The Formula backdrop
The Formula poster
#8,162 All-time worldwide
#63 1980 releases

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $8.9M
Budget $13.2M
Gross minus budget -$4.3M
ROI 0.67x

Domestic gross

$3.6M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$5.3M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$996,160

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where The Formula ranks

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

How did The Formula (1980) perform at the box office?

High confidence

The Formula (1980) earned a reported $8.9M worldwide against a reported $13.2M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about -$4.3M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 0.67x. In this database it currently ranks #8,162 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #63 among 1980 releases.

Worldwide gross
$8,894,289
Budget
$13,200,000
Gross minus budget
-$4,305,711
ROI
0.67x
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

While investigating the death of a friend and fellow cop, Los Angeles police officer Barney Caine stumbles across evidence that Nazis created a synthetic alternative to gasoline during World War II. This revelation has the potential to end the established global oil industry, making the formula a very valuable and dangerous piece of information. Eventually, Caine must contend with oil tycoon Adam Steiffel, who clearly has his own agenda regarding the formula.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
Dec 19, 1980
Production
CIP Filmproduktion GmbH, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Countries
DE, US

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1980, The Formula is positioned in this dataset as a Thriller, Mystery, Crime title from CIP Filmproduktion GmbH. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $8.9M, reported production budget is $13.2M, gross-minus-budget is -$4.3M, ROI is 0.67x. For comparison, it currently sits #8,162 all-time in the current chart set and #63 among 1980 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.