In the Northside of Dublin, Ireland, Jimmy Rabbitte is a young music fanatic who aspires to manage an Irish soul and rock and roll band in the tradition of 1950s and 60s African-American recording artists. He places an advert in the local newspaper and holds auditions in his parents' home. After being deluged by several unsuitable performers, Jimmy decides to put together a band consisting of friends and people he encounters—lead singer Deco Cuffe, guitarist Outspan Foster, keyboardist Steven Clifford, alto saxophonist Dean Fay, bassist Derek Scully, drummer Billy Mooney, and female backup singers Bernie McGloughlin, Natalie Murphy and Imelda Quirke. Jimmy then meets trumpeter Joey "The Lips" Fagan, a veteran musician who offers his services, and has unlikely stories about meeting and working with famous musicians. Joey names the band "The Commitments".

After purchasing a drum set and acquiring a piano from Steven's grandmother, Jimmy secures the remainder of the band's musical equipment from Duffy, a black market dealer. The band rehearses on the second floor above a snooker hall, and after much practice, they convince a local church community centre to give them a gig, under the pretence of it being an anti-heroin campaign. Jimmy then hires Mickah Wallace, a belligerent and hot-tempered bouncer, to act as the band's security. The band draws a good crowd, but after Deco inadvertently hits Derek with his microphone stand, the amplifiers explode, resulting in a power outage.

Tensions run high among the band members, as Joey seduces Natalie, then Bernie, then Imelda, all while Deco grows increasingly obnoxious and unruly, believing himself to be the star of the band. The band performs at another venue where, at the end of one song, Billy accidentally knocks over his hi-hat cymbals, leading to a heated argument between him and Deco. Billy leaves the band in fear of going to jail if he beats up Deco – much to Jimmy's frustration – and Mickah replaces him as the band's drummer. During the band's next performance at a roller disco, their first paying gig, Jimmy is confronted by Duffy, who demands payment for the equipment he provided the band. Mickah intervenes and violently attacks Duffy, who is escorted out. Jimmy then goes on stage and introduces the band, which elicits boisterous cheers from the audience.

After the band secures another gig, Joey promises Jimmy that he can get his friend, Wilson Pickett, to sing alongside them. On this promise, Jimmy convinces several journalists to attend the band's next performance. At the venue, the band draws a large crowd, but its members begin arguing with each other offstage, and become doubtful when it appears that Pickett will not show. They go back on stage, where Deco denounces Jimmy for misleading the audience about Pickett's appearance; the band's performance of one of Pickett's songs, "In the Midnight Hour", silences the crowd's protests. After the performance, the fighting continues; during a heated argument, Mickah beats up Deco outside the club, and Jimmy storms off in frustration, claiming that the band is finished. Joey follows Jimmy, who berates him for misleading the band about Pickett. Just as Joey leaves, Pickett's limousine pulls up next to Jimmy, and his driver asks for directions to the club, revealing that Joey was telling the truth about Pickett, he just showed up too late. In a closing monologue, Jimmy explains that the ban…

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• Robert Arkins as Jimmy Rabbitte – manager
• Michael Aherne as Steven Clifford – piano, keyboards
• Angeline Ball as Imelda Quirke – vocals
• Maria Doyle as Natalie Murphy – vocals
• Dave Finnegan as Mickah Wallace – drums
• Bronagh Gallagher as Bernadette "Bernie" McGloughlin – vocals
• Félim Gormley as Dean Fay – alto saxophone
• Glen Hansard as Outspan Foster – guitars
• Dick Massey as Billy Mooney – drums
• Johnny Murphy as Joey "The Lips" Fagan – trumpet
• Kenneth McCluskey as Derek Scully – bass
• Andrew Strong as Deco Cuffe – lead vocals
• Colm Meaney as Mr. Rabbitte
• Anne Kent as Mrs. Rabbitte
• Andrea Corr as Sharon Rabbitte
• Gerard Cassoni as Darren Rabbitte
• Ruth & Lindsay Fairclough as the Rabbitte Twins
In addition, comedian Sean Hughes played Dave from Eejit Records while Maura O'Malley played Joey's mother. Besides Andrea, the other three members of The Corrs appear in the film, with Jim Corr in a credited role and Sharon and Caroline Corr in brief background roles. The film's director, Alan Parker, plays an unnamed producer at Eejit Records at the end of the film. While the Jimmy character regularly voices both sides of his imaginary interview on the Terry Wogan show, Wogan does not appear, and Sir Terry was reportedly not a fan of the film.

20th Century Fox felt that The Commitments would attract young adult audiences, but test screenings indicated that the film would appeal more to older viewers, due to its musical content. Parker, a former advertising executive, collaborated with the studio on the film's marketing, running an extensive campaign to attract the intended target audience. Theatrical posters for the film were distributed to exhibitors in February 1991. Beginning in April 1991, Fox arranged several screenings in Toronto, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, with audience members being music industry executives, journalists, disc jockeys and club owners. In August 1991, the studio hosted a press junket in Dublin, Ireland for several media outlets. The Commitments premiered at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California on 6 August 1991, the Cinerama Dome Theatre in Hollywood on 7 August 1991, the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza Cinemas in Century City, Los Angeles on 13 August 1991, and the Savoy Cinema in Dublin, Ireland on 19 September 1991.

Fox gave The Commitments a platform release which involved opening the film in select cities before expanding distribution in the following weeks. The film had a limited release in New York City, Los Angeles, and Ireland on 14 August 1991, and expanded to Toronto, San Francisco and Chicago on 16 August 1991. The film was released nationwide in North America on 13 September 1991, and Ireland on 4 October 1991. The English-based studio Sovereign Pictures handled distribution outside North America except the United Kingdom and Ireland where Fox also handled distribution.
The Commitments grossed $271,333 on its first week of limited release in North America—an average of $33,916 per theatre. The film grossed an additional $268,653 in its second weekend, with an overall domestic gross of $775,824. More theatres were added in its third week; the film grossed an additional $1,366,223 from 104 theatres, which was a +409% increase from its second weekend. The following week, the film was released to a total of 555 theatres in the United States and Canada. It grossed $2,511,091, securing the number three position at the domestic box office. The film saw a significant drop in attendance during the following week, the film grossed $1,752,234, a 30.2% overall decrease from the previous weekend. After eight weeks of release, The Commitments ended its theatrical run with an overall gross of $14,919,570. In North America, it was the 80th highest-grossing film of 1991 and the 42nd highest-grossing R-rated film of that year.

The film was the highest-grossing film in Ireland of all time with a gross of IR£2.23 million ($3.5 million). It grossed £8,285,701 in the UK.
In North America, The Commitments was released on VHS on 9 April 1992 by FoxVideo, Inc. To promote the release, FoxVideo distributed 90,000 videocassette copies of a "making-of" featurette to home video retailers. The featurette was made available to consumers as a free rental. FoxVideo spent an estimated $300,000 on the marketing, and an additional $200,000 promoting the featurette using print and broadcast advertising.

A Region 1 DVD was released on 19 August 2003, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The DVD presents the film in standard definition. Special features include a making-of featurette, a music video for the song "Treat Her Right", a theatrical trailer, and CD sampler that plays four songs from the moti…

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