Box office The film grossed $4.6 million in its opening 4-day weekend in the United States, a record for a film opening over Labor Day, but wasn't enough to push
Tightrope starring
Clint Eastwood, from the number one spot, and finished third for the weekend. It went on to gross $8.9 million in the United States and Canada against a $7 million production budget.
Critical response Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave
Bolero a rare grade of "F" on an A+ to F scale, making it the second of only 23 films that are known to have received this grade, and the only film to date to receive both a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score and an F from CinemaScore.
Bolero and
Homework (the first film to receive the grade) remained the only two films with an F grade until
Eye of the Beholder in January 2000.
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times gave the film ½ out of four stars, writing: "The real future of
Bolero is in home cassette rentals, where your fast forward and instant replay controls will supply the editing job the movie so desperately needs". David Robinson of
The Times said that the story was "the authentic stuff of mild pornography", and wrote that the film's climax "No doubt ... distracted the writer-director from the dialogue, which is in every sense unspeakable." David Richards of
The Washington Post wrote: "Bad as
Bolero is, it is unfortunately not bad enough. Seekers of inadvertent high-camp hilarity will be as let down as those who are suckered in by the promise of Bo's golden flesh".
Janet Maslin of
The New York Times wrote that the plot "sounds like that of a straight porn film, which is what
Bolero would have become with anyone other than John Derek directing", and criticized the dialogue as "tending to sound like very bad pulp romance". David Sterritt of
The Christian Science Monitor wrote: "This tedious romance ... is a strong candidate for worst picture of the year".
Accolades It was nominated for nine
Golden Raspberry Awards, including
Worst Supporting Actor (
George Kennedy),
Worst Supporting Actress (d'Abo for this film and
Conan the Destroyer),
Worst New Star (
Andrea Occhipinti), and won six, including
Worst Picture,
Worst Actress (Bo Derek),
Worst Director (John Derek), Worst New Star (d'Abo), Worst Original Score (
Elmer Bernstein) and
Worst Screenplay (John Derek) at the
5th Golden Raspberry Awards. In 1990, the film was nominated for the Razzie Award for Worst Picture of the Decade, but lost to
Mommie Dearest at the
10th Golden Raspberry Awards. Also in 1984, the film was nominated for a
Stinkers Bad Movie Award for Worst Picture at the
1984 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards but lost to
Dune.
Controversy It has been accused of perpetuating the myth that
Arab men are sexually unsatisfying and inferior, and depicting a
stereotypical image of a
sheikh. ==Home media==