I started reading Goldburg's biography and he states more then once that this movie was a huge success. It looks like it lost money to me. Is he legally brain dead or is there something I'm missing?
shareI think he's probably just overselling himself. The movie may have been a success in rentals but it bombed at the box office and Van Damme has never seen US theatres since and it was a critical failure too.
sharethis movie is a huge success because it's one of the greatest movies of all time
who cares how well it did.
if lady gaga has sold more records than the doors, does that really mean anything?
[deleted]
yeah, HBO here in India is advertising is and showing it on Prime Time, so there must be something about it.
share[deleted]
The movie wasn't a success in the US but it was profitable overseas, where Van Damme was (and still is) a big seller. I remember in the summer of 1999 when 'The Return' came out I saw a clip on a TV program (I was 12, so I can't recall the name of the show) talking that week's releases and what to predict for the box office, and the commentator got it pretty correct by saying the film would do "Ok" in the states but that Tristar was probably banking on it being an international success as JCVD is still very bankable in the rest of the world. He concluding by saying that internationally, the $20 budget would be easily recouped. He then mentioned 'Teaching Mrs. Tingle' and said it'll leave quicker than it came.
I was really into this movie when it came out (I was in middle school), and it was pretty popular with boys my age as WCW was at it's peak of popularity and we still thought Van Damme was cool even if our parents were tired of those guys. I saw it in theaters, have both soundtracks, and I had a poster of it on my wall all through High School. I've watched it once about 5 years ago and...it didn't hold up too well. I admit though that I still love it for a run of nostalgia and there's some good action in there.
I have read that the films real budget was 19 million and that it made 10 million here and upwards of 30 million overseas with rental sales in the US alone of 14 million. I believe this is even stated in the imdb FAQ page for this film. So in that case I would not call it a huge success, but overall a success none the less.
share[deleted]
[deleted]
The movie was a success although it bombed domestically (home in the US) at the box office but it did very well overseas to profit the budget.
Where the movie actually makes it name is through rentals and DVD sales which were huge. More people in the US caught the movie at home and on cable. So the cable rights brought in the money too.
So yes its a success in those aspects.
I have paid to see hell of a lot worse movies than this and I don't even think it is as bad as people are nuts to say it is this bad as the rating shows on this site. I hate those fake sequels without Van Damme. Not a 10 but hell of a lot better than those crappy so called sequels without him. Steven Seagal only did three great movies compared to Van Damme that did a hell of a lot more better ones.
Steven Seagal has done probably 50+ movies by now. More than 3/4 of them are rated lower than a 4.
No more IMDB boards for me!