with a theatrical premiere on May 21, 1999, DreamWorks believed The Love Letter had a counterprogramming appeal to stand its own. It debuted at only fifth place, with $2.6 million from 769 screens. The following week, marking the Memorial Day holiday, the film fell to sixth place while expanding to only 19 more theaters as another romantic comedy, Notting Hill had a wide release, and by its third weekend The Love Letter was out of the top ten entirely. As part of a press kit campaign, the production company sent copies of the eponymous love letter to film critics with many of them mistaking it for an actual love letter. Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader mentioned feeling particularly betrayed when seeing the film and realizing that the mysterious love letter that he had received was actually a copy of the one in the film. He tells this story on the May 6, 2005 episode of This American Life, "Not What I Meant". References External links 1990s romantic comedy-drama films 1999 films American romantic comedy-drama films DreamWorks Pictures films Films directed by Peter Chan Films based on American novels Films based on romance novels Films scored by Luis Bacalov 1999 comedy films 1999 drama films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films