The Waterboy backdrop

The Waterboy movie poster

The Waterboy

1998 • PG-13 • 1h 30m • Comedy, Sport • Touchstone Pictures

You can mess with him. But don't mess with his water.

🍅 32% 71%

41

2.97

6.2

Box office summary

Opening Weekend

$39.4M

3-day opening

Domestic Total

$161.5M

Final

Worldwide Total

$190.2M

$28.7M international

Domestic Legs4.1x

Budget$23M

1998 Rank#5

Compare with other movies

Cast & Crew

Full Coraci filmography

Frank Coraci Director

Adam Sandler Starring

Kathy Bates Starring

Fairuza Balk Starring

Henry Winkler Starring

ScreenplayTim Herlihy, Adam Sandler Produced byRobert Simonds, Jack Giarraputo CinematographySteven Bernstein Music byAlan Pasqua StudioTouchstone Pictures

The run

WkWeekendRankGrossChgTheatersAvgTotal

1 Nov 6-8 1 $39.4M — 2,664 $14,795 $39.4M

2 Nov 13-15 1 $24.4M −38.0% 2,675 $9,133 $79.1M

3 Nov 20-22 3 $15.7M −35.7% 2,689 $5,841 $100.2M

4 Nov 27-29 4 $13.6M −13.4% 2,782 $4,889 $122.2M

5 Dec 4-6 5 $6.5M −52.1% 2,778 $2,344 $130.8M

6 Dec 11-13 6 $4.4M −31.9% 2,610 $1,698 $136.6M

7 Dec 18-20 7 $3.1M −29.2% 2,242 $1,401 $140.9M

8 Dec 25-27 13 $2.3M −25.7% 1,281 $1,821 $145.6M

9 Jan 1-3 13 $2.1M −8.2% 1,242 $1,725 $150.0M

10 Jan 8-10 13 $1.6M −23.9% 1,149 $1,420 $152.3M

11 Jan 15-17 20 $1.2M −28.2% 738 $1,587 $153.8M

12 Jan 22-24 21 $786.5K −32.8% 638 $1,233 $154.8M

13 Jan 29-31 22 $580.7K −26.2% 579 $1,003 $155.5M

14 Feb 5-7 19 $1.1M +84.4% 823 $1,301 $156.7M

15 Feb 12-14 22 $1.1M −1.1% 721 $1,469 $158.0M

16 Feb 19-21 22 $680.0K −35.8% 632 $1,076 $158.9M

17 Feb 26-28 24 $503.7K −25.9% 532 $947 $159.6M

18 Mar 5-7 22 $418.6K −16.9% 480 $872 $160.1M

19 Mar 12-14 24 $354.7K −15.3% 432 $821 $160.6M

20 Mar 19-21 31 $253.6K −28.5% 368 $689 $161.0M

21 Mar 26-28 40 $142.7K −43.7% 261 $547 $161.2M

22 Apr 2-4 47 $73.3K −48.6% 148 $495 $161.4M

23 Apr 9-11 56 $46.7K −36.3% 91 $513 $161.5M

24 Apr 16-18 72 $18.4K −60.6% 41 $448 $161.5M

DateRankGrossDailyWeeklyTotalTheatersAvgDay

Fri Nov 6 #1 $12.9M — $12.9M 2,664 $4,831 1

Sat Nov 7 #1 $16.3M +27% $29.2M 2,664 $6,120 2

Sun Nov 8 #1 $10.3M −37% $39.4M 2,664 $3,862 3

Mon Nov 9 #1 $2.7M −73% $42.1M 2,664 $1,026 4

Tue Nov 10 #1 $4.5M +63% $46.6M 2,664 $1,673 5

Wed Nov 11 #1 $5.5M +23% $52.1M 2,664 $2,053 6

Thu Nov 12 #1 $2.6M −53% $54.7M 2,664 $975 7

Fri Nov 13 #1 $7.8M +199% −40% $62.4M 2,675 $2,905 8

Sat Nov 14 #1 $10.8M +39% −34% $73.3M 2,675 $4,041 9

Sun Nov 15 #1 $5.7M −47% −45% $79.1M 2,675 $2,132 10

Mon Nov 16 #1 $1.2M −78% −55% $80.3M 2,675 $460 11

Tue Nov 17 #1 $1.6M +34% −63% $82.0M 2,675 $615 12

Wed Nov 18 #1 $1.2M −25% −77% $83.2M 2,675 $461 13

Thu Nov 19 #1 $1.3M +6% −50% $84.5M 2,675 $490 14

Fri Nov 20 #3 $4.9M +277% −36% $89.5M 2,689 $1,835 15

Sat Nov 21 #3 $7.1M +44% −34% $96.6M 2,689 $2,646 16

Sun Nov 22 #3 $3.6M −49% −37% $100.2M 2,689 $1,341 17

Mon Nov 23 #3 $910.4K −75% −26% $101.1M 2,689 $339 18

Tue Nov 24 #3 $1.4M +58% −12% $102.6M 2,702 $533 19

Wed Nov 25 #4 $2.5M +76% +106% $105.1M 2,782 $911 20

Thu Nov 26 #3 $3.4M +35% +161% $108.5M 2,782 $1,229 21

Fri Nov 27 #4 $5.8M +71% +18% $114.4M 2,782 $2,097 22

Sat Nov 28 #4 $5.5M −5% −22% $119.9M 2,782 $1,984 23

Sun Nov 29 #4 $2.4M −57% −35% $122.2M 2,782 $846 24

Mon Nov 30 #4 $514.1K −78% −44% $122.7M 2,782 $185 25

Tue Dec 1 #3 $579.5K +13% −60% $123.3M 2,782 $208 26

Wed Dec 2 #3 $467.0K −19% −82% $123.8M 2,782 $168 27

Thu Dec 3 #4 $564.3K +21% −83% $124.3M 2,782 $203 28

Fri Dec 4 #4 $2.0M +257% −65% $126.3M 2,782 $724 29

Sat Dec 5 #5 $3.0M +48% −46% $129.3M 2,778 $1,071 30

Sun Dec 6 #5 $1.4M −51% −39% $130.8M 2,778 $519 31

Mon Dec 7 #4 $329.0K −77% −36% $131.1M 2,778 $118 32

Tue Dec 8 #4 $414.5K +26% −28% $131.5M 2,778 $149 33

Wed Dec 9 #4 $334.9K −19% −28% $131.8M 2,778 $121 34

Thu Dec 10 #4 $345.6K +3% −39% $132.2M 2,778 $124 35

Fri Dec 11 #7 $880.0K +155% −56% $133.1M 2,610 $337 36

Sat Dec 12 #6 $1.9M +119% −35% $135.0M 2,610 $739 37

Sun Dec 13 #6 $1.0M −48% −30% $136.6M 2,610 $388 38

Mon Dec 14 #5 $263.3K −74% −20% $136.9M 2,610 $101 39

Tue Dec 15 #5 $324.8K +23% −22% $137.2M 2,610 $124 40

Wed Dec 16 #5 $275.7K −15% −18% $137.5M 2,610 $106 41

Thu Dec 17 #5 $310.8K +13% −10% $137.8M 2,610 $119 42

Fri Dec 18 #7 $870.0K +180% −1% $138.7M 2,242 $388 43

Sat Dec 19 #7 $1.3M +51% −32% $140.0M 2,242 $587 44

Sun Dec 20 #8 $914.0K −30% −10% $140.9M 2,242 $408 45

Mon Dec 21 #8 $544.5K −40% +107% $141.5M 2,242 $243 46

Wed Dec 23 #8 $680.0K — +147% $142.3M 2,242 $303 48

Thu Dec 24 #8 $380.0K −44% +22% $143.3M 2,242 $169 49

Charts show the first 10 weeks · the run above is the full record

Cumulative total$143.3M

Nov 6Nov 18Nov 30Dec 11Dec 24

Weekend grossWk 10 · $1.6M

$39.4M

$24.4M

$15.7M

$13.6M

$6.5M

$4.4M

$3.1M

$2.3M

$2.1M

$1.6M

W1W2W3W4W5W6W7W8W9W10

Theater countPeak 2,782 → 2,242 −19.4%

2,664 open2,242 now

Weekend-over-weekend dropWk 10 · −23.9%

−38.0%

W1→2

−35.7%

W2→3

−13.4%

W3→4

−52.1%

W4→5

−31.9%

W5→6

−29.2%

W6→7

−25.7%

W7→8

−8.2%

W8→9

−23.9%

W9→10

Steepest −52.1%Best hold −8.2%

Run milestones

$100M in 17 days

$100M

Day 17

Nov 22

Profitability

Return on Budget

Theatrical breakeven point is approx. 2.5x production budget

Domestic vs International Split

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