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SCREEN PROFITS REPORT

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

1991 · Simon Callow · Ismail Merchant · 1 hr 41 min

A tangled triangle. In the rural South of the early 20th century, Miss Amelia is the town eccentric, selling corn liquor and dispensing medicine. She takes in her half-sister's son, a diminutive crook-back named Lymon. He suggests they open a café in the downstairs of her large house. Marvin Macy gets out of prison and returns to town; turns out he was married to Amelia but it wasn't consummated. He pleaded, then got angry. Is he back for revenge? Eventually, Amelia and Marvin stage a no-holds-barred fight in the café. Lymon's complicated response to Marvin and to Cousin Amelia figures in the resolution.

Comedy Drama Mystery
Cast Salaries

Cast Salaries

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Cast Year Salary Inflation adjusted salary Notes
Vanessa Redgrave 1991 $218,264 $515,853 (est)
Keith Carradine 1991 $154,017 $364,009 (est)
Rod Steiger 1991 $151,958 $359,143 (est)
Cork Hubbert 1991 $175,000 $413,601 (est)
Austin Pendleton 1991 $63,621 $150,364 (est)
Beth Dixon 1991 $40,232 $95,086 (est)
Lanny Flaherty 1991 $36,117 $85,360 (est)
Mert Hatfield 1991 $32,894 $77,743 (est)
Earl Hindman 1991 $30,291 $71,591 (est)
Anne Pitoniak 1991 $28,137 $66,500 (est)
Box Office

Box Office Reported grosses are direct imports. Inflation-adjusted values use imported adjusted totals when available, otherwise they use the yearly U.S. CPI table you maintain in WordPress.

Inflation-adjusted values are shown in 2025 dollars when CPI data is available.

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Category Year Reported Inflation Adjusted
Domestic Domestic theatrical box office gross. 1991 $184,890 $436,976
International International theatrical box office gross. 1991 $0 $0
Worldwide Combined worldwide theatrical box office gross. 1991 $184,890 $425,844
Earnings / Profitability

Earnings / Profitability

Estimated revenues and expenses for films based on currently imported reported and estimated fields. Inflation-adjusted values use the CPI table when direct adjusted values are not present in the export.

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Category Year Reported Inflation Adjusted
Revenues
Theatrical Net Revenue Estimated distributor theatrical revenue using the year-based ScreenProfits finance model. 1991 $92,445 (est) $218,488 (est)
Digital Rentals Estimated digital rental revenue from the year-based ScreenProfits finance model. 1991 $0 $0
Digital Purchases Estimated digital purchase revenue from the year-based ScreenProfits finance model. 1991 $0 $0
Physical Rentals Estimated physical rental revenue from the year-based ScreenProfits finance model. 1991 $33,005 $78,006
Physical Purchases Physical Purchases: VHS $14,478 1991 $14,478 $34,218
TV & Streaming Revenue Estimated ancillary TV and streaming revenue from the year-based ScreenProfits finance model. 1991 $47,814 (est) $113,005 (est)
Total Revenues Total of the revenue streams currently available or derived in this ScreenProfits profitability view. 1991 $187,742 $443,716
Expenses
Budget Production budget. 1991 $3,500,000 $8,061,307
Print & Advertising (P&A) P&A Estimated using Machine Learning sourceSource: ML P&A estimate (peer+ridge)Machine-learned P&A estimate based on peer comps and regression inputs. Reestimate Prior Estimate | Covid Mult: 1 | Peer Count: 0 | Reg Box Pred: $332,638 | Reg Main Pred: $886,503 1991 $148,000 (est) $349,789 (est)
Participations Talent and producer participation payouts. Parsed from source context when available, otherwise estimated from the year-based ScreenProfits finance model. 1991 $0 (est) $0 (est)
Residuals Residual and related distribution expense line. Parsed from source context when available, otherwise estimated from the year-based ScreenProfits finance model. 1991 $4,393 (est) $10,383 (est)
Interest & Overhead Interest and overhead allocation. Parsed from source context when available, otherwise estimated from the year-based ScreenProfits finance model. 1991 $420,000 (est) $992,643 (est)
Total Expenses Total of budget, P&A, participations, residuals, and interest/overhead in this ScreenProfits profitability view. 1991 $4,072,393 $9,414,122
Movie Net Profit or Loss Estimated movie net profit/loss from the current ScreenProfits revenue and expense model. 1991 $-3,884,651 $-8,970,405
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Deep Dives & Reports

Deep Dives & Reports

Editorial posts linked to this movie will be highlighted here via the post-to-movie relationship table.