Tequila Sunrise
Former drug dealer Mac strives to rebuild his life in a sun‑splashed California town, but when his best‑friend detective frames him and they both fall for the same woman, he must outwit law and loyalty to survive.
“A business on the line. A friendship on the edge. A woman caught in the middle.”
Synopsis
In a seaside California town, best friends Mac and Nick find themselves on opposing sides of the law. Mac is a former drug dealer attempting to turn his life around, while Nick is a high-profile detective working to dismantle a Mexican drug lord named Carlos. Nick's loyalties are soon tested when he begins an affair with restaurateur Jo Ann, who is also Mac's love interest, unknowingly leading his friend into a police-orchestrated trap.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 17
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 Claire SimpsonShot by Conrad L HallScored by Dave GrusinDesigned by Richard Sylbert
Box Office
1988 · Box office
💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.6× 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
$105.9M
US & Canada: $41.3M — 39% of worldwide · International: $64.6M (61%)
Opening weekend: $6.4M — 15% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.
Opening week (7-day): $8.4M — 20% of its US & Canada run.
Peak 1,115 theaters
Also known as
- Tequila Sunrise - Eine gefährliche Mischungde
- Tequila Connectionit
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Cast & Crew
17 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Directors
1Writers
1Producers
1Other crew
5Parents Guide
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