Originally published June 23, 2023. Updated June 22, 2023.
Even though our memories have The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo as one of David Fincher’s most significant works, the film didn’t receive that admiration when it was first released.
Fincher revisited his adaptation of the Stieg Larsson novel in a recent discussion where he spoke about the film and admitted it was a “swing and a miss” for some. While speaking to fellow director Steven Soderbergh during an event at the Tribeca Film Festival, the director opened up about the project and got rather honest about the experience.
Fincher explains how important the project was to him at the time, stating: “It would be interesting to see, if you took this piece of material that has millions and millions of people excited, and you did it within an inch of its life, would it support the kind of money it would take to do? We pledged early on that we wanted to make a movie that was not embarrassing to its Swedish heritage. Atlanta for Sweden? No, We didn’t want to transpose it. We wanted it to be true to its essence.”
“I was proud of it,” Fincher adds. “I thought we did what we set out to do. We did it the way that we could. And when people said it cost too much for what the return on investment was – okay, a swing and a miss.”
With a budget reportedly around $90 million, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo went on to earn $230 million around the world, including over $102 million in North America. While many will see those numbers, especially for an R-rated dark thriller, and feel it could be a success, it was deemed a financial disappointment and never received a proper sequel at the time.
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Fincher meanwhile is currently awaiting the release of his Michael Fassbender-led thriller The Killer for Netflix.
