Reception
Reservoir Dogs opened in 19 theaters with a first week total of $147,839 in the United States. The film was released to 61 theaters and totaled $2,832,029 at the box office. After its success in Britain, it was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. Empire Magazine named it the "Greatest Independent Film ever made". The film has since come to be seen as an important and highly-influential milestone of independent filmmaking. Reservoir Dogs carries a 96% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, while Metacritic carries an average rating of 78/100, based on 23 critic reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.
Reservoir Dogs has inspired many other independent films and is considered key in the development of independent cinema. The Bollywood film Kaante (2002) from Sanjay Gupta is considered an unauthorized remake of Reservoir Dogs featuring a similar plot and dialogue style. Reservoir Dogs is itself considered to have taken inspiration from Ringo Lam's Hong Kong action film City on Fire (1987), which features a similar final segment.
The film was screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. It won the Critic's Award at the 4th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in February 1993 which Tarantino attended. The film was also nominated for the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics.
American Film Institute Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
- “Mr. Blonde” (Vic Vega) - Nominated Villain
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- Stuck In The Middle with You - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie, or are you gonna bite?" - Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated Gangster Film
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—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
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—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)