him. He had seen Sheryl Lee on Twin Peaks and cast her based on her work on the show. Carpenter's wife and the film's producer Sandy King cast Thomas Ian Griffith because she and the director wanted "someone who looks formidable, but is also alluring. There always has to be something alluring about the evil nature of the vampire." Dolph Lundgren was also approached about returning as Valek instead of Jack Crow, but he was not interested in playing the villain and declined. Filming and post-production Principal photography began during June 1997 in New Mexico and concluded on August 4, 1997. Midway through production, Carpenter left the film due to creative interference, and special make-up effects artist Greg Nicotero took over for a few days until Carpenter was persuaded back. In the credits, the film bears a 1997 copyright year rather than a 1998 copyright year, presumably because post-production work had been completed prior to 1998. The MPAA took issue with the film's over-the-top violence, threatening to give it an NC-17 rating unless some of the gore was cut. Ultimately, about 20 seconds of footage was cut from the film. King said, "We satisfied the ratings board by just cutting short of a few things that went into really gruesome stuff." Soundtrack Reception Box-office The film opened at #1 but dropped to #8 on its second week. The film grossed $20,308,772 dollars in the United States on a $20 million budget. Although worldwide numbers are not official, Carpenter stated the film was a massive success overseas, particularly in Japan, and pulled in well over its $20 million budget. It later went on to pull in a further $42 million on home video rental and purchase sales. Vampires was Carpenter's only financially successful film of the 90s, and to date it is the last financially successful film that John Carpenter has directed. Critical response The film was originally released to varied critical reviews, appearing on both best-of-the-year and worst-of-the-year lists. Positive reviews were based on the film's acting, direction, and visual style, while negative reviews felt the film lacked a coherent plot or likable characters. On Rotten Tomatoes Vampires holds a 42% rating based on 52 reviews. The site's consensus was: "Nothing but one showdown after another." On Metacritic the film has a score of 42% based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore