Wills & Burke backdrop
Wills & Burke poster
#12,194 All-time worldwide
#165 1985 releases

Movie profile

Wills & Burke

1985 · 98 min · Stony Desert

Comedy
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $123,694
Budget $4.0M
Gross minus budget -$3.9M
ROI 0.03x

Domestic gross

$49,478

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$74,216

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$13,854

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where Wills & Burke ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #12,194 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1985 releases #165 Release-year chart position of 184 titles Ranked against movies released in 1985. Primary genre #4,633 Comedy of 4,840 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.

#12,191 Knick Knack 1989 · $123,967 #12,191 Tin Toy 1988 · $123,967 #12,193 The Beyond 1981 · $123,843 #12,195 Eureka 1983 · $123,572 #12,196 There Goes My Baby 1994 · $123,509 #12,197 Roseanna's Grave 1997 · $123,330

Quick answer

How did Wills & Burke (1985) perform at the box office?

High confidence

Wills & Burke (1985) earned a reported $123.7K worldwide against a reported $4.0M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about -$3.9M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 0.03x. In this database it currently ranks #12,194 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #165 among 1985 releases.

Worldwide gross
$123,694
Budget
$4,008,626
Gross minus budget
-$3,884,932
ROI
0.03x
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

Parody of historical epics that focuses on real-life Australian explorers William John Wills and Robert O'Hara Burkes, who tragically tried to cross the Australian continent from the south, to the north, a distance of 3,250 km.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
Oct 23, 1985
Production
Stony Desert, Australian Film Commission, Film Victoria
Countries
AU

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyStony Desert Release year chart1985 box office Genre chartComedy

JustWatch

Where to watch

Streaming availability loaded for the selected region.
View all options
Showing United States availability.

Stream

Hoopla

Availability and provider links are powered by JustWatch where available. Provider availability can change by region and date.

AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1985, Wills & Burke is positioned in this dataset as a Comedy title from Stony Desert. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $123,694, reported production budget is $4.0M, gross-minus-budget is -$3.9M, ROI is 0.03x. For comparison, it currently sits #12,194 all-time in the current chart set and #165 among 1985 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.