Box office
Following its success at the 81st Academy Awards, the film topped the worldwide box office (barring North America), grossing $16 million from 34 markets in the week following the Academy Awards. Worldwide, it has grossed $378 million, becoming Fox Searchlight Pictures's highest-grossing film ever (surpassing Juno). It was the year's second highest-grossing British film worldwide (below Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) and the most successful British independent film of all time.
Slumdog Millionaire was first shown at the Telluride Film Festival on 30 August 2008, where it was positively received, generating "strong buzz". It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2008, where it was the festival's "first widely acknowledged popular success", winning the People's Choice Award. It debuted with a limited North American release on 12 November 2008, followed by a nationwide US release on 23 January 2009.
After debuting on a Wednesday, the film grossed $360,018 in 10 theatres in its first weekend, a strong average of $36,002 per theatre. In its second weekend, it expanded to 32 theatres and made $947,795, or an average of $29,619 per theatre, representing a drop of only 18%. In the 10 original theatres of its release, viewership went up 16%, and this is attributed to strong word-of-mouth. The film expanded into wide release on 25 December 2008 at 614 theatres and earned $5,647,007 over the extended Christmas weekend. Following its success at the 81st Academy Awards, the film's earnings increased by 43%, the most for any film since Titanic. In the weekend of 27 February to 1 March, it reached its widest release at 2,943 theatres. It has grossed over $140 million at the North American box office.
The film was released in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009, and opened at #2 at the UK box office. It reached #1 in its second weekend and set a UK box office record, as the film's earnings increased by 47%, the "biggest ever increase for a UK saturation release," breaking "the record previously held by Billy Elliot's 13%". This record-breaking "ticket surge" in the second weekend came after Slumdog Millionaire won four Golden Globes and received eleven BAFTA nominations. It grossed £6.1 million in its first eleven days in the UK. Its earnings increased by another 7% the following weekend, bringing its total gross up to £10.24 million for its first 17 days in the UK, and up to £14.2 million in its third week.
As of 20 February 2009, the film's UK box office gross was £22,973,110, making it "the eighth biggest hit at UK cinemas of the past 12 months." In the week ending 1 March 2009, following its success at the 81st Academy Awards where it won eight Oscars, the film returned to No. 1 at the UK box office, grossing £26 million as of 2 March 2009. As of 17 May 2009, the total UK gross was over £31.6 million. It topped the UK box office for four weeks, more than any other film in 2009 (longer than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which spent three weeks at the top). It was the year's highest-grossing drama film in the UK, and the year's highest-grossing film rated 15 by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The film's UK audience demographic breakdown was 50% male and 50% female, with 80% under 55 and 20% over 55, and 32% in London. It became the highest-grossing British independent film ever at the UK box office, surpassing Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), as well as the 20th highest-grossing British film ever at the UK box office and the highest-grossing domestic British film ever without US studio investment.
The film's success at the Academy Awards led to large increases in earnings elsewhere in Europe the following week. Its biggest single-country increase was in Italy, where it was up 556% from the previous week. Its earnings in France and Spain also increased by 61% and 73% respectively. During the same week, the film debuted in other European countries with successful openings: in Croatia it grossed $170,419 from ten screens, making it the biggest opening there in the previous four months; and in Poland it opened in second place with a gross of $715,677. It was released in Sweden on 6 March 2009 and in Germany on 19 March 2009. It has sold 17,807,302 box office tickets in Europe as of 2020.
In India, the premiere of Slumdog Millionaire took place in Mumbai on 22 January 2009 and was attended by major personalities of the Indian film industry, with more than a hundred attending this event. A dubbed Hindi version, Slumdog Crorepati (स्लमडॉग करोड़पति), was also released in India in addition to the original version of the film. The name was changed as Indians are more familiar with Indian numbering, including the crore, than the Western numbering of one million. Originally titled Slumdog Millionaire: Kaun Banega Crorepati, the name was shortened for legal reasons. Loveleen Tandan, who supervised the dubbing, stated, "All the actors from the original English including Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and Ankur Vikal dubbed the film. We got a boy from Chembur, Pratik Motwani to dub for the male lead Dev Patel. I didn't want any exaggerated dubbing. I wanted a young unspoilt voice." The film was also dubbed in Tamil as Naanum Kodeeswaran, with Silambarasan dubbing for Patel, while S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Radha Ravi dubbed for Kapoor and Khan respectively.
Fox Searchlight, with Fox Star Studios, released 351 prints of the film across India for its full release there on 23 January 2009. It earned ₹2,35,45,665 (equivalent to ₹59 million or US$610,000 in 2023) in its first week at the Indian box office, or $2.2 million according to Fox Searchlight. Though not as successful as major film releases in India during its first week, this was the highest weekend gross for any Fox film and the third highest for any Western release in the country, trailing only Spider-Man 3 and Casino Royale. In its second week, the film's gross rose to ₹3,04,70,752 (equivalent to ₹77 million or US$800,000 in 2023) at the Indian box office.
A few analysts have offered their opinions about the film's performance at the Indian box office. Trade analyst Komal Nahta commented, "There was a problem with the title itself. Slumdog is not a familiar word for [the] majority [of] Indians." In addition, trade analyst Amod Mehr has stated that with the exception of Anil Kapoor, the film lacks recognisable stars and that "the film... is not ideally suited for Indian sentiment." A cinema owner commented that "to hear slum boys speaking perfect English doesn't seem right but when they are speaking in Hindi, the film seems much more believable." The dubbed Hindi version, Slumdog Crorepati, did better at the box office, and additional copies of that version were released. Following the film's success at the 81st Academy Awards, the film's takings in India increased by 470% the following week, bringing its total up to $6.3 million that week. As of 15 March 2009, Slumdog Crorepati had grossed ₹158,613,802 (equivalent to ₹400 million or US$4.1 million in 2023) at the Indian box office.
The film's success at the Academy Awards led to it seeing large increases in takings in the Asia-Pacific region. In Australia, the takings increased by 53%, bringing the film up to second place there. In Hong Kong, the film debuted taking $1 million in its opening weekend, making it the second biggest opening of the year there. The film was released in Japan on 18 April 2009, South Korea on 19 March 2009, China on 26 March 2009, Vietnam on 10 April 2009, and 11 April 2009 in the Philippines.
In particular, the film was a major success in East Asia. In the People's Republic of China, the film grossed $2.2 million in its opening weekend (27–29 March). In Japan, the film grossed $12 million, the most the film has grossed in any Asian country.
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