The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
The financial picture
Domestic box office
$27,854,932
Worldwide box office
$66,953,264
Production budget
$4,000,000
Gross / budget
16.74×
USD · Domestic means US/Canada. Worldwide includes domestic; do not add them together. Gross is ticket revenue, not profit. A gross-to-budget multiple excludes marketing, exhibitor shares and other costs.
In the recorded snapshot, 41.6% of theatrical gross is domestic (US and Canada); 58.4% is international.
Domestic
$27,854,932
International
$39,098,332
International is worldwide minus domestic. Totals may be incomplete or cover different reporting periods; a source link is not independent verification. Revenue share is not a count of viewers or a measure of cultural impact.
Worldwide ticket revenue was 16.74 times the reported production budget.
Worldwide gross
$66,953,264
Production budget
$4,000,000
Not profit, ROI, or a break-even verdict. Marketing, theater shares, distribution costs and non-theatrical revenue are excluded.
Comparable films
Up to three films in the index sharing a genre and release model, with production budgets within 50% of this film’s budget. Closest budgets appear first, then closest release years. Nominal USD; not adjusted for inflation. These are financial peers, not a ranking or cultural-impact score.
No sourced financial peers currently meet these criteria in the index. No substitute matches or estimates are shown.
Cultural Reception
Curated criticism
How critics read Moonlight, and where their perspectives differ.
3 sourced perspectivesSelected criticism, not a consensus
Sources checked Oct 22, 2026
The New Yorker
“Moonlight” Undoes Our Expectations
By Hilton Als
Als argues that Jenkins disrupts familiar depictions of Black life by allowing care and queer longing to unfold without sensationalism. He reads Chiron’s adult toughness as protection for a vulnerability that remains intact. ([newyorker.com](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/24/moonlight-undoes-our-expectations))
The intelligence takeaway
Grounded in Als’s own Black queer experience, this reading highlights tenderness and narrative restraint as representational choices, not merely aesthetic ones. ([newyorker.com](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/24/moonlight-undoes-our-expectations))
Editorial paraphrase and interpretation by BlackGenre, not a quotation or endorsement.
What emerges across these readings
Across these readings, Moonlight’s cultural significance emerges through its intimate methods: restrained performances, expressive faces and tenderness that interrupts familiar narratives of Black male violence. A productive tension concerns whether Chiron remains a particular person or becomes a representative figure, with Nayman questioning symbolic choices that Als and Tallerico largely understand through characterization. ([newyorker.com](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/24/moonlight-undoes-our-expectations))
Audience reception
Not measured. Published criticism does not stand in for audience sentiment, and a publication cannot represent an entire community.
Evidence boundaries
A curated sample of 3 articles about this film—not exhaustive coverage, a score, or proof of impact. These sources do not establish rights, equity or ownership.
The creative network
The people, companies and source material behind Moonlight.
Moonlight10 recorded connections
Rights ownership and equity shares are not documented in this record. Production credits do not establish who financed a film or who owns its IP.
Sources & record notes
Reference metadata and financial snapshots are linked below. Calculated comparisons reflect the recorded snapshots, not live totals.
