It has been 27 years since the release of Fight Club, directed by David Fincher and starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. While the film is celebrated now and has a cult status, it tanked at the box office upon its 1999 release and even received some negativity from prominent critics. In a recent interview with Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade, Edward Norton looked back at the initial reception for the film, which is in stark contrast to how the audience views it now.
During the conversation, Norton reminded viewers of a fact that often gets overlooked. "People forget that Fight Club was a total financial bomb," Norton said. He explained that the film was quite expensive for its time, costing around "60 or 70 million bucks to make," but it struggled heavily to find an audience in theaters. In fact, Norton noted that he does not even know if the film managed to reach "40 million at the US box office."
The trouble for the film started even before it hit theaters. According to Norton, the studio made "a very strange decision to premiere that movie at the Venice Film Festival." He felt right from the start that the prestigious festival "did not feel like a good fit" for a gritty, chaotic film like Fight Club.
At the hotel before the premiere, Pitt asked Norton how he thought the premiere would go. Norton recalled replying, "I do not think this is going to go well at all," to which Pitt agreed, saying, "me neither. Let's get stoned."
Noting that he felt "lightweight" at the time, Norton said that the experience of watching the premiere unfold was particularly intense for him and Pitt. Sitting in the back of the theater, the actors watched as the crowd reacted with open hostility. The audience not only "booed at the end," but many people actually "left in the middle of it,” recalled Norton.
Yet, despite the crowd's negative reaction to the film, Pitt knew they had made something incredibly special. After the screening, he turned to Norton in the dark, looking "kind of tearful,” and made a bold statement about his own career. He stated, "I think that's the best movie I am ever going to be in."
Norton admitted that while it was a "very nervy" experience to watch their work get rejected at the festival, it ultimately left him with a "very cool feeling”.
Fight Club is having a moment right now as its stars Norton and Pitt have reunited at the FIFA World Cup for the USA's recent match with Turkey. The actors' reunion comes amidst speculation over a sequel to the cult classic film.
