Mo' Better Blues backdrop
Mo' Better Blues poster
#6,300 All-time worldwide
#74 1990 releases

Movie profile

Mo' Better Blues

1990 · 129 min · 40 Acres And A Mule Filmworks

Drama Music
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $16.2M
Budget $10.0M
Gross minus budget $6.2M
ROI 1.62x

Domestic gross

$8.1M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$8.1M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$1.5M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where Mo' Better Blues ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #6,300 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1990 releases #74 Release-year chart position of 205 titles Ranked against movies released in 1990. Studio / company #7 40 Acres And A Mule Filmworks of 12 titles Position inside the mapped 40 Acres And A Mule Filmworks movie set. Primary genre #2,574 Drama of 5,859 titles Genre context based on the first mapped genre on this profile.

Nearby worldwide ranks

Comparable titles immediately around this movie by reported worldwide gross.

#6,297 Birthday Girl 2001 · $16.2M #6,298 Shaolin Temple 1982 · $16.2M #6,299 Iris 2001 · $16.2M #6,301 Devil in a Blue Dress 1995 · $16.1M #6,302 Six Degrees of Celebration 6 2017 · $16.1M #6,303 D.C. Cab 1983 · $16.1M

Quick answer

How did Mo' Better Blues (1990) perform at the box office?

High confidence

Mo' Better Blues (1990) earned a reported $16.2M worldwide against a reported $10.0M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about $6.2M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 1.62x. In this database it currently ranks #6,300 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #74 among 1990 releases.

Worldwide gross
$16,153,593
Budget
$10,000,000
Gross minus budget
$6,153,593
ROI
1.62x
Source: TMDb. Last updated: Jul 13, 2026. View source Gross-minus-budget is not studio net profit. It excludes marketing, distribution fees, revenue splits, tax incentives and later home/streaming revenue.

Synopsis

Story

Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
Aug 3, 1990
Production
40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Universal Pictures
Countries
US

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production company40 Acres And A Mule Filmworks Release year chart1990 box office Genre chartDrama Genre chartMusic

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1990, Mo' Better Blues is positioned in this dataset as a Drama, Music title from 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $16.2M, reported production budget is $10.0M, gross-minus-budget is $6.2M, ROI is 1.62x. For comparison, it currently sits #6,300 all-time in the current chart set and #74 among 1990 releases. Streaming availability should be checked against the selected United States region because provider rights can change.

AI-generated contextual summary based on available movie, genre, ranking and box office data. It does not replace official distributor notes or financial reporting.
Data noteGross minus budget is not studio net profit. It excludes marketing, distribution fees, revenue splits, tax incentives and downstream revenue. Domestic, international and opening weekend figures marked as estimated are modelled estimates.