Trivia / Monkey Shines

• Box Office Bomb: Budget: $7,000,000; Gross: $5,344,577.
• Executive Meddling: The executives at Orion Pictures re-cut the film against George A. Romero's wishes, contributing to the box office failure of the film. Due to the experience, Romero went back to independent filmmaking until The Dark Half. The deleted scenes and alternate ending are available on the Blu-Ray release of the film.
• What Could Have Been: Henry Mancini was originally sought out as the film's music composer.
• The original poster art, shown here, is a simple Cymbal-Banging Monkey toy. For the original VHS and Laserdisc release, this was redrawn heavily◊, with crazier eyes, sharp teeth, claws, and a straight razor instead of the cymbals. The Shout! Factory Blu-Ray has a reversible cover allowing you to choose either version.