Errol Flynn Box Office

In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) - cost £6,500 to make and earned £7,000. (Source "Counting the Cash in Australian Films"', Everyones 12 December 1934 p 19)

Captain Blood (1935) made a profit of $1.462 million.

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Prince and the Pauper (1937), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Private Lives Of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and The Sea Hawk (1940) established Flynn as the top star at Warner Bros. Each of the six films had high domestic earnings and earned very high foreign grosses.

The Adventures of Robin Hood was by far the most expensive and successful. It had the highest production cost ($2,033,000) of any Warner Bros film at this time, and earnings of $3,981,000 were the highest of the decade - a profit of almost $2 million.

Elizabeth and Essex cost $1.075 million, making a profit of $550,000.

Flynn also starred in three highly successful westerns [Dodge City (1939), Virginia City (1940), Santa Fe Trail (1941)]), which all had costs above $1,000,000 and earned solid profits. Santa Fe Trail made a profit of $1.48 million.

He also starred in films costing half that amount, including Green Light (1936), Another Dawn (1937), and The Dawn Patrol (1938).

In 1942 Errol Flynn’s contract specified that on every fourth picture at Warner’s he would receive a percentage of the ‘‘net gross.’’ This term was defined to be the gross revenues less all negative, advertising, and distribution costs and a 20 percent distribution fee.

They Died with Their Boots On (1942) made a profit of $1.5 million.

His highest earning film of the mid 40s was San Antonio (1945), which cost more than $2,000,000 and and earned $3.553 million (it was Warners biggest hit of the year).

His biggest hit of the late 40s was The Adventures of Don Juan (1948) which had earnings of just under $5,000,000 and costs of approximately $3,500,000.

It is highly unlikely that the western Silver River (1947), made any profit at all. Costs of $3,204,000 were barely met by earnings of $3,484,000.

Films such as Cry Wolf (1947) and Never Say Goodbye (1946) placed well outside the ten top earning films of their season, and Escape Me Never (1947) had earnings below its production cost. Never Say Goodbye earned cinema receipts of £116,821 in England (a solid amount).

Over at MGM he made two films.  
* That Forsyth Woman (1949) grossed $3,697,000 (domestic $1,855,000 and foreign $1,842,000) at a cost of $2,612,000 - making a loss of $574,000.

* Kim made $5,348,000 (domestic $2,896,000 - the tenth biggest film of the year - and foreign $2,452,000), at a cost of $2,049,000 - made a profit of $1,064,000. It wasn't as big a hit as King Solomon's Mines, which had also been offered to Errol, but that was still pretty good. He picked the wrong film but it wasn't that massive a mistake.

* Montana (1950) cost between $1-$1.5 million and earned over $3 million, including cinema receipts of £131,969 in the UK.

* Rocky Mountain (1951) earned

£125,231 worth of receipts in the UK.

* King's Rhapsody (1954) earned

 £90,884 in receipts in the UK - this was poor compared to earlier musicals from Anna Neagle.

He had two supporting roles in films for 20th Century Fox in the late 50s.  
* The Sun Also Rises (1958) made $3.5 million and cost $3.815. 
*  The Roots of Heaven (1958) made $3 million, cost $3.3 million.