Highest-Grossing Movie Set in Idaho Revealed

There’s no shortage of trivia nights at restaurants around the Treasure Valley and if your group of friends has a wide range of gifts, you’ll want to toss this question at your team’s resident movie buff!

What Movie Set in Idaho Put Up the Highest-Grossing Global Box Office Total?

For the record, I’m not the movie buff in my group of friends. I’m what you’d call cinematically challenged. You’re better off bringing me to a Music Bingo night than anything that involves movie trivia but even I can name a handful of movies set in Idaho. Napoleon Dynamite being the most obvious since it was both shot and set in Preston.

Just based on the reception the Napoleon Dynamite cast gets at comic-cons that I’ve been to, I would’ve guessed the quirky, teen comedy would be at the top of that list. Their photo-op and autograph lines are always huge!

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However, Napoleon Dynamite didn’t exactly light the box office on fire when it was released in June 2004. In its first week, it only grossed $187,009 domestically and ranked a disappointing #21 behind the other new releases and movies that had been out for months.

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For comparison? The Chronicles of Riddick was the top grossing new release that week, netting $31.1 million.

Still, the $46.1 million it earned during its original release window was impressive because the film had an estimated budget of just $400,000 and featured a cast of virtual unknowns.

The River Wild Is The Top Grossing Movie Set in Idaho

That was nowhere near enough to make the highest-grossing movie set in Idaho at the global box office! Work + Money scoured Box Office Mojo’s archives to determine the Highest-Grossing Movie That Takes Place in Each State and determined The River Wild tops the list in Idaho.

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It shouldn’t surprise you that I’ve never heard of this movie because…cinematically challenged, but maybe you remember it! Released in 1994, it starred big names like Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon and John C. Reilly.

IMDB’s synopsis for the film reads:

A Boston couple, Gail and Tom are having marital problems. Gail, a rafting expert, decides to take their child Roarke on a holiday rafting down the Salmon River in Idaho, along with their pet dog. At the last minute, Tom joins them. As they are setting off they meet a couple of other rafters, Wade and Terry, who appear to be friendly.

While the film may be set in Idaho, none of the footage of the “Salmon River” was captured here. IMDB lists the Kootenai River in Libby, Montana, the Upper Rogue River in Grants Pass, Oregon, and the Middle Fork of the Flathead River in Kalispell, Montana as filming locations. Glacier National Park and Boston, Massachusetts round out the filming locations.

How Much Did The River Wild Make at the Global Box Office?

So how much did it make at the global box office? $94.2 million during its original release. If you take inflation into account, that’s worth about $204.2 million. If if were released in 2025, it would rank #10 at the global box office, just behind Disney’s “meh” live-action remake of Snow White. (At least as of June 13, 2025, it would.)