The Girl on the Train (2016) earned $173,185,859 worldwide on a $45 million production budget. That result equals about 3.8 times its stated production cost in theaters. The Girl on the Train is a Tate Taylor thriller starring Emily Blunt as an alcoholic divorcee drawn into a missing-person case. It adapts Paula Hawkins's novel and was distributed in the United States by Universal Pictures.
Table of Contents
- What did it cost to make?
- How large was the opening?
- Where did the money come from?
- Did it turn a theatrical profit?
What did it cost to make?
Box Office Mojo lists a $45 million production budget in its production budget listing. Some summaries report a $45-50 million range. That range sets the baseline for judging profitability.
The budget figure covers production only. It does not include advertising, prints, or distribution fees. Readers should not subtract it directly from ticket sales to estimate studio profit.
How large was the opening?
It opened domestically on Oct. 7, 2016, in 3,144 theaters with $24,536,265. Boxoffice Pro reported the debut at No. 1 in its weekend actuals report.
It finished ahead of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Deepwater Horizon. The opening supplied about one-third of the final domestic total. That pattern is normal for a front-loaded thriller with strong source-material awareness. A No. 1 start also gave theaters a clear anchor title for the weekend.
Where did the money come from?
Box Office Mojo reports $75,395,035 domestic and $97,790,824 international in its worldwide summary. The split was 43.5% domestic and 56.5% international.
The majority came from outside North America. That balance helped the film reach $173 million despite a moderate domestic finish. International markets carried the later stage of the run.
- Domestic: $75,395,035, or 43.5% of worldwide
- International: $97,790,824, or 56.5% of worldwide
- Worldwide: $173,185,859
Did it turn a theatrical profit?
Reported budgets exclude marketing and distribution costs. TheWrap noted a production cost near $40 million, not counting marketing, in TheWrap's October 2016 report. The same limit applies to the $45 million figure.
At roughly 3.8 times production cost, the film passed the roughly 2.5x multiple often used to cover theatrical costs before home video. Collider later recapped the $173 million result against the $45 million budget in those terms. Exhibitors, Universal and Amblin Partners, and profit participants benefited because the run cleared that threshold.