Chris Evans Is Right About His $32 Million Box Office Bomb (It Deserved So Much Better)

In a resurfaced interview Chris Evans laments how one of his best movies didn’t deserve to bomb, and how it could have changed his career. In a similar way that Ryan Reynolds spent years right on the edge of becoming a movie star, it always felt like Chris Evans was one project away from breaking through. His early work in the likes of Not Another Teen Movie or his Fantastic Four duology showed off his leading man charisma and acting talent, but he never seemed to find that project to push him over the edge.

Of course, that eventually came when Evans signed to play Captain America in the MCU. The actor was famously reluctant to take the role initially, fearing it would lock him into the same part for a decade and leave him permanently typecast. In the end, Evans embraced the role and received praise for his time in the MCU, which ended with 2019’s Endgame. In a 2011 chat with Moviefone, Evans was speaking about his Captain America debut and professing his love for his flop Danny Boyle movie Sunshine.

Why Sunshine Deserved Much Better Than Being A Box Office Bomb

This 2007 sci-fi epic placed Evans beside an incredible ensemble, including Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne and Michelle Yeoh. Alex Garland (28 Days Later) penned the screenplay, which involved a space crew trying to save the dying sun by dropping a bomb on it; naturally, things go very wrong the closer they get. Sunshine had a relatively modest budget in blockbuster terms, and despite featuring a great cast and a name director, Sunshine was a surprise bomb worldwide that only grossed $32 million.

In the years since, the film has been largely reappraised and even attracted celebrity fans like Quentin Tarantino. Sunshine is basically a B-movie, but one with a unique hook and fronted by a cast that brings real depth and humanity to it. It’s smart, ambitious sci-fi that never talks down to its audiences and isn’t afraid to get bleak. In short, it’s closer to the classic sci-fi movies of the ’70s, and as Evans himself stated in the aforementioned interview:

Why Sunshine Bombed At The Box Office

There are a few reasons Sunshine underperformed so profoundly. Probably the key issue is that instead of being released in September 2007 as originally planned, it was moved up to July. Sadly, watching a movie about the sun amid the summer held little appeal to most moviegoers. It didn’t help that the film’s marketing was quite lackluster too, and compared to crowd-pleasing fare like Michael Bay’s Transformers – which released earlier in July 2007 – Sunshine barely stood a chance.

Word of mouth didn’t help either, because while most critics and viewers enjoyed Sunshine’s first two acts, its bizarre turn into slasher terrority in the finale is jarring. Even Tarantino views the third act switch as a “betrayal” of the film’s tone up to that point. There’s also the possibility that a grim, R-rated sci-fi adventure just wasn’t what audiences were craving in 2007. The film has great setpieces, but it dives into some fairly philosophical ideas and concepts too, and releasing such a project during the summer blockbuster run was a bad idea all around.

How Sunshine’s Success Could’ve Changed Chris Evans’ Career

In his Moviefone interview, Evans believes that had Sunshine been a success, it could have completely altered his career. Up to that point in his filmography, Evans had often been cast as the cocky, good-looking guy, including in the Fantastic Four movies. Sunshine allowed Evans to play a more mature character; one who took a level-headed approach to the problems the crew faced while also trying to cope with the stress of saving the world.

It presented Evans in a new light (pun unintended), which could have led him away from blockbusters and towards more adult thrillers and dramas. Instead, Sunshine bombed and Evans refocused on more commercial fare before being cast as Captain America. Given his love for Steve Rogers, it’s doubtful Chris Evans regrets that decision, but it is interesting to picture where he would have gone had his sci-fi detour gone to plan. Still, Sunshine is held in high regard now and is easily one of the best sci-fi movies of its kind in the last two decades.