A two page article from the May 1980 issue heralded this offering from Hollywoods new ‘golden boy’ Steven Spielberg with much trumpet blowing! But this mad-ball comedy didn’t get the audiences that ‘Jaws’ and ‘Close Encounters’ had commanded and it must have been a great disappointment for Universal & Columbia who had both put mega bucks into the production. Jaws took over $7,000,000 in its opening weeknd and recouped its entire costs… whereas 1941 cost $35 million and only took just over $1 million its first weekend! The 2×400′ edit released by Universal 8 was a reasonable seller, but sales were no way near the figurs for ‘Jaws’. In Germany Piccolo Film issued the same edit but in far more eye catching packaging.
Leave a Reply