page_title: Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut / Background
caption_attribution_description: Drew Barrymore and her co-star Adam Sandler on the red carpet together at the premiere of their new movie Blended on Monday (May 19) at Cinestar movie theater (Sony Center) in Berlin, Germany. The comedy film directed by Frank Coraci.
context_page_description: Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut is a 2004 extended version of Richard Kelly's directorial debut, Donnie Darko. A critical success but a commercial failure when first released in 2001, Donnie Darko grew in popularity through word-of-mouth due to strong DVD sales and regular midnight screenings across the United States. As a result of this growth, Kelly was approached by Bob Berney, president of the distributor Newmarket Films, who suggested that the film be rereleased. Kelly proposed producing a director's cut, and was given $290,000 to create what he called his interpretation of the original film. Donnie Darko was subsequently described as being the first "flop" to be given a director's cut.
  Kelly made various alterations to create the director's cut. Almost all of the deleted scenes that had previously been included as bonus features on the film's DVD were added, which increased the runtime by twenty minutes. Kelly also superimposed text from the in-universe book The Philosophy of Time Travel, providing an explanation for some of the more ambiguous elements of the film's plot.
context_section_description: Initially struggling to find financial backing for Donnie Darko in Hollywood, director Richard Kelly spent a year and a half pitching the project to executives. After reading the script, Drew Barrymore agreed to finance the film through her production company Flower Films. Following Barrymore's involvement, Kelly was able to hire several well-known actors—such as Patrick Swayze, Mary McDonnell and Katharine Ross—and to produce the film for a budget of $4.5 million. On January 19, 2001, Donnie Darko made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Despite the film receiving considerable acclaim from critics, distributors felt daunted and were unsure of what could be done with it. With its genre-bending themes and complex plot, it was described as "inaccessible" and "not marketable". After several months it was close to going directly to home video, but was eventually picked up by Newmarket Films and received a wide release on October 26, 2001.
  Commercially, Donnie Darko performed poorly at first. Released only a month after the September 11 attacks in New York, audiences did not respond well to the film's dark mood or jet engine plot point. Against its budget of $4.5 million, the film made only $110,000 in its first weekend in limited release at 58 screens. By the end of 2001 it had taken $420,000 at the box office; on completing its theatrical run, it had made a total of $515,375. Consequently, the film had its international release date pushed back by a year, and was not released in the UK until October 25, 2002. In this market, the film became a minor hit, making £1 million at the box office and being named the second best film of the year on BBC Two's Film 2002 programme behind The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Michael Andrews's cover of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears—used in the film's final sequence—topped the UK Singles Chart in December 2003 and became a Christmas number one.
  As a result, in part, of its success overseas, Donnie Darko gained a new life in the US and developed a cult following. Its DVD was a best-seller on Amazon.com with sales reaching $10 million, and it was regularly shown at midnight screenings across the country. At Visions Bar Noir in Washington D.C., the film was screened for over a year, while at the Pioneer Theater in the East Village, Manhattan, the film played for a consecutive 28 months in a series of midnight showings. At one such event at the Pioneer in late 2003, Kelly was in attendance, and was approached by Bob Berney, president of Newmarket Films, who suggested that the film could benefit from a rerelease. Kelly had always wanted to do a director's cut of the film, and proposed this to Berney; he went on to describe it as a "win-win situation for everyone". Kelly was subsequently given $290,000 to create a new cut of Donnie Darko, which he called his interpretation of the film. Given the film's box office performance, it was described as being the first "flop" to be given a director's cut.
caption: Drew Barrymore provided financial backing to Donnie Darko through her production company Flower Films.[6]
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