10 Times Audiences Were Pissed Off At Film Premieres
5. Premiere Attendees Were Annoyed Into Boredom - Heaven's Gate
Heaven's Gate was director Michael Cimino's follow-up to the Best Picture-winning drama The Deer Hunter, and so it's fair to say that expectations were high for another epic, one-of-a-kind cinematic experience.
Given Cimino's esteem in the industry, United Artists effectively gave him carte blanche to get the movie made, causing the budget to balloon from $11.6 million to a stonking $44 million, and very nearly causing the studio to replace the director during production.
Over 18 months after shooting started, Cimino finally premiered the film in New York, with his 219-minute cut being met not with applause or even boos, but pretty much dead silence.
During the film's intermission, Cimino was reportedly so perturbed by the lethargic crowd that he asked his publicist why nobody was drinking the champagne, only to be told, "Because they hate the movie, Michael." Ouch.
It takes a special kind of stamina-draining experience that the crowd can't even be bothered to boo or jeer - that's how annoyed they were.
Probably not as annoyed as United Artists' parent company Transamerica, though, which wrote the movie's entire budget off just two days after that dreaded premiere.