Royal S. Brown disagreed and was grateful that the actor's dialog amounted to "2 pages of typescript." Schickel summed up Schwarzenegger's acting as "flat", while Knoll was more verbose, characterizing the actor's portrayal as "a dull clod with a sharp sword, a human collage of pectorals and latissimi who's got less style and wit than Lassie." While Sandahl Bergman earned acclaim for injecting grace and dynamism into the film, the film's more experienced thespians were not spared criticisms. Gunden said von Sydow showed little dedication to his role, and Clarens judged Jones's portrayal of Thulsa Doom to be worse than camp. However, Ebert praised Jones's performance, saying he brought "power and conviction to a role that seems inspired in equal parts by Hitler, Jim Jones, and Goldfinger." Brougher faulted none of the actors for their performances, laying the blame on Milius's script, instead. Box office and other media According to Rentrak Theatrical, a firm of media analysts, Conan debuted at the top spot at the US box office, taking $9,479,373 over the opening weekend. Rentrak's data on Conan covered 8 weeks after the film's release; during that period, Conan grossed $38,513,085 at the box office in the United States. Universal Pictures received $22.5 million after deducting the amounts due to the cinema owners. This sum—the rental—was more than the money Universal had invested in making the film, thus qualifying Conan as a commercial success; any further income from the film was pure profit for the studio. Marian Christy, interviewer for the Boston Globe, mentioned that the film was a box-office success in Europe and Japan, as well. Worldwide, Conan the Barbarian grossed between $68.9 million and $79.1 million in ticket sales. David A. Cook, Professor of Film Studies at Emory University, said that Conans North American performance fell short of the amount returned by blockbusters; the rentals of such films from their release in the continent were supposed to be least $50 million. Conans rental was the 13th-highest for 1982 and when combined with those for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (the most successful film in that year with a rental of $187 million), On Golden Pond, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas—all distributed by Universal Pictures—constituted 30% of the year's total film rental. According to Arthur D. Murphy, a film-industry analyst, it was the first time that a single distributor captured such a substantial share of the film market. The