Highest-Grossing Prison Movies

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Due to the forthcoming releases of Escape Plan 2: Hades and the Papillon remake, I was checking the domestic box office gross for Lock Up recently.  Personal interest (big Stallone fan!) - even though I know Hades will probably not get a theatrical release - but it got me interested where Lock Up ranked in terms of all-time prison movies, especially at the time of its release.  So I set out looking for what is the highest-grossing prison movie and, to my surprise, this is not listed anywhere.  So, I've decided to make a list here.

TOP 30 PRISON FILMS

1. The Longest Yard (2005) - $158,119,460
2. The Green Mile - $136,801,374
3. Con Air - $101,117,573
4. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail - $90,508,336
5. Papillon - $53,267,000
6. The Longest Yard (1974) - $43,008,075
7. Escape from Alcatraz - $43,000,000
8. Dead Man Walking - $39,363,635
9. Brubaker - $37,121,708
10. Midnight Express - $35,000,000
11. The Shawshank Redemption - $28,341,469
12. Escape Plan - $25,135,965
13. In the Name of the Father - $25,096,862
14. Ernest Goes to Jail - $25,029,569
15. Lock Up - $22,099,847
16. The Last Castle - $18,244,060
17. Murder in the First - $17,381,942
18. Cool Hand Luke - $16,217,773
19. Undisputed - $12,764,657
20. The Great Escape - $11,744,471
21. Bad Boys (1983) - $9,190,819
22. Fortress - $6,739,141
23. American History X - $6,719,864
24. Un Prophète - $2,087,720
25. Hunger - $154,084
26. Bronson - $104,979
27. Mean Machine - $92,770
28. Starred Up - $54,915
29. Animal Factory - $43,805
30. The Escapist - $13,439

This list means nothing in isolation other than to see where prison films rank in terms of highest all-time gross.  Of course, they were all released at different times over the last 60 years, with varying theater counts, with different distributors/studios, and they all had different intentions.  The purpose is not to wonder why some grossed very little and others broke out (there are other sites for that), this is just a one-stop list to see where they rank on an all-time list.

I'll try to keep it updated when new prison films are released.  Prison movies generally do not make much at the box office, and many of the high-grossing films are older.  Newer prison films tend to be independently made and do not get released as wide as studio releases.

I did not include films such as The Rock, Face/Off, and Tango & Cash as I do not believe the focus of the film is on prison life at all or for long enough.

Oh, and I can now answer my question.  Based on the above list, Lock Up would have been the 7th highest-grossing prison film of all-time by the end of its 1989 release.

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