to that of first-person shooters or cellphone videos on YouTube. He added that events such as Jeriko One's murder and the subsequent coverup of the crime contribute to activist movements like Black Lives Matter, and that their media documentation amplifies their reception and consequences. Mace was seen as a strong yet very feminine female character, as she often rescues Lenny in dire situations and shows maternal concern for him. Both characters represent a significant contrast: Mace is the film's hero and moral center, whereas Lenny is the antihero; Mace is black and Lenny is white; and finally, Mace represents the "hard-edged, reality-based" component, while Lenny is dominated by fantasies. This is especially notable when Mace yells to him, "This is your life! Right here! Right now! It's real time, you hear me? Real time, time to get real, not playback!" The film's white characters also tend to be nihilistically concerned with the present, while black characters are generally future revolutionaries. Bigelow considered Strange Days her most personal film, claiming that "It's a synthesis of all the different tracks I've been exploring, either deliberately or unconsciously, ever since I started making art." Release Box office Strange Days premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 6, 1995, grossing $31,062 on that weekend. It expanded a week later on October 13, 1995 in 1,691 theaters and grossed $3,656,012 on its opening weekend. The film's poor performance at the box office was compared to Jade and The Scarlet Letter, which opened at the same time and had a similar budget. Overall, the film went on to make $7,959,291 in North America, little more than a sixth of its $42 million production cost. As a result, Strange Days was considered a commercial failure, due in part to the poor marketing strategy and lack of audience understanding. The film almost derailed Bigelow's career, as five years would pass before she directed her next film, The Weight of Water. Internationally, Strange Days was distributed by United International Pictures. Critical reception Upon release, Strange Days polarized film critics. Roger Ebert, who gave the film four out of four stars, described it as "a technical tour de force" and highlighted the film's astute use of SQUID technology, stating that "Bigelow is able to exploit the idea of what is happening; she forces her audience to deal with the screen reality, instead of allowing us to process it