20 Things You Didn't Know About Miller's Crossing
1. It Was The Start Of Three Consecutive Commercial Failures For The Coen Brothers
It's easy to forget that when Miller's Crossing first came out, the Coens were not the acclaimed, Oscar-winning box office draw that they are now.
Although the first two films were actually rather successful, Miller’s Crossing began a run for them where they struggled at the box office (only grossing $5 million on a budget ranging from $10-14 million). Probably down to the film’s offbeat tone and moviegoers wrongly thinking it would be an exciting and action-packed gangster movie (which the trailers sold it as), it was not something that gained good word-of-mouth, and audiences didn’t flock to see it.
The same was true of Barton Fink and their next follow-up, The Hudsucker Proxy, which were both commercial failures. It was not until their sixth movie, Fargo, where they gained both critical acclaim and box office success, as well as awards success. And, with the expectation of 2001’s The Man Who Wasn’t There, the filmmakers haven’t had a box office failure since.
It just goes to show you that even the most iconic and acclaimed filmmakers can struggle when they are first starting out.