According to wikipedia(not the most reliable source of information!) this film was not a financial success. Is that true? I assumed it would have been a big hit. Not that it matters if it was hit or flop but I'm just curious to know if the wikipedia claim is correct.
shareI haven't found any figures to prove it one way or the other (production cost vs. box office) but I've read many times that it didn't do very well in theatres although it garnered positive critical reviews. The lack of a major star in the lead has been mentioned as one reason. It's certainly considered a classic of its type now, and I loved it when I first saw it when it came out in theatres.
shareEdward Fox was perfect as the Jackal, impossible to imagine anyone else playing that part but I can see how not having a star in the role may have been a problem commercially. The(sort of)remake with Bruce Willis didn't really work although I think it was a decent enough thriller.
One great thing about the film/book is Fredrick Forsyth used a 'real' character as the target so before reading the book or watching the film it was obvious that the Jackal would not succeed because De Gaulle was not killed but knowing that the plot is bound to fail didn't make the book or film any less compelling.
Edward Fox was perfect as the Jackal, impossible to imagine anyone else playing that part but I can see how not having a star in the role may have been a problem commercially.
I didn't think Edward Fox was a good choice just because he looked small and the Jackal, in the book, was something of an imposing figure. The Jackal was 6'; Fox is 5'8".
According to the IMDb trivia page, Michael Caine and Roger Moore were both considered for the Jackal, and either would have been a better choice.
I don't recall what book it was, but there was a collection of essays on Fred Zinnemann films which claimed that Jackal was a big flop. I'll try and track down the source if I have time.
"I shall tread uncommon wary and keep my pepperbox handy."
Are you guys sure you're not confusing the box office numbers of this film with one of Zinnemann's other films, like Behold A Pale Horse or Five Days One Summer? Because those films were certainly flops. But I've always heard stories claiming that The Day of the Jackal was a popular success.
Furthermore, that Wiki page doesn't cite its source when it claims the movie flopped, so I've included a "citation needed" tag after that part.
I don't recall what book it was, but there was a collection of essays on Fred Zinnemann films which claimed that Jackal was a big flop. I'll try and track down the source if I have time.
Thanks for citing someone but who is this Michael Buckley? A critic? Without knowing anything about this source it's hard to take what he said as gospel. I haven't even heard of the two Zinnemann films you brought up so I'm not confusing them with TDOTJ alleged box office failure.
shareHe interviewed Zinnemann in 1983:
http://books.google.com/books?id=SiK_3d6a7DQC&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94 &dq=%22The+Day+of+the+Jackal,+based+on+the+best+seller+by+Frederic k+Forsyth,+was+a+success.%22&source=bl&ots=NpyJPq_5Jl&sig= VMMvtc-htrgOeZGJ8-AEVw5fYpQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5ww3T_aZK5C5twf8 mvGyAg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Day%20of%20the%20J ackal%2C%20based%20on%20the%20best%20seller%20by%20Frederick%20Forsyth %2C%20was%20a%20success.%22&f=false
"What I don't understand is how we're going to stay alive this winter."
Okay so says this Mr. Buckley for a Films in Review article. It doesn't appear to be a quote from Zinnemann himself:
Buckley: It was seven years later that Zinnemann's next picture reached the screen. The Day of the Jackal, based on the best seller by Frederick Forsyth, was a success.
If he meant a critical, well-regarded success during it's initial theatrical run I think it generally was. Box-office? Still not convinced especially in the USA. I think the film's reputation steadily rose over the years to where it's achieved (well-deserved) classic status, which may explain why some people think it was a big hit when it first came out. But as I myself have no "proof" either way yet of it being a box-office success I can only give my opinion on what I seem to recall reading over the years- that it didn't do well at the box-office.
Found this link fwiw, lists theatrical rental figures and domestic box office for the film: http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1973/00227.php
Searched and searched and no luck finding the budget of this movie for any kind of comparison of the box-office vs. production cost.
A box office flop? Wow. What is equally amazing is that you never see this film on any 'best films of the 70s' lists. One of the top 10 movies of the 70s, IMHO.
Right, then, old chap. Large brandies all around, what?
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It was the 16th highest grossing pic in '73 in the States (according to REEL FACTS pub./'78-Vintage Press) - grosses nearly 20 mill - net nearly 10 - and that's just USA - this doesn't sound at all like a flop - Zinnemann rarely spent a ton even for a big historical like MAN FOR ALL SEASONS - and those figures are very substantial for the time period - anyway, such a satisfying film! - worth it for the exploding melon shot alone!!
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Ok thanks for the info, kinda falls in line with $16 mil domestic box office I found at another site. No, doesn't sound like it was a flop.
sharehttp://books.google.com/books?id=X2rpAGzeD-cC&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20 &dq=%22and+it+turned+out+that+they+did,+just+as%22&source=bl&a mp;ots=xVwXokYw2t&sig=n9s0ar7AzgDKWQDbwHO8y0PC9Do&hl=en&sa =X&ei=OBo_T-GlHoiEtgechZXHBQ&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=% 22and%20it%20turned%20out%20that%20they%20did%2C%20just%20as%22&f= false
Zinnemann also said in 1993:
"The idea that excited me was to make a suspense film where everybody knew the end--that de Gaulle was not killed. In spite of knowing the end, would the audience sit still? And it turned out that they did, just as readers of the book did."
This makes it sound like he was very pleased with the movie's box office numbers. If it had flopped, I'm sure he would have made some fuss about it in his interviews. The commercial failure of Five Days One Summer, for example, devastated him so much that he quit filmmaking for good afterwards and constantly told interviewers afterward how sad he was about that movie not being in theaters for very long.
"What I don't understand is how we're going to stay alive this winter."
Thanks for that link, interesting reading.
shareThanks for digging that up Mr. Squibs.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down someone else's life for his own."
It was the 16th highest grossing pic in '73 in the States (according to REEL FACTS pub./'78-Vintage Press) - grosses nearly 20 mill - net nearly 10 - and that's just USA - this doesn't sound at all like a flop - Zinnemann rarely spent a ton even for a big historical like MAN FOR ALL SEASONS - and those figures are very substantial for the time period - anyway, such a satisfying film! - worth it for the exploding melon shot alone!!
[email protected]
When I first saw the film in 1973 I got rather bored with it but when I taped it with my VCR about 10 years later, I really then got into it and usually watch it a couple times a year on DVD.
Although I'm not really a foreign car fancier, the film did bring back some memories of growing up in the 1960s when many of them were imported to the States in large numbers such as the Citroens in the motorcade & a neighbor had an Alfa Romeo just like the one the Jackal drove. Emissions laws starting in 1968 gradually eroded their numbers--so sad.
I actually saw it with my dad, age 10. He read all those type books and took me to see them. The Anderson Tapes, Three Days Of The Condor, Death Wish, Electraglide In Blue, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, etc.. What I recall as a kid, it was slow moving compared to the movies we saw. I did think the exploding bullet was awesome. So maybe it paced slow compared to the action films of the day resulting in low sales.
shareAccording to IMDb, The Day Of The Jackal was in 29th place for films released that year, coming in ahead of Jesus Christ Superstar, but after My Name Is Nobody, so, while it wasn't a total flop, it wasn't the most popular of movies either.
This film was released less than 10-years after the JFK assassination, and only 5-years following the Martin Luther King and RFK assassinations. It's one thing for the reading public to embrace a book and make it a best-seller, but when you put it on the silver screen, you go for a much wider audience. I'm not certain how ready the general public was, at that time, to be entertained by an assassination story, no matter how well-told. People were still dealing with some rather raw memories.
I think it dealing with Europe, France meant it didn't have the appeal to a large segment of the then American movie going public, combined with its slow pace and lack of American stars.
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