The Soloist Research!

The Soloist (2009) directed by Joe Wright was a Working Title film, with the budget of £60,000,000.  It starred Jamie Foxx as Nathaniel Ayers, a schizophrenic, homeless street performer with an incredible musical talent who studied at Juliard Conservatory who is found by the struggling columnist Steve Lopez, Robet Downey Jr. Lopez then tries to help Ayers succeed with a career in music and writes a series of articles around him.

This review by the Times gives an insight into why the film failed, http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article6847491.ece. The line in it that really sums up its failure is ' The problem is that audiences are so accustomed to a big emotional payoff at the end of stories such as this that the lack of one feels wrong, as though we’ve been cheated of our rightful reward after sitting through all the depressing stuff about homelessness and schizophrenia'.

From this I have found out:
-A star cast and large budget doesn't automatically mean success
-If a film doesn't have a good marketing campaign no one will know about it, for example The Soloist's campaign was very misleading
-Marketing is a main reason for a films success
-Joe Wright is an unknown director so his name would not instantly attract a viewer
-As the film was based on a true story not many details of it could be changed
-Audiences enjoy a film more if it has a happy ending
-Audiences may not enjoy seeing disabilities used in a film