BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was financed for $25 million by Nu Image/Millennium and Millennium pre-sold the rights to distributors limiting their risk on the project. Nu Image/Millennium’s investment in the Cage business were all flops: Wicker Man, Trespass and Stolen. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was passed over by all the major distributors in the US and went out through First Look, which is owned by Nu Image. The well reviewed Werner Herzog film opened in 27 theaters to $245,398 with an ok $9,089 per screen average, but it never expanded beyond 96 theaters and ended its run with only $1,702,112. Polsky Films contributed $1.3 million to the small US marketing spend and sued First Look and Nu Image for taking all the money that came in from the box office, when they were contractually obligated to pay back Polsky Films first. Polsky Films joined the queue behind the 20+ companies that sued First Look for non payment, which owner Avi Lerner closed down from bankruptcy the following year in 2010. Overseas, the film pulled in small numbers across multiple distributors and its highest worldwide gross was $2.1 million from France for distributor Metropolitan. Most markets posted grosses under $1 million and its overseas total was only $8.8 million.