Originally,
The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss was to star not only Lee, but also Japanese film star
Sonny Chiba as well. The film was to pit Lee against "The Western Adversary" played by
James Bond star
George Lazenby. Lazenby had been signed to a multi-picture deal by Lee and Chow during
Game of Death and was to star in that film, as well as two subsequent films with Lee. The film's original tagline was "It's Lee! It's Lazenby! It's Bruce Versus Bond!".
Warner Brothers was going to co-produce and distribute the film before Lee's sudden death and was going to give
The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss a large worldwide release, a $10,000,000 production budget and a $10,000,000 worldwide marketing budget (which was astronomical at that time – as a comparison the 1974 James Bond film
The Man With The Golden Gun also a 1974 release had only a $7,000,000 production budget and a $6,000,000 worldwide marketing budget). Forecasts for
The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss' worldwide box office gross were around $400,000,000. This based on Lee's previous two films.
Enter the Dragon (1973) cost just $850,000 to produce and also had a $10,000,000 worldwide marketing budget, and in turn it grossed more than $265,000,000 worldwide at the box office (through 2006), making it the second highest grossing movie worldwide of the year 1973, behind
The Exorcist.
Enter the Dragon grossed more than $21,000,000 in the US just in 1973 alone and more than $4,000,000 in the US in 1974. Through 2006 the film has grossed more than $115,000,000 in the US alone. It grossed more than $65,000,000 overseas through 1973, and more than $90,000,000 overseas through 1974. Through 2006 it has grossed more than $150,000,000 overseas. Lee's film prior to
Enter the Dragon,
Way of the Dragon (1973), had cost just $130,000 to produce and about $1,000,000 to market worldwide and it in turn grossed more than $85,000,000 worldwide at the box office, which made it the 6th highest grossing film worldwide of 1973. So considering that
Way of the Dragon grossed more than $85,000,000 at the box office worldwide with just a $130,000 production budget/$1,000,000 marketing budget, and that
Enter the Dragon grossed more than $265,000,000 at the box office worldwide with just an $850,000 production budget/$10,000,000 marketing budget, then it isn't too far-fetched to realize Warner Brother's $400 million gross prediction for
Shrine with its $20,000,000 total cost in production and marketing, as well as Lazenby and Chiba joining Lee in the cast. George Lazenby had said that one of the main reasons that he quit the role of Bond was because he felt that he could gross more at the box office in other films. The Bond film
The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), ended up grossing $97,600,000 worldwide, so if not for Lee's sudden death, Lazenby's quite bold and now rather infamous prediction may have come true. On 20 July 1973 Bruce Lee was meant to have dinner with George Lazenby and Raymond Chow to discuss
Game of Death. However Lee died that afternoon.
Aftermath of Bruce Lee's death When Lee died the film's destiny took a turn for the worse. First, Lee, who may have been the biggest star in the world at the time the film was to be shot, was now not going to be in the film. Second, upon hearing of Lee's death, Chiba refused to sign his contract for the film and promptly flew back to Japan. Third, Lee's death brought terrible press, especially since the film's other star Lazenby was supposed to have dinner with Lee the very night he died. Fourth, Warner Brothers then dropped out and the film lost its large worldwide theatrical distribution. And finally, because of all of this Raymond Chow cut the film's production budget from $10,000,000 to $850,000 and severely cut the marketing budget to cover the film's new small theatrical release. Although this was still an enormous production budget for a Hong Kong-based film at that time, and actually matched
Enter the Dragon as the most expensive martial arts film of all time at that point, the huge cut in marketing and loss of worldwide distribution greatly hurt the film's box office. Despite this, the film still featured former 007 Lazenby, whom despite being tabbed by the press as a "failed Bond financially", had still nonetheless grossed well over $100 million worldwide at the box office in the early 1970s, as his
Bond film ''
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) had grossed $87,400,000 worldwide through 1970, and his subsequent two films Universal Soldier (1971) and Who Saw Her Die?'' (1972) had pushed him over the $100 million mark at the box office, which at that time established actor's as international super stars. Even though Lazenby never got that label in the US or UK from the press, in reality it was true as he had tremendous box office success in Europe, Asia, and Australia (he actually outgrossed
Steve McQueen in that time, as just one example). So the film still had Chow's studio behind it, a big international star, and a large budget for a martial arts film. Lazenby said that after Lee's death Chow "sent his hatchet men in." In October 1973 Lazenby said the film would be called
The Golden Needles of Ecstasy. He added: I have worked out every day for two hours and have run three miles every morning to get fit for the role. It is the most taxing form of film fighting activity in the world. You can't be slow and hope to look as if you're standing up to these experts. But you learn from the fight masters employed on the film, learn a bit of karate and a bit of ballet and hope to keep on your feet. What I mostly want to do is earn us enough money to live the way we want to. Nothing on earth could buy me into the degradation of another Bond film, with all that entails. To try to keep the success of Lee's films going, Chow added in
Hong Kong stars
Angela Mao,
Betty Ting, and
Sammo Hung and also well-known
Australian actor
Roger Ward to the film's cast along with Lazenby. In addition to this he also enlisted rival studio
Shaw Brothers run by
Run Run Shaw as another producer to help pay for the film's huge production cost based on Hong Kong film industry standards. Chow also kept producer Andre Morgan on board as he had helped with Lee's films and this would help to bring video revenue years later. Hung recalled Lazenby "wasn't a martial artist as such but he moved pretty well. I'd seen ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service''. I thought he handled the fight scenes there okay, but of course they were very different from what we do." Lazenby recalled "I was the only person on the set who really spoke English. I mean, I had an interpreter but the director didn't and my co-star didn't. It got a bit lonely." == Release ==