Cop ($235million) and 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day ($205million). Outside of the U.S. and Canada, Saving Private Ryan is estimated to have earned a further $265.3million. This gave the film a cumulative worldwide gross of $481.8million, making it the second-highest grossing film of 1998, behind Armageddon ($553.7million). Saving Private Ryan was seen as the biggest success of the theatrical summer. The New York Times wrote that the success of a "prestige film" during a time of blockbuster entertainment with broad appeal was evidence that audiences were accepting of serious dramas alongside action films, such as Armageddon and Godzilla, and "gross-out comedy" like There's Something About Mary. The publication wrote that the popularity of Saving Private Ryan was, in part, because it depicted a "nobler, cleaner era" promoting values of heroism and "patriotic duty." The 1998 box office broke records with over $7billion earned. Despite expectations, the biggest successes had modest budgets, such as Saving Private Ryan, There's Something About Mary, Rush Hour, and The Waterboy, while the anticipated blockbusters, such as Godzilla and Armageddon were so expensive to make that they were less profitable. Hanks's pay agreement earned him an estimated $30–$40 million of the box office. Reception Critical response Saving Private Ryan received critical acclaim, and audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Critics generally agreed that Saving Private Ryan presented the grim and brutal reality of the "Good War" in a way previously unseen on film. Kenneth Turan described the film as darker and more pessimistic than any of Spielberg's previous works, dispelling the mythos of WWII as staunchly good heroes fighting against evil forces to depict the reality of combat where, "American soldiers mock virtue and shoot surrendering Germans, where decent and altruistic actions tend to be fatal, where death is random, stupid and redeems hardly anything at all." Some reviewers said this exploration of the limitations of morality in combat asked audiences to consider that the lives lost during the conflict were as valuable as those saved by their sacrifices. Gene Siskel lauded the film's ability to discuss the "brutality and madness" of war while "believably" celebrating the sacrifices and courage of those fighting it. Salon.com concluded, "it will forever change the way people imagine the most important event in 20th century history. That is no small achievement." Stephen Holden said "it's a safe bet