The Sheltering Sky backdrop
The Sheltering Sky poster
#10,397 All-time worldwide
#142 1990 releases

Movie profile

The Sheltering Sky

1990 · 138 min · Recorded Picture Company

Drama Adventure
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $2.1M
Budget $25.0M
Gross minus budget -$22.9M
ROI 0.08x

Domestic gross

$1.0M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$1.0M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$186,758

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where The Sheltering Sky ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #10,397 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1990 releases #142 Release-year chart position of 205 titles Ranked against movies released in 1990. Studio / company #8 Recorded Picture Company of 10 titles Position inside the mapped Recorded Picture Company movie set. Primary genre #4,539 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.

#10,394 It Came from Hollywood 1982 · $2.1M #10,395 Strawberry and Chocolate 1993 · $2.1M #10,396 Screwballs 1983 · $2.1M #10,398 Pretty Poison 1968 · $2.1M #10,399 Ayurveda: Art of Being 2001 · $2.1M #10,400 Ravenous 1999 · $2.1M

Quick answer

How did The Sheltering Sky (1990) perform at the box office?

High confidence

The Sheltering Sky (1990) earned a reported $2.1M worldwide against a reported $25.0M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about -$22.9M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 0.08x. In this database it currently ranks #10,397 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #142 among 1990 releases.

Worldwide gross
$2,075,084
Budget
$25,000,000
Gross minus budget
-$22,924,916
ROI
0.08x
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

An American couple drift toward emptiness in postwar North Africa.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
Oct 25, 1990
Production
Recorded Picture Company, Aldrich Group, Film Trustees Ltd.
Countries
IT, GB

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyRecorded Picture Company Release year chart1990 box office Genre chartDrama Genre chartAdventure

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1990, The Sheltering Sky is positioned in this dataset as a Drama, Adventure title from Recorded Picture Company. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $2.1M, reported production budget is $25.0M, gross-minus-budget is -$22.9M, ROI is 0.08x. For comparison, it currently sits #10,397 all-time in the current chart set and #142 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.