visuals", he said. "You can increase the visceral response to the scene. You can suddenly cut to this big marble hanging there and hear it `Whooosh!' all around. You're sort of able to change the world, to go in and really see what's going on." The climactic ship explosion was so powerful it shattered 8,000 windows in East Boston during filming. Paul Hill, one of the Guildford Four who had been wrongly imprisoned in the UK, helped the filmmakers with background information. Release and reception MGM advertised the film heavily, spending $7 million on television spots. Box office Blown Away opened at fourth place in its opening weekend at the US box office, with $10.5 million, which at the time was MGM's biggest opening weekend ever. This was still MGM's biggest opening in a decade. "This puts us back in the mainstream of movie distribution", said Larry Gleason, MGM's president of worldwide theatrical distribution." It finished its run with $30 million in the United States and Canada and grossed $22.7 million internationally for a worldwide total of $52.7 million. The film suffered in comparison to another "terrorist with a bomb" movie, Speed, which was rushed into cinemas to beat Blown Away. Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 41% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. The film was widely criticized for the poor Irish accents of the three main Irish characters, with Tommy Lee Jones' portrayal of Ryan Gaerity particularly receiving the harshest criticism. Home video The VHS and Laserdisc of the film was released on December 14, 1994. It was released on DVD on July 29, 1997, while Kino Lorber (under license from MGM) released the film on a Blu-Ray in 2015. Video game The film also spawned a FMV video game tie-in for PC and Mac. It was developed by Imagination Pilots and published by IVI Publishing, Inc. References External links 1994 films Films about terrorism in the United States American films about revenge Films set in Boston Films shot in Boston 1990s English-language films Independence Day (United States) films English-language Irish films Irish-language films American action thriller films American police detective films Films about the Irish Republican Army Films directed by Stephen Hopkins Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films scored by Alan Silvestri