.3M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where The Buddy Holly Story ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #6,661 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1978 releases #41 Release-year chart position of 89 titles Ranked against movies released in 1978. Primary genre #2,743 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.

#6,658 Ishtar 1987 · $14.4M #6,659 Bright Star 2009 · $14.4M #6,660 Awake 2007 · $14.4M #6,662 Memoirs of an Invisible Man 1992 · $14.4M #6,663 Rapid Fire 1992 · $14.4M #6,664 Hot Rod 2007 · $14.4M

Quick answer

How did The Buddy Holly Story (1978) perform at the box office?

High confidence

The Buddy Holly Story (1978) earned a reported $14.4M worldwide against a reported $1.2M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about $13.2M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 11.97x. In this database it currently ranks #6,661 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #41 among 1978 releases.

Worldwide gross
$14,363,400
Budget
$1,200,000
Gross minus budget
$13,163,400
ROI
11.97x
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

A chronicle of the rise and brief career of rock 'n' roll star Buddy Holly, who aspires to play music the way he wants it to sound. Holly and his band, the Crickets, are first invited to record in Nashville, where they encounter creative differences with the producing staff. Later they play a major booking at the Apollo Theater, scheduled there under the mistaken assumption that they're a black band. Holly's career eventually goes solo -- until the tragic day the music dies.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
May 18, 1978
Production
Innovisions, Columbia Pictures, Taurus Film
Countries
US

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyInnovisions Release year chart1978 box office Genre chartDrama Genre chartMusic

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1978, The Buddy Holly Story is positioned in this dataset as a Drama, Music title from Innovisions. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $14.4M, reported production budget is $1.2M, gross-minus-budget is $13.2M, ROI is 11.97x. For comparison, it currently sits #6,661 all-time in the current chart set and #41 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.