to acquire Blue Sky, and eventually the studio became a feature-animation company. Reception Even with the enthusiastic billing as "MTV's first feature movie" and the support of the company, Joe's Apartment was a box office failure when it opened on July 26, 1996. Opening to 1,512 theaters but earning a dismal $1.8 million, the film closed all screenings in the middle of August and finished with only $4.6 million. Warner sold distribution rights for later MTV Film productions back to MTV's parent company, Viacom, not long after. Reviews were almost universally negative, mostly distaste at the blending of grimy gross-out gags and up-beat musical humor. Roger Ebert gave the film one star out of four, stating "Joe's Apartment would be a very bad comedy even without the roaches, but it would not be a disgusting one. No, wait: I take that back. Even without the roaches, we would still have the subplot involving the pink disinfectant urinal cakes." Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F. Joe's Apartment has an approval rating of based on professional reviews on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of . Its critical consensus reads, "Audiences will want their security deposit back from Joe's Apartment, a lame comedy whose dancing cockroaches are more charming than the human characters." References External links 1996 films 1990s musical comedy films American fantasy comedy films American films with live action and animation American musical comedy films American musical fantasy films Films about insects Fictional cockroaches Features based on short films The Geffen Film Company films MTV Films films Warner Bros. films Films set in apartment buildings Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City Films shot in New Jersey Films scored by Carter Burwell Films about real estate holdout Films using stop-motion animation 1996 comedy films 1996 directorial debut films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films