Sahara (2005 film)
| Sahara | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Breck Eisner |
| Produced by | Stephanie Austin Howard Baldwin Karen Baldwin Mace Neufeld |
| Screenplay by |
James V. Hart Thomas Dean Donnelly Joshua Oppenheimer John C. Richards |
| Based on |
Sahara by Clive Cussler |
| Starring |
Matthew McConaughey Steve Zahn Penélope Cruz Lambert Wilson Glynn Turman Delroy Lindo William H. Macy |
| Music by | Clint Mansell |
| Cinematography | Seamus McGarvey |
| Edited by | Andrew MacRitchie |
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Production
company |
Bristol Bay Productions
Baldwin Entertainment Group Kanzaman Productions Mace Neufeld Productions Babelsberg Studio (uncredited) |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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124 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom Spain Germany United States |
| Language | English French Arabic |
| Budget | $130 million |
| Box office | $119.3 million |
Sahara is a 2005 action-comedy adventure film directed by Breck Eisner that is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Clive Cussler. It stars Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn and Penélope Cruz and is an international co-production between the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and the United States.
It opened at number one in the US box office, grossing $18 million on its first weekend. From a financial perspective, Sahara was unusual because it performed reasonably well, generating $119 million in gross box-office sales. However, due to its huge budget—including $130 million in production costs and $81.1 million in distribution expenses—its box-office take amounted to barely half of its expenses. The film lost approximately $105 million according to a financial executive assigned to the movie; however, Hollywood accounting methods assign losses at $78.3 million, taking into account projected revenue. According to Hollywood accounting, the film has a projected revenue of $202.9 million against expenses of $281.2 million.
The Los Angeles Times presented an extensive special report on April 15, 2007, dissecting the budget of Sahara as an example of how Hollywood movies can cost so much to produce and fail. Many of the often closely held documents had become public domain after a lawsuit involving the film. Among some of the items in the budget were bribes to the Moroccan government, some of which may have been legally questionable under American law.
The film begins with a prologue set in Richmond, Virginia in 1865, showing the ironclad CSS Texas, carrying the last of the Confederacy's treasury, as Captain Mason Tombs runs a Union blockade.
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