General Cinema Corporation acquired the right to exhibit Cruising through a blind bid, committing to the film before its executives had seen the final cut. Once they previewed the completed picture, however, the company's executives were reportedly so alarmed by its graphic sexual atmosphere, brutality, and controversial subject matter that they refused to release it in their theaters. The episode exposed the commercial risk surrounding Friedkin's film: even after the production had survived months of street protests and censorship negotiations, its own intended exhibitor balked when confronted with the finished product. Cruising eventually opened in the United States on February 15, 1980, and earned approximately $19.8 million, but its troubled path to theaters became part of the controversy surrounding it.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
The Studio That Blind-Bid Cruising—Then Refused to Show It
Cruising / 1980s
General Cinema Corporation acquired the right to exhibit Cruising through a blind bid, committing to the film before its executives had seen the final cut. Once they previewed the completed picture, however, the company's executives were reportedly so alarmed by its graphic sexual atmosphere, brutality, and controversial subject matter that they refused to release it in their theaters. The episode exposed the commercial risk surrounding Friedkin's film: even after the production had survived months of street protests and censorship negotiations, its own intended exhibitor balked when confronted with the finished product. Cruising eventually opened in the United States on February 15, 1980, and earned approximately $19.8 million, but its troubled path to theaters became part of the controversy surrounding it.
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