Via The Onion of all places - Ed Norton amid a very “acting” centric interview drops a few interesting tidbits about a two of the most popular/ “successful” movies of the recent decade. Here’s a snippet from the interview:

“…DVDs create this enormous extended life for a movie…I think American History X made less than $9 million at the box office, but I was down talking to some of the Blockbuster executives about Down In The Valley, and they said American History X was one of their 30 top rentals of all time

Everyone thinks that Fight Club is a very important and successful film, but it was a massive box-office failure. Massive. It was a big flop by any commercial-release standard. And it’s been a huge hit on DVD. Everything that movie has become has been on DVD. “.

I was certainly not aware FOX considered FIGHT CLUB a box office failure. DVD sales for a film like Fight Club obviously benefitted from the theatrical release marketing, but I don’t think that’s the case for AHX. The first time I even heard of AHX was in a dorm room in the middle of Missouri where someone produced a VHS copy. I thought, “Oh yeah, that’s the dude from Primal Fear - damn, he got H U G E….whats up with this movie?”

BUDGETS + BOX OFFICE NUMBERS

FIGHT CLUB
- production budget: $65 million
- domestic box office take: $37 million

AMERICAN HISTORY X
- production budget: $20 million
- domestic box office take: $6.7 million

However, both movies cleaned up in the FOREIGN BOX OFFICE
FIGHT CLUB foreign box office: $63.8 million
AHX foreign box office: $17 million

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