The Straight Story backdrop
The Straight Story poster
#8,859 All-time worldwide
#154 1999 releases

Movie profile

The Straight Story

1999 · 112 min · Les Films Alain Sarde

Drama History
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $6.4M
Budget $10.0M
Gross minus budget -$3.6M
ROI 0.64x

Domestic gross

$3.2M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$3.2M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$577,623

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where The Straight 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 #8,859 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1999 releases #154 Release-year chart position of 249 titles Ranked against movies released in 1999. Studio / company #2 Les Films Alain Sarde of 3 titles Position inside the mapped Les Films Alain Sarde movie set. Primary genre #3,767 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.

#8,856 Hot to Trot 1988 · $6.4M #8,857 Dream Horse 2021 · $6.4M #8,858 Against the Ropes 2004 · $6.4M #8,860 Judas and the Black Messiah 2021 · $6.4M #8,861 Slackers 2002 · $6.4M #8,862 Lindenberg! Mach dein Ding 2020 · $6.4M

Quick answer

How did The Straight Story (1999) perform at the box office?

High confidence

The Straight Story (1999) earned a reported $6.4M worldwide against a reported $10.0M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about -$3.6M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 0.64x. In this database it currently ranks #8,859 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #154 among 1999 releases.

Worldwide gross
$6,418,028
Budget
$10,000,000
Gross minus budget
-$3,581,972
ROI
0.64x
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

Retired farmer and widower Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. He then has the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
Oct 15, 1999
Production
Les Films Alain Sarde, Picture Factory, Le Studio Canal+
Countries
US, GB, FR

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyLes Films Alain Sarde Release year chart1999 box office Genre chartDrama Genre chartHistory

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Where to watch

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1999, The Straight Story is positioned in this dataset as a Drama, History title from Les Films Alain Sarde. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $6.4M, reported production budget is $10.0M, gross-minus-budget is -$3.6M, ROI is 0.64x. For comparison, it currently sits #8,859 all-time in the current chart set and #154 among 1999 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.