How did they make money?


They were able to rent houses and apartments and stay in hotels for days/weeks on end but we never see them make or steal any money. I was just wondering how they paid. Was one of them from money?

reply

I wondered about the same thing as well, and I've seen this movie countless times. I'm pretty sure they dealt some of their drugs, and probably hit the various cash drawers. There's a scene towards the beginning where David (the neighbor) does a deal with Bob (Matt Dillon), even though Bob's forking over the cash. So there are implications about dealing, but it would've been helpful for Gus Van Sant to expound a little regarding financial aspects.

reply

Sure, they must have sold the drugs and stole some too. Why not?

reply

Hmm.. well, that bottle of Dilaudid alone went for, what, $8,400 altogether? This movie appeared to take place in the 60's or 70's (not sure, actually, just going by the cars and the black-and-white television, though a lot of it felt modern too, so who knows...) so that'd be, what, $12-$15k nowadays, depending on where you live? So, even if they shot half, they could sell the other half and be good for probably half the year. It never shows them eating or anything, I doubt they'd have appetites, they steal clothes and so on... their lives mainly consist of rent, gas, driving around, and breaking into places. Mostly sitting around actually. So, it wouldn't be hard to get by, even with 3-4 people.

Also, they were getting HUGE amounts of drugs, many that were worthless to them (once you're a hardcore junky, "weak" pain pills won't do anything for you, though you can turn a good profit on them still). They were getting bottles of 300-or-so morphines, just imagine them selling them for $10-20 a piece. And that's just one bottle.

So, yeah, they could have just sold a very very small amount of what they stole an still been in business for a long time.

-
Shuji Terayama forever.

reply

In the robbery scene where Nadine is given the large drawer of drugs, Bob calls to Rick to check out two safes he found inside. They gave it up when they realized Nadine was making such a racket, but they made it clear they were looking for money too. Money was a secondary item, but they took it too.

reply

They clearly made money by selling the drugs they didn't use from their runs. They also probably stole cash from safes or registers from time to time. They certainly knew the street value of all of the stuff they had. All they needed was rent/room stays, food & gas -- and they visited home to pick up clothing. That is not a lot looking at the places they stayed in.

reply