Soul Man backdrop
Soul Man poster
#4,168 All-time worldwide
#36 1986 releases

Movie profile

Soul Man

1986 · 104 min · The Steve Tisch Company

Comedy
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $35.0M
Budget $4.5M
Gross minus budget $30.5M
ROI 7.78x

Domestic gross

$14.0M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$21.0M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$3.9M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where Soul Man ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #4,168 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1986 releases #36 Release-year chart position of 206 titles Ranked against movies released in 1986. Studio / company #2 The Steve Tisch Company of 3 titles Position inside the mapped The Steve Tisch Company movie set. Primary genre #1,582 Comedy of 4,840 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.

#4,164 My Week with Marilyn 2011 · $35.1M #4,166 Miss Potter 2006 · $35.1M #4,167 Alfie 2004 · $35.1M #4,178 Red Heat 1988 · $35.0M #4,179 Kingdom 2: Far and Away 2022 · $35.0M #4,180 When Marnie Was There 2014 · $34.9M

Quick answer

How did Soul Man (1986) perform at the box office?

High confidence

Soul Man (1986) earned a reported $35.0M worldwide against a reported $4.5M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about $30.5M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 7.78x. In this database it currently ranks #4,168 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #36 among 1986 releases.

Worldwide gross
$35,000,000
Budget
$4,500,000
Gross minus budget
$30,500,000
ROI
7.78x
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

A white prospective grad student's affluent family won't pay his way through law school, so he takes tanning pills to darken his skin in order to qualify for an African-American scholarship at Harvard. He soon gets more than he bargained for, as he begins to learn what life is really like for blacks in America.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
Oct 24, 1986
Production
The Steve Tisch Company
Countries
US

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyThe Steve Tisch Company Release year chart1986 box office Genre chartComedy

JustWatch

Where to watch

Streaming availability loaded for the selected region.
View all options
Showing United States availability.

Rent

Amazon Video YouTube Google Play Movies

Buy

Amazon Video YouTube Google Play Movies

Availability and provider links are powered by JustWatch where available. Provider availability can change by region and date.

AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1986, Soul Man is positioned in this dataset as a Comedy title from The Steve Tisch Company. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $35.0M, reported production budget is $4.5M, gross-minus-budget is $30.5M, ROI is 7.78x. For comparison, it currently sits #4,168 all-time in the current chart set and #36 among 1986 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.