film for its US release where it was released theatrically by Paramount Pictures in September 1986. The film debuted at number 1 grossing US$$8 million in its opening weekend, and remained at number one for nine weeks. It grossed US$174,803,506 at the U.S. and Canadian box office being the second-highest-grossing film that year for both the studio and at the United States box office. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 46 million tickets in North America. It was the highest-grossing film in New Zealand with a gross of $5.1 million and the highest-grossing in Ireland with a gross of $2.8 million. The film was the highest-grossing non-American film at the US box office. The film was a worldwide box office hit grossing US$328 million and surpassed Mad Max 2 as the highest-grossing Australian film at the worldwide box office. Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 34 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10. The critics' consensus reads: "Infectiously easygoing charm and a leading man in the role he was born to play help Crocodile Dundee make the most of its familiar fish-out-of-water premise". On Metacritic the film has a score of 62% based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average rating of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and wrote: "All of the cliches are in the right places, most of the gags pay off and there are moments of real amusement as the Australian cowboy wanders around Manhattan as a naive sightseer. The problem is that there's not one moment of chemistry between the two stars: Paul Hogan as 'Crocodile' Dundee and Linda Kozlowski as the clever little rich girl. The movie feels curiously machine-made, as if they had all the right ingredients and simply forgot to add the animal magnetism". Nina Darnton of The New York Times thought that Paul Hogan was "delightful" in the title role, that the screenplay was "witty, with a fine sense of irony and the gift at poking fun at its own conceits", and that "Linda Kozlowski plays the reporter, Sue, very well", virtues which "go a long way toward compensating for the film's illogical plot and set-up situations". Variety stated that director Peter Faiman "has problems with the