Dances With Wolves backdrop
Dances With Wolves movie poster

Dances With Wolves

1990 • PG-13 • 3h 1m • Adventure, Drama, Western • Orion Pictures

Inside everyone is a frontier waiting to be discovered.

🍅 87% 87% MC 72 LB 3.93 IMDb 8.0

Box office summary

Opening Weekend
$598K
Limited · 14 theaters
Domestic Total
$184M
Final
Worldwide Total
$424M
$240M international
Domestic Legs19.4x
Budget$22.0M
1991 Rank#6
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Cast & Crew

Directed byKevin Costner ScreenplayMichael Blake Produced byJim Wilson, Kevin Costner CinematographyDean Semler Edited byNeil Travis Music byJohn Barry StarringKevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant, Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman, Tantoo Cardinal StudioOrion Pictures
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The run

WkWeekendRankGrossChgTheatersAvgTotal
1 Nov 9-11 17 $598.3K — 14 $42,732 $598.3K
2 Nov 16-18 13 $565.1K −5.5% 14 $40,363 $1.5M
3 Nov 23-25 Thanksgiving 3 $9.5M +1,579.7% 1,048 $9,056 $14.3M
4 Nov 30-Dec 2 4 $7.0M −26% 1,053 $6,671 $24.4M
5 Dec 7-9 4 $5.4M −23.3% 1,051 $5,124 $32.0M
6 Dec 14-16 4 $4.5M −17% 1,196 $3,739 $38.4M
7 Dec 21-25 Christmas 5 $5.9M — 1,254 $4,710 $46.3M
8 Dec 28-Jan 1 New Year's 4 $11.9M — 1,269 $9,376 $61.6M
9 Jan 4-6 4 $7.3M — 1,282 $5,717 $71.1M
10 Jan 11-13 5 $5.6M −23.8% 1,285 $4,347 $79.4M
11 Jan 18-21 MLK Day 4 $5.8M — 1,301 $4,427 $86.8M
12 Jan 25-27 5 $4.3M — 1,302 $3,307 $92.4M
13 Feb 1-3 2 $4.8M +11.2% 1,343 $3,565 $98.7M
14 Feb 8-10 5 $3.9M −18.4% 1,548 $2,523 $103.9M
15 Feb 15-18 Presidents' Day 5 $6.2M — 1,554 $3,991 $111.7M
16 Feb 22-24 5 $4.2M — 1,602 $2,637 $117.3M
17 Mar 1-3 6 $3.9M −6.7% 1,608 $2,451 $122.6M
18 Mar 8-10 6 $3.4M −14.2% 1,572 $2,150 $127.2M
19 Mar 15-17 8 $2.8M −16.7% 1,545 $1,823 $131.3M
20 Mar 22-24 6 $3.8M +33.1% 1,538 $2,438 $136.3M
21 Mar 29-31 3 $5.4M +44.2% 1,621 $3,335 $144.5M
22 Apr 5-7 4 $4.0M −25.7% 1,636 $2,454 $151.0M
23 Apr 12-14 4 $3.5M −13.6% 1,612 $2,150 $155.7M
24 Apr 19-21 5 $2.9M −15.2% 1,625 $1,809 $159.7M
25 Apr 26-28 8 $2.1M −29.8% 1,597 $1,293 $162.8M
26 May 3-5 9 $1.8M −11% 1,478 $1,243 $165.4M
27 May 10-12 9 $1.4M −21.9% 1,358 $1,057 $167.5M
28 May 17-19 11 $1.4M −2.8% 1,107 $1,261 $168.8M
29 May 24-27 Memorial Day 15 $1.2M — 743 $1,627 $171.2M
Charts show the first 10 weeks · the run above is the full record
Weekend grossWk 10 · $5.6M
$598.3K
$565.1K
$9.5M
$7.0M
$5.4M
$4.5M
$5.9M
$11.9M
$7.3M
$5.6M
W1W2W3W4W5W6W7W8W9W10
Weekend-over-weekend dropWk 10 · −23.8%
−5.5%
W1→2
+1,579.7%
W2→3
−26%
W3→4
−23.3%
W4→5
−17%
W5→6
−23.8%
W9→10
Steepest −26%Biggest gain +1,579.7%

Profitability

Return on Budget
Theatrical breakeven point is approx. 2.5x production budget

Domestic vs International Split

Records held

All records →
#8 Most weekends in the top 10All-time 25 weekends #16 Biggest grossers never #1All-time $184.2M #19 Biggest 9th weekendsAll-time $7.3M

Similar movies

Open Range 2003 · Costner $58.3M Dead Man 1995 · Jarmusch $1M Heaven's Gate 1980 · Cimino $3.5M The Revenant 2015 · Iñárritu $183.6M Unforgiven 1992 · Eastwood $101M True Grit 1969 · Hathaway $31.1M

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