Why Big Trouble in Little China Flopped

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]All right, let's rewind to one of the weirdest cult classics of the '80s. In 1986, John Carpenter dropped a big-budget movie, and it bombed hard.

[00:00:10]Critics tore it apart, audiences didn't show up, and it looked like just another failure. But, here's the thing. Over time, Big Trouble in Little China somehow turned into a cult classic.

[00:00:21]People started rewatching it, quoting it, loving it, and even critics went back and said, "Wait, [music] maybe we missed something."

[00:00:28]Funny enough, the exact same thing happened to Blade Runner, which got trashed at first and later became legendary.

[00:00:34]And yeah, about 10 years ago, there were constant rumors that 20th Century Fox wanted to remake Big Trouble with Dwayne Johnson in talks for the lead. [music] But then Disney bought Fox, and those plans quietly disappeared.

[00:00:47]Classic Hollywood move. Now, to understand how this movie even happened, you need to look at John Carpenter's career. In the late '70s and early '80s, he was on fire. Low-budget movies like Halloween and The Fog cost about 1.3 million combined and made around 80 million. Halloween alone instantly became a franchise.

[00:01:07]Then came Escape from New York in 1981, and suddenly big studios were paying attention. Bigger budgets followed, but the hits didn't. The Thing flopped in 1982.

[00:01:17]Christine didn't do well in 1983.

[00:01:20]Starman in 1984 struggled, too. So, by 1986, Carpenter was already on a losing streak, and Big Trouble in Little China was supposed to turn things around.

[00:01:31]Instead, [music] it made things even worse. And this is where it gets interesting.

[00:01:41]The movie originally wasn't even set in modern day. It was a Western-style story in the 19th century with the main character delivering meat to Chinese railroad workers and running into supernatural creatures controlling the criminal underworld. Yeah, very different movie. At one point, Walter Hill, the guy behind 48 Hours, was attached to direct, but he left to make Brewster's Millions and Carpenter stepped in.

[00:02:04]What caught his attention wasn't the action, it was the Eastern philosophy in the script.

[00:02:09]Around that time he had been trying to make a martial arts movie called Ninja, which never got out of pre-production.

[00:02:15]So, he basically took some of those ideas and injected them into Big Trouble.

[00:02:19]>> [music] >> But, getting this movie made, that was a fight.

[00:02:23]Carpenter was clashing with the studio over pretty much everything, especially casting. And according to rumors, he even slowed down pre-production on purpose.

[00:02:32]Why? Because the studio wanted big names like Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood.

[00:02:38]Carpenter didn't. So, he waited and waited until those actors became unavailable.

[00:02:44]And then he came in with his pick, Kurt Russell.

[00:02:47]At that point the studio had no real options left, so they said yes.

[00:02:51]But, Russell himself wasn't exactly confident about it.

[00:02:54]His last few movies hadn't done well, and he was worried this would be another flop. He even went to Carpenter and said, "Are you sure about this?"

[00:03:01]And Carpenter basically told him, "Relax, I just want to make another movie with you. That's it. No overthinking." And here's a wild detail.

[00:03:10]At the same time, Russell was being considered for the lead in Highlander.

[00:03:14]He had to choose. He picked Big Trouble.

[00:03:17]The role of Connor MacLeod went to Christopher Lambert instead. Now, once Russell joined, the entire movie changed. The setting moved from the 1800s to modern day. Why? Because Carpenter and Russell realized it would give them way more freedom. More chaos, more fun, more everything. Next problem?

[00:03:37]Casting the female lead.

[00:03:38]The studio really didn't want Kim Cattrall. They thought an actress from movies like Police Academy wasn't right for the role of Gracie Law.

[00:03:45]Carpenter disagreed, completely, and he refused to back down.

[00:03:51]Eventually the studio gave in. Then came the biggest casting battle, Wang Chi.

[00:03:56]Carpenter wanted Jackie Chan.

[00:03:58]And this turned into a full-on fight with Fox executive Lawrence Gordon.

[00:04:03]Gordon's argument, [music] "His English is terrible. The audience won't understand him."

[00:04:08]Carpenter didn't care.

[00:04:09]After watching Police Story, he couldn't see anyone else in the role. He pushed hard. Gordon eventually backed off and then Jackie Chan said no.

[00:04:17]He didn't want a supporting role, so the part went to Dennis Dun.

[00:04:20]And honestly, that decision ended up defining the entire movie.

[00:04:24]Because, here's the twist. The real main character of Big Trouble in Little China isn't Jack Burton. It's Wang Chi.

[00:04:32]Carpenter has said this many times.

[00:04:34]Jack Burton, played by Kurt Russell, is basically the sidekick.

[00:04:38]A loud, overconfident American who has no idea what's going on.

[00:04:42]Meanwhile, Wang Chi is the actual hero.

[00:04:45]Skilled, focused, and completely in control.

[00:04:49]That was intentional, and the studio hated it. At the time, Hollywood almost always portrayed minority sidekicks as comic relief, less capable, less important.

[00:05:00]Gordon wanted that version. Carpenter did the opposite, and this creative clash kept going throughout production.

[00:05:07]Filming lasted about 4 months, and it wasn't easy. According to Carpenter, dealing with Gordon was the hardest part. Every decision turned into a battle, and more often than not, Carpenter lost.

[00:05:19]For example, the opening scene with the lawyer, that wasn't in the original cut.

[00:05:23]It was added after filming wrapped because Gordon thought it would make Jack [music] Burton look more heroic. He was constantly trying to shift the focus of the movie, but he never fully succeeded.

[00:05:33]Now, here's the surprising part. Test screenings actually went great.

[00:05:37]Audiences liked the movie.

[00:05:39]No major complaints.

[00:05:40]Carpenter and Russell walked out thinking they had a hit. And honestly, you'd think that would be enough. But no.

[00:05:47]Everything started falling apart at release.

[00:05:50]First, the critics. They weren't kind at all.

[00:05:53]Then the release date, arguably the biggest mistake. The studio dropped Big Trouble in Little China just 2 weeks before Aliens, directed by James Cameron.

[00:06:03]And that movie had insane hype.

[00:06:06]On top of that, The Karate Kid Part II was dominating theaters at the same time.

[00:06:10]Another Asian-themed movie, but with a built-in audience from the first film.

[00:06:15]And it gets worse. The studio had already rushed production to get ahead of The Golden Child, starring Eddie Murphy, which also had Eastern fantasy elements, but came with massive star power. So, yeah, Big Trouble was squeezed between bigger, louder, easier to sell movies. Not a great place to be.

[00:06:31]With a 25 million budget, the film made just 11 million in the US.

[00:06:35]That's not just disappointing, that's a clear flop. And here's the real problem, marketing, or rather the lack of it.

[00:06:43]The studio had no idea how to sell this thing.

[00:06:45]Was it an action movie? A fantasy? A martial arts film?

[00:06:49]Even they didn't know.

[00:06:50]>> [music] >> And when you don't know how to explain your movie, the audience definitely won't get it either.

[00:06:56]Kurt Russell later admitted he always knew this would be a tough sell.

[00:06:59]The cast was mostly Asian actors, which was unusual for Hollywood at the time.

[00:07:04]The story was hard to summarize, and if you tried it sounded kind of insane.

[00:07:08]But he trusted Carpenter, he believed in the movie, and honestly, he was right. Because here's the ironic part. Despite being a box office failure, the movie didn't hurt anyone involved.

[00:07:20]In fact, it did the opposite.

[00:07:22]Kurt Russell's career took off.

[00:07:24]He started landing bigger roles, and eventually became a major star in the '90s.

[00:07:29]Carpenter didn't crash either.

[00:07:31]If anything, he just got fed up with the studio system.

[00:07:34]After this film, he walked away from big studios for a while. His choice, not theirs.

[00:07:39]He went independent and made two films with Alive Films. One of them, They Live, also became a cult classic.

[00:07:47]Years later, he returned to the studio system with Memoirs of an Invisible Man.

[00:07:51]That one flopped, too. And unlike Big Trouble in Little China, it never got a second chance from the audience.

[00:07:58]That was Frame Back.

[00:08:00]Subscribe for more rewinds and see you on the next one.