movie grossed a worldwide total of $142,940,100. As Meet Joe Black was one of the few films showing the first trailer for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, it was reported that droves of Star Wars fans bought tickets for the film, only to leave after the trailer showed. Critical response Meet Joe Black received mixed reviews from critics, with most complimenting the performances but criticizing the film's three-hour length, the slow pacing and the screenplay. Roger Ebert gave it three stars, but disliked the peripheral story lines and overly drawn-out ending. He concluded that despite its flaws, "there's so much that's fine in this movie". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that most of the characters were one-dimensional. Anthony Hopkins received uniform praise for his performance, with Travers opining that Hopkins' Bill Parrish was the only fully realized character in the film; Mick LaSalle wrote that "Hopkins' acting is so emotionally full that the tiniest moments...ring with complexities of thought and feeling." Brad Pitt, on the other hand, received a mixed response, with LaSalle's calling the performance so bad "it hurts" and James Berardinelli's calling it "execrable". Meet Joe Black earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Remake. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of a 45% based on 49 reviews, with an average score of 5.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Meet Joe Black is pretty to look at and benefits from an agreeable cast, but that isn't enough to offset this dawdling drama's punishing three-hour runtime." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 43 based on 24 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F. References External links 1998 films 1990s fantasy drama films 1998 romantic drama films Remakes of American films American romantic drama films American romantic fantasy films 1990s English-language films American fantasy drama films Films about mass media owners Films credited to Alan Smithee Films directed by Martin Brest Films scored by Thomas Newman Films shot in New Jersey Films shot in New York City Films shot in Rhode Island Films about the upper class Love stories Films about personifications of death Films with screenplays by Bo Goldman Universal Pictures films Films with screenplays by Kevin Wade 1990s American films