going on.' Wild at Heart was completed one day before it debuted at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival in the 2,400-seat Grand Auditorium. After the screening, it received 'wild cheering' from the audience. When Jury President Bernardo Bertolucci announced the film as the winner of the Palme d'Or at the awards ceremony, the jeers almost drowned out the cheers, with film critic Roger Ebert leading the vocal detractors. Gifford remembers that there was a prevailing mood that the media was hoping Lynch would fail. "All kinds of journalists were trying to cause controversy and have me say something like 'This is nothing like the book' or 'He ruined my book'. I think everybody from Time magazine to What's On in London was disappointed when I said 'This is fantastic. This is wonderful. It's like a big, dark, musical comedy'". Rating The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) told Lynch that the version of Wild at Heart screened at Cannes would receive an X rating in North America unless cuts were made, as the NC-17 was not in effect in 1990, at the time of the film's release; he was contractually obligated to deliver an R-rated film. Lynch made one change in the scene where Willem Dafoe's character shoots his own head off with a shotgun. Gun smoke was added to tone down the blood and hide the removal of Dafoe's head from his body. Foreign prints were not affected. The Region 1 DVD and all Blu-rays contain the toned-down version of the shotgun scene. Response Box office Wild at Heart opened in the United States on August 17, 1990, in a limited release of only 532 theaters, grossing 2,913,764 in its opening weekend. It went into wide release on August 31 with 618 theaters and grossing an additional $1,858,379. The film ultimately grossed $14,560,247 in North America. Reception Wild at Heart received mixed reviews. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 66% based on 53 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.5/10. The site's consensus reads: 'One of director David Lynch's more uneven efforts, Wild at Heart is held together by his distinctive sensibilities and compelling work from Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern.' On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating 'mixed or average reviews'. In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert