Acclaimed Flop: Won two Oscars and was critically loved, but made only about $5.9 million (on an $18 million budget).note Ironically, the film cost more than all of the real Ed Wood's films combined.
Box Office Bomb: Budget, $18 million. Box office, $5.9 million. This was Tim Burton's first film to not do well at the box office. It was also the very last movie released while Jeffrey Katzenberg was still on distributor Disney's lot; he left the lot and ended his involvement with the studio the next day. The film did win two Oscars though (Best Makeup and Best Supporting Actor for Martin Landau's performance as Bela Lugosi).
Colbert Bump: Unsurprisingly, the film helped the films of the real Ed Wood gain significantly more popularity in the mainstream (and even a significant LGBT Fanbase) after they'd only been known in small circles of b-movie enthusiasts.
Creator Recovery: At the time, Johnny Depp was depressed about films and filmmaking. By accepting this part, it gave him a "chance to stretch out and have some fun", and working with Martin Landau, "rejuvenated my love for acting".
Ed talks to Bela about what movie they should make after Glen or Glenda. Bela mentions he wants to play Dracula again. Ed comes up with an idea for a movie called Dr. Acula, a mad scientist who dresses up as a vampire.
Ed and Dolores moved out of their house after not paying the rent. Dolores decided to go live with her mother, while Ed has to stay at Bela's house. They talked about bad decisions and hoped that Bride of the Monster would make a comeback on Bela's career.
Ed and company sneaks into a studio to steal a rubber octopus. They attempted to climb the gate, but Tor Johnson couldn't. He tore the chains that locked the gate with his bare hands.
After stealing the rubber octopus, Ed and the crew got chased out of the studio by a security guard.
Bunny shows up at the wrap party with a mariachi band. He sings Que Sera as he enters.
Ed visits Tor Johnson's house for dinner and introduces his family. Ed and Tor talk about the break up he had with Dolores Fuller. Tor's wife, Greta, tells Ed that her husband is not a monster and shouldn't be playing scary roles.
Executive Meddling: Tim Burton had to endure a lot of studio pressure to get the film made. Arguably justified by the film's eventual financial failure.
Reality Subtext: Tim Burton agreed to do this movie when he saw how much Wood's relationship with his childhood horror movie hero Bela Lugosi reminded him of his own relationship with his childhood horror movie hero Vincent Price.
Serendipity Writes the Plot: Why is the film shot in black and white? To evoke the kind of low-budget aesthetic Wood himself was infamous for? Probably; but it was actually because nobody working on the film knew what Bela Lugosi looked like in color (Lugosi had made exactly one obscure color picture, Scared To Death).
Originally the film was written as a miniseries, with Michael Lehmann attached as director and Tim Burton as executive producer. During development it was changed to being a film, and Lehmann and Burton swapped roles. Initially the screenplay tried to keep as much of the story from the miniseries as possible, which resulted in earlier drafts being so long that it would have made for a three-hour film, but it was eventually pared down to get the 127-minute running time of the end product.
Part of the longer screenplay featured Wood's ultimately doomed marriage to Norma McCarty, which was depicted as taking place over the course of less than a day, and ending the minute she found out he was a cross-dresser.note In reality, their relationship lasted for about 18 months, and like Dolores Fuller before her, McCarty didn't exactly approve of his cross-dressing, but was willing to put up with it for the sake of their relationship. What really killed their marriage was Wood's alcoholism and abusive behavior towards her son from her previous marriage.
Another part of the longer screenplay featured the hand that George Weiss had with the last minute production stages of Glen or Glenda, including adding the porno footage to increase the film's running time to the minimum length, persuading Ed to use an alias for his credit as Glen to avoid being cast in a bad light with film producers, and mentioning how he attempted alternative titles for the movie to sound more appealing to audiences (Which failed miserably.) Tim Burton probably felt these facts were not important enough to bother putting into the movie.
Debra Winger turned down the role of Dolores Fuller.
