Goodbye Lover

  • Rate Movie
    [Total: 15 Average: 3.8]
  • Directed By: Roland Joffé
  • Written By: Ron Peer, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow
  • Release Date: April 16, 1999
  • Domestic Distributor: Warner Bros
  • Cast: Patricia Arquette, Dermot Mulroney, Mary-Louise Parker, Ellen DeGeneres

Box Office Info:
Budget: $20 million Financed by: New Regency
Domestic Gross: $1,940,299 Overseas Gross: N/A

goodbye lover 1999 movie
The screenplay to Goodbye Lover was first picked up by the indie shingle Gotham Entertainment, which planned on producing the project as a cheap $2 million picture.  The script eventually made its way to Alexandra Milchan, the daughter of New Regency head Arnon Milchan — and the mogul had just set up a company for his daughters Alexandra and Elinor called Regency Vision.  The nepotism fueled company would develop lower budgeted and edgier projects than the literal parent company and the flop Goodbye Lover was their first and only project.  They were absorbed back into the Regency fold.

The budget for Goodbye Lover was $20 million and New Regency financed and the company had a distribution pact with Warner Bros that began in 1991, which handled the release.   Filming ended in late 1996 and WB announced a TBD 1997 release date, but nothing ever materialized — likely because WB was putting their effort into releasing another Regency noir, the far superior L.A. Confidential.  Eventually WB penciled in a September 1998 release.  The picture was brought to the 1998 Cannes Film Festival in May to premiere out of competition, which was the wrong place to screen a trashy pulp noir comedy.  Reviews were predictably awful and after the screening, reshoots were commissioned and the ending was changed.

WB nixed the September ’98 date and eventually pushed the release to April 16, 1999.  During the two years that Goodbye Lover was in the can waiting to be released, New Regency and WB did not renew their distribution arrangement and the company then inked a 15 year deal with FOX.  Goodbye Lover was the final Regency movie to go out through Warner Bros and the studio dumped it into only 865 theaters.  It bowed against Life and pulled in a terrible $1,011,175 — placing #15 for the weekend led by Life.  Auds hated the movie and gave it a C Cinemascore and Goodbye Lover sank 70.1% to $302,115 the following frame and promptly lost most of its theater count.  The domestic gross stalled at a mere $1,940,299.

Goodbye Lover was dumped straight to video in most overseas markets and no numbers are available in the few countries it landed a theatrical release.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *