page_title: Die Hard
section_title: Aftermath and performance analysis
hierarchical_section_title: Die Hard / Post-release / Aftermath and performance analysis
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo taken at 61st Academy Awards 3/29/89 - Governor's Ball depicted person: Bruce Willis (age: 34.03)
context_page_description: Die Hard is a 1988 American action film directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It stars Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Alexander Godunov, and Bonnie Bedelia. Based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp, Die Hard follows New York City police detective John McClane who is caught up in a terrorist takeover of a Los Angeles skyscraper while visiting his estranged wife. The film features Reginald Veljohnson, William Atherton, Paul Gleason, and Hart Bochner in supporting roles.
  Desperate for work, Stuart was offered the job of adapting Thorp's novel into a screenplay. His finished draft was greenlit immediately by 20th Century Fox, which was eager for a summer blockbuster for the following year. Finding a star proved difficult: the role of McClane was offered to a host of the decade's top stars, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, all of whom turned it down. Willis, who was known mainly for his TV work, was not the studio's first choice for the role. He was paid $5 million for the role, an unheard-of figure at the time. Filming began in November 1987 on a $25 million–$35 million budget.
context_section_description: The summer of 1988 saw box office grosses totaling $1.7 billion, breaking the previous year's record-breaking summer by $100 million. 1988 was also the most successful summer since 1984 when only three films earned more than $100 million in North America—Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Die Hard was considered an enormous success, defying pre-release expectations to earn approximately $140 million on a $25–$30 million budget. The film was seen as an anomaly among the action films released that year, which was otherwise dominated by comedy films. Other action films had failed to meet expectations; Rambo III and Red Heat—which had been predicted to perform well—were seen as underperforming disappointments. In late 1988, Sheila Benson wrote that the failure of films like Rambo III and the success of those like Die Hard demonstrated a generational shift in the types of people making up audiences and their tastes. In particular, 25 to 37-year-old males whose attitudes towards film content had turned against alcohol abuse, sexism and mindless machismo.
  Along with films like Big and Young Guns, Die Hard was credited with revitalizing 20th Century Fox, which had had few successes in the recent preceding years. It also showed the action genre was not "dead". It raised Willis from TV stardom to worldwide recognition and brought fame to Rickman. Willis' $5 million salary was seen as the peak of the 1980s bidding wars between new and old managers vying for jobs. The New York Times described it as the salary equivalent of an "earthquake". Then-MGM/UA chairman Alan Ladd Jr. said that it threw "the business out of whack" adding "like everybody else in town, I was stunned". It was seen as the most substantial change to salaries since Dustin Hoffman was paid $5.5 million to star in Tootsie (1982) at a time when top salaries ranged from $2 million–$3 million. It was expected that salaries for major stars would increase significantly, to ensure they were paid more than a newer star like Willis. McTiernan transitioned his success into directing a project based on one of his favorite works The Hunt for Red October (1990). Veljohnson's performance resulted in his casting in the 1989–1997 sitcom Family Matters.
caption: Bruce Willis in 1989 at the 61st Academy Awards
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