Tears of the Sun
Release Date:
March 7, 2003
Bruce Willis is one of those actors who is almost always a big draw for audiences. He will be trying to make this his 14th movie to make over $100 million in worldwide box office. That's quite a track record.
In this film, he leads a special-ops team into a jungle in Nigeria on a search-and-rescue mission for a doctor, played by Italian model-actress Monica Bellucci. However, the plans for the mission change when she demands that the only way she'll leave is if 70 refugees get to depart as well. You know Bruce will have a plan up his sleeve.
Antoine Fuqua, director of Training Day, helms this film. It was originally set to be released in summer 2002, but has been pushed back a couple times to its current date of January 31, 2003. On a side note, Monica Bellucci will be appearing in the sequels to The Matrix, which are scheduled for release dates later in 2003. (Marty Doskins/BOP)
Box Office Autopsy
Bruce Willis is having a nasty run of bad luck. The Die Hard star's last hit was Unbreakable, which was released in November of 2000. Since then, Bruce has been involved in Bandits (cost: $75m, total: $41.5m), Hart's War (cost: $70, total: $19.1m) and now Tears of the Sun (cost: $75m, total: $43.6m). Once again, the last minute scheduling move by the studio should have sounded the alarm bells on this one.
Tears of the Sun got of the gate poorly over its opening weekend on March 7, 2003. It was up against the big hit Bringing Down The House over its opening weekend, and got drubbed by the comedy, grossing only $17.1 million over its opening weekend (BDtH opened to $31.1m the same weekend). The Sony film got killed critically, of the 135 reviews at RottenTomatoes, only 48 were positive, leading to a rotten rating of 36%. Word spread quickly, and as Bringing Down the House excelled, Tears folded up shop pretty quickly. The action film had consecutive follow-up weekend drops of 49%, only to be followed by deadly drops of 55%, 65% and 70%. The film was pushed out of the top ten in three short weeks, and could only manage a final gross of $43.6 million.
The start of 2003 was a tough time for Tears distributor Sony. The studio started the year with National Security which flopped, then they made a little cash off Darkness Falls, then came Tears, which was followed up by the god awful and expensive Basic with John Travolta and Sam Jackson. Sony would have to wait until April 2003 to start making up for these mistakes with Anger Management and Identity. (John Hamann/BOP)
Vital statistics for Tears of the Sun |
| Main Cast |
Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci, Cole Hauser, Fionnula Flanagan |
| Supporting Cast |
Eamonn Walker, Johnny Messner, Charles Ingram, Chad Smith, Malick Bowens, Akosua Busia, Nick Chinlund, Paul Francis, Cornelia Hayes O'Herlihy, Peter Menseh |
| Director |
Antoine Fuqua |
| Screenwriter |
Patrick Cirillo, Robert Orr |
| Distributor |
Sony/Revolution Studios |
| Rating |
R |
| Running Time |
121 minutes |
| Screen Count |
2,973 |
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Talent in red has entry in The Big Picture |
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