The Boondock Saints
"The Boondock Saints" had a very limited theatrical release, with its distributor showing the film in 2000 on only five screens in the United States for a duration of a week. However, the original unrated version of the film was later re-released in theaters on May 22, 2006. Duffy later funded screenings of the film with help from Blockbuster Video. "Blockbuster saved us [...] They agreed to take it on exclusively, and from there the rest is history." According to Troy Duffy on his audio commentary of the film on DVD, the film's distributor allowed the limited screening in the United States because of the then-recent Columbine High School massacre. The film was shown on major foreign screens (most notably in Japan) with success. Blockbuster released "The Boondock Saints" as a "Blockbuster Exclusive", a collection of independent direct-to-video films. "The Boondock Saints" gained a following mostly due to word-of-mouth publicity and was a bestseller when released on DVD. Despite its success, Troy Duffy never saw any of the profits from DVD distribution, having signed away the DVD rights in his contract with Indican. According to Duffy, neither he, his producers, nor his principal cast got paid. He sued Franchise Pictures and other undisclosed companies for royalties of the first film and rights to the sequel. After a lengthy lawsuit, Troy Duffy, his producers, and the principal cast received an undisclosed amount of "The Boondock Saints" royalties, as well as the sequel rights.