It says on the trivia page that it ran for an extended period in theaters, so i'd say so. Also, the critics re-reviewed to better fit the publics opinion of it.
Of couse i can't be sure, it was 66 years before i was born. Excellent film though, i'm glad to here the clear cut explanation was added later, i prefered the idea that she could of been just plain crazy or a panther. Better left as a mystery
It ran longer than Citzen Kane and made a packet of money for RKO, thus ensuring Lewton's career at RKO.
Educated critics like James Agee also liked it, a lot.
They made a sequel to it two years later. That should be indication enough that it was a successful movie. How many dud movies (as in box office returns, not the actual quality of the movie) get that done if they weren't bringing the $$$ back for the studios?
shareThe commentary on my DVD said Cat People was so successful, it was the first hit after Citizen Kane hurt the studio financially. The film brought studio finances into the black. Though the studio regarded Val Lewton as a genius that could also make money, people laughed at him, too, as if they didn't like how they depended on him.
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne
The "Box Office/Business" section of the IMDb entry for "Cat People" lists the film's budget as less than $150,000 and its rentals as $4 million--I'd say that was a hit. Nice to know that unusual films don't always bomb at the box office.
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Well the film was a box-office hit and one of RKO's greatest hits.
"You gotta be Fking kidding"-The Thing.
I've been reading the RKO: Titan is Born book and Citizen Kane wasn't some massive financial disaster. It lost money due to the Hearst boycotting and generally being too odd for middle America, but it wasn't enough to seriously hurt the studio. Welles' Magnificent Ambersons was the far bigger financial disaster, along with his antics in Brazil that never resulted in a feature film. In fact the entire George Shaefer regime at RKO was a total disaster that almost bankrupted the studio before Charles Koerner came in and righted the ship (that's about where that book ended).
shareI'm glad to hear it was a hit. It definitely deserved to be.
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