This reduced the sound quality due to difficulties in accurately capturing the voices. Williams re-recorded his dialogue due to trouble with his character's mumbling style as a by-product of talking with a pipe in his mouth. His penchant for ad-libs led to clashes with the director. The final battle involving the octopus was complicated by the mechanical beast's malfunction. After the production cost rose beyond $20 million, Paramount ordered Altman to wrap filming and return to California with what he had. Release Popeye premiered at the Mann's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on December 6, 1980, two days before what would have been E.C. Segar's 86th birthday. Home media Popeye has been released to several home media formats including VHS, Betamax, CED, Laserdisc, DVD, and through digital services in SD (Standard Definition) and HD (High Definition) video resolution. Paramount Home Entertainment released the first Blu-ray Disc edition of Popeye on December 1, 2020, in honor of the film's 40th anniversary. Reception The reception with the public and critics was "so toxic" that "Altman was left unemployable and exiled to Paris, directing micro-budgeted indie theater adaptations for the remainder of the decade." Box office The film grossed $6 million on its opening weekend in the United States, and made $32,000,000 after 32 days. The film earned US$49,823,037 at the United States box office — more than double the film's budget — and a worldwide total of $60 million. Film Comment wrote "Before the film's release, industry wags were mocking producer Robert Evans by calling it 'Evansgate'" but "Apparently the film has caught on solidly with young children." Although the film's gross was decent, it was not the blockbuster that Paramount and Disney had expected, and was thus written off as a disappointment. It had "an astonishingly lucrative home video run that continues to this day [2015]". Critical response Reviews at the time were negative but the film has been more positively reappraised over time. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 58% based on reviews from 43 critics, with the critical consensus stating [that] "Altman's take on the iconic cartoon is messy and wildly uneven, but its robust humor and manic charm are hard to resist." On Metacritic it has a score of 64 out of 100, based on reviews from 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, writing