Big Trouble In Little China: From Flop To Phenomenon

On July 1, 1986, John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China — his fourth collaboration with star Kurt Russell following Elvis, Escape from New York, and The Thing — hit theaters. The film was, and remains, a lot of things, but a box office success was not one of them. Audiences who were more ready to accept traditional blockbusters like that summer’s Aliens and Top Gun had no idea how to react to the film, which Carpenter referred to as “action/adventure/comedy/kung fu/ghost story/monster movie.” And so, the $25,000,000 investment from Twentieth Century Fox became an oddity that left theaters before it had a chance to connect with moviegoers who would eventually discover it’s genre-mashing charms… read more >