"[T]he blasphemous suggestion of the character, played by Charles Laughton, wherein he presumes to create human beings out of animals; the obnoxious suggestion of the attempt of these animals to mate with human beings, and the … excessive gruesomeness and horror … all these tend to make the picture quite definitely repulsive and not suitable for screen entertainment before mixed audiences." No specific rental, profit, or loss for Paramount are known for the film. The box office is known to be performing below expectations in the box office in the United States. MCA/Universal Home Video released the film on home video in 1993 as part of their Universal Studios Monsters Classic Collection along with Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), House of Dracula (1945) and Invisible Agent (1942). Since its release on home video in the 1990s, Dave Kehr of The New York Times noted the difficulty in obtaining the film, stating that it "has only surfaced in dubious offshore editions, despite the constant clamoring of horror film aficionados." Kehr noted that the film being off market for such a long time was due to a lack of material good enough for a high-definition release. The film had lost its camera negative and only survived through a handful of positive prints which ranged in quality. The Criterion Collection had combined two 35-millimeter prints and had collector's copies of for some missing frames. Criterion's president, Peter Becker declared their restoration of the film for home video being “one of the two or three most challenging reconstructions and image restoration jobs we’ve ever done." In 2011, the label released the film on blu-ray and DVD while Eureka Entertainment released the film as part of their Masters of Cinema line in 2012. Both releases use the same restoration. Reception Contemporary From pre-screenings, an unnamed critic for The Hollywood Filmograph which declared on December 10 that "All that can be done in the way of horror pictures has now definitely been done" and that the film "tops all the rest. It out-Frankensteins Frankenstein, and relegates all other thrillers to the class of children’s bedtime stories…". The review went on to praise the acting of Laughton, Burke and the direction of Laughton. Mae Tanee wrote at the Chicago premiere about Burke, stating she "hasn't much to do other than crouch and run and open her eyes wide, but she is agile and uncamera-conscious and very well-suited to