own words transposed into the Book of Genesis. This is seen as a representation of his hubris as a self-conceived omnipotent master of creation, or alternatively, as a playful juxtaposition demonstrating Barton's hallucinatory state of mind. Reception Box office performance The film opened in the United States on eleven screens on August 23, 1991, and earned $268,561 during its opening weekend. During its theatrical release, Barton Fink grossed $6,153,939 in the United States. That the film failed to recoup the expenses of production amused film producer Joel Silver, with whom the Coens would later work in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994): "I don't think it made $5 million, and it cost $9 million to make. [The Coen brothers have] a reputation for being weird, off-center, inaccessible." Critical reception On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 65 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Twisty and unsettling, the Coen brothers' satirical tale of a 1940s playwright struggling with writer's block is packed with their trademark sense of humor and terrific performances from its cast." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. The Washington Post critic Rita Kempley described Barton Fink as "certainly one of the year's best and most intriguing films." The New York Times critic Vincent Canby called it "an unqualified winner" and "a fine dark comedy of flamboyant style and immense though seemingly effortless technique." Critic Jim Emerson called Barton Fink "the Coen brothers' most deliciously, provocatively indescribable picture yet." Some critics disliked the enigmatic plot and ambiguous ending. Chicago Reader critic Jonathan Rosenbaum warned of the Coens' "adolescent smarminess and comic-book cynicism," and described Barton Fink as "a midnight-movie gross-out in Sunday-afternoon art-house clothing." John Simon of The National Review described Barton Fink as "asinine and insufferable." In a 1994 interview, Joel dismissed criticism of unclear elements in their films: "People have a problem dealing with the fact that our movies are not straight-ahead. They would prefer that the last half of Barton Fink just be about a screenwriter's writing-block problems and how they get resolved in the real world." Talk show host Larry King expressed approval of the movie, despite its uncertain conclusion. He