May 17, 2000. It was released in the United States on August 11 of that year. Reception Roger Ebert gave the film one and a half stars out of four, remarking that it was like "a home movie [with] a bunch of kids goofing off", while others such as Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said "DeMented is Waters the way we like him—spiked with laughs and served with a twist". The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 53% of critics gave Cecil B. Demented positive reviews, based on 80 reviews, with a weighted average of 5.56/10. The site's consensus states "The idea behind John Waters' latest has much potential, but the movie ends up being too sloppy and underdeveloped in terms of script and direction. Also, by today's standards, it fails to shock." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 57 out of 100, based on 32 reviews. In more recent years, the film has been reappraised by some critics. In 2020, A.S. Hamrah wrote The Baffler, "Seen today, Cecil B. Demented is hilarious, cheap, and necessary. A series of low-budget set pieces, the film mocks all aspects of film production, bemoaning the loss of trash to blockbuster entertainment, exhorting young filmmakers across America to form queer families and blow things up." In 2021, Will Sloan wrote in Screen Slate, "As a filmmaker, Waters’s flaws and virtues are so densely intertwined as to be indistinguishable. His actors are mostly just mouthpieces for his ideas, but if you can accept a universe in which the baby-faced likes of Adrian Grenier, Alicia Witt, and Maggie Gyllenhaal can’t stop talking about Pasolini, the ideas are as stimulating as ever." In 2022, Scout Tafoya wrote on RogerEbert.com, "Cecil B. Demented may lack some of the immediacy of Waters' early experiments in transgression, but it's one of his most personal statements." Box office Cecil B. Demented was a box office failure, grossing $2 million from an estimated $10 million budget. Soundtrack The soundtrack was released August 8, 2000 by RCA Records. "Opening Credit Theme" – Moby "Nice Tranquil Thumbs in Mouth" – The Locust "Bankable Bitch" – DJ Class and Teflon the Bull "Upstart" – Meatjack "Everyday" – Substance D "No Budget" – DJ Class and Mayo "Broadway Brouhaha" "Loopy" – XXXBombshell "An Extra Piece of Dead Meat" – The Locust "Demented Forever" – Karen McMillan "Seduction" – The Sex-o-Rama Band "Ciao!" –