also stated that Monroe played her part wonderfully. Years later, Wilder noted "I think there are more books on Marilyn Monroe than there are on World War 2, and there's a great similarity." The film's closing line, "Well, nobody's perfect," is ranked 78th on The Hollywood Reporter list of Hollywood's 100 Favorite Movie Lines, but it was never supposed to be in the final cut. Diamond and Wilder put it in the script as a "placeholder" until they could come up with something better, but they never did. Wilder's tombstone pays homage to the line by reading, "I'm a writer, but then, nobody's perfect". Style With regards to sound design, there is a "strong musical element" in the film, with the soundtrack created by Adolph Deutsch. It has an authentic 1920s jazz feel using sharp, brassy strings to create tension in certain moments, for example whenever Spats' gangsters appear. In terms of cinematography and aesthetics, Billy Wilder chose to shoot the film in black and white as Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in full drag costume and make-up looked "unacceptably grotesque" in early color tests. Despite Monroe's contract requiring the film to be in color, she agreed to it being filmed in black and white after seeing that Curtis and Lemmon's makeup gave them a "ghoulish" appearance on color film. Orry-Kelly who was in charge of costume design created the costumes for Marilyn Monroe as well as Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, after the stock costumes the studio provided for the male leads fit poorly. Reception Box office By 1962, Some Like It Hot had grossed $14 million in the US. According to The Numbers, the film ultimately grossed $25 million in the US. As of 2020, it had grossed over $83.2 million internationally. The film opened in the week ended March 24, 1959, in several cities in the United States; the highest grossing of which were in Chicago, where it grossed $45,000 at the United Artists Theatre with Monroe making an appearance, and in Washington, D.C., where it grossed $40,000 at the Capitol Theatre. With results from just six key cities, Variety listed it as the third highest-grossing film in the United States for the week. The film then expanded to 100 theatres around the country for the Easter holidays, including at the newly renovated State Theatre in New York City on Sunday, March 29, 1959, and became number