David Fincher’s Fight Club is one of the best films of all time. At the time, however, the film, which runs on Kabel eins on Wednesday, flopped first. Only later did it become cult.
No film best list is complete without David Fincher’s brilliant study of masculinity Fight Club. The satirical thriller masterpiece based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk is now a cult film, but that status came as an afterthought. At the time, the film, which screens on Kabel eins at 10:40 p.m. on Wednesday, 14 June, was even a box office flop at first.
Fight Club went down at the box office back then
In Fincher’s film, the unnamed narrator (Edward Norton), who suffers from a severe sleep disorder, meets the charismatic businessman Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Together they initially pull off crude business deals, selling, for example, soap to the cosmetics trade made from discarded liposuctioned fat from beauty clinics. At some point, the protagonist and Tyler open a secret underground fight club, which more and more men join.
When it was released in 1999, Fight Club was criticised in various reviews for, among other things, its depiction of violence. At the box office, Fincher’s work was anything but a success.
With a budget of 69 million dollars, the film initially grossed only 32 million dollars in the USA despite the star participation of Brad Pitt. In total, according to Box Office Mojo, the flick grossed around 100 million dollars worldwide, which is still considered a disappointment financially.
