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Poster for Tender Mercies
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Released
1983 · FILM

Tender Mercies

A washed-up, recovering alcoholic country singer finds redemption and inspiration through an unexpected bond with a young widow and her son in rural Texas.

“His struggle for fame was over. His fight for respect was just beginning.”

Directed by
Bruce Beresford
Written by
Horton Foote
Runtime
92 min
DramaMusic
Streaming on
  • Prime Video

Synopsis

Alcoholic former country singer Mac Sledge forms a bond with a young widow and her son. Their friendship helps him find the inspiration to revive his music career.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 16

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 William M AndersonShot by Russell BoydScored by George Dreyfus

Box Office

1983 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.9× 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

$8.4M

Budget$4.5M
Worldwide gross$8.4M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $47K — 1% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $67K — 1% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 3 theaters

Also known as

  • Comeback der Liebede
  • Tendre Bonheurfr
  • Tender Mercies - Un tenero ringraziamentoit

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