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Poster for Guarding Tess
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Released
1994 · FILM

Guarding Tess

When a weary Secret Service agent is tasked with permanently protecting a cantankerous former First Lady who refuses to be reassigned, he must juggle his longing for a normal life against her unpredictable demands—or risk losing both his career and sanity.

“A comedy beyond the call of duty.”

Directed by
Hugh Wilson
Written by
Hugh Wilson, Pj Torokvei
Runtime
96 min
ComedyDrama

Synopsis

Doug is a Secret Service agent who has just completed his assignment protecting Tess Carlisle, the widow of a former U.S. president and a close personal friend of the current president. She has requested that he not be reassigned but instead remain as her permanent protection detail. Doug is reluctant and, upon returning, expresses a desire to be removed from her detail, as she is difficult to guard and often causes stress for her agents with her unpredictable behavior and demanding nature.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 19

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Sidney LevinShot by Brian J ReynoldsScored by Michael ConvertinoDesigned by Peter S Larkin

Box Office

1994 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.4× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$27.1M

Budget$20.0M
Worldwide gross$27.1M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $7.1M — 26% of its US run.

Opening week (7-day): $9.3M — 34% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,601 theaters

Also known as

  • Tess und ihr Bodyguardde
  • Tess y su guardaespaldases
  • Un ange gardien pour Tessfr
  • Cara, insopportabile Tessit

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