Box office
July 2, 1959, newspaper advertisement for a drive-in theater viewing of the filmBy 1962, Some Like It Hot had grossed $14 million in the US.[36] According to The Numbers, the film ultimately grossed $25 million in the US.[37] As of 2020, it had grossed over $83.2 million internationally.[38]
The film opened in the week ended March 24, 1959, in several cities in the United States; the highest grossing of which were in Chicago, where it grossed $45,000 at the United Artists Theatre with Monroe making an appearance, and in Washington, D.C., where it grossed $40,000 at the Capitol Theatre.[39][40] With results from just six key cities, Variety listed it as the third highest-grossing film in the United States for the week.[41]
The film then expanded to 100 theatres around the country for the Easter holidays,[42] including at the newly renovated State Theatre in New York City on Sunday, March 29, 1959,[20][43] and became number one in the country and remained there for three weeks before being knocked off the top by Imitation of Life.[44] Imitation of Life was top for two weeks before being replaced again by Some Like It Hot,[45] which remained there for another four weeks before being replaced by Pork Chop Hill.[46] In its first month, the film grossed $2,585,120 from 96 engagements.[47]
Critical response
Some Like It Hot received widespread acclaim from critics and is considered among the best films of all time. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 73 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Some Like It Hot: A spry, quick-witted farce that never drags."[48] According to Metacritic, another review aggregator which calculated a weighted average score of 98 out of 100 based on 19 critics, the film received "universal acclaim".[49] Chicago Sun-Times's Roger Ebert wrote, "Wilder's 1959 comedy is one of the enduring treasures of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft."[50] Ebert gave the film four stars out of four and included it in his Great Movies list.[50] John McCarten of The New Yorker referred to the film as "a jolly, carefree enterprise".[51] Richard Roud, writing for The Guardian in 1967, said with this film Wilder comes "close to perfection".[52]
In 1989, the film became one of the first 25 inducted into the United States National Film Registry.[53] In 1998 the film was ranked at No. 7 in Time Out's poll of "Top 100 Films".[54] In 1999 Entertainment Weekly voted it at No. 9 on their list of "100 Greatest Movies of All Time".[55]
Some Like It Hot was voted as the top comedy film by the American Film Institute on their list on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs poll in 2000, and was selected as the best comedy of all time in a poll of 253 film critics from 52 countries conducted by the BBC in 2017.[56] In 2005, the British Film Institute included this film on its list of "Top fifty films for children up to the age of 14".[57] The 2022 Sight & Sound critics' poll ranked it as the 38th greatest film of all time, tied with Rear Window and a bout de souffle.[58] The 2022 Sight & Sound directors' poll ranked it 62nd, tied with nine other films.[59] In the earlier 2012 Sight & Sound polls, it was ranked the 42nd-greatest film ever made in the critics' poll[60] and 37th in the directors' poll.[61] The 2002 Sight & Sound polls the film ranked 37th among critics[62] and 24th among directors.[63] In 2010, The Guardian considered it the third-best comedy film of all time.[64] In 2015, the film ranked 30th on BBC's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world.[65] It was included in The New York Times's "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made" list in 2002.[66] In 2005, it was included on Time's All-Time 100 best movies list.[67] The film was voted at No. 52 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 2008.[68] In July 2018, it was selected to be screened in the Venice Classics section at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.[69]
Awards and nominations
| Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Director | Billy Wilder | Nominated | [70] |
| Best Actor | Jack Lemmon | Nominated | ||
| Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium | Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond | Nominated | ||
| Best Art Direction – Black-and-White | Art Direction: Ted Haworth; Set Decoration: Edward G. Boyle | Nominated | ||
| Best Cinematography – Black-and-White | Charles Lang | Nominated | ||
| Best Costume Design – Black-and-White | Orry-Kelly | Won | ||
| Bambi Awards | Best Actor – International | Tony Curtis | Nominated | [71] |
| British Academy Film Awards | Best Film from any Source | Billy Wilder | Nominated | [72] |
| Best Foreign Actor | Jack Lemmon | Won | ||
| Directors Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures | Billy Wilder | Nominated | [73] |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Won | [74] | |
| Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Jack Lemmon | Won | ||
| Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Marilyn Monroe | Won | ||
| Grammy Awards | Best Sound Track Album, Original Cast – Motion Picture or Television | Some Like It Hot | Nominated | [75] |
| Jules Verne Awards | Jules Verne Légendaire Award | Billy Wilder | Won | |
| Laurel Awards | Top Comedy | 3rd Place | ||
| Top Male Comedy Performance | Jack Lemmon | 2nd Place | ||
| Top Female Comedy Performance | Marilyn Monroe | 2nd Place | ||
| National Board of Review Awards | Top Ten Films | 7th Place | [76] | |
| National Film Preservation Board | National Film Registry | Inducted | [77] | |
| Online Film & Television Association Awards | Hall of Fame – Motion Picture | Inducted | [78] | |
| Producers Guild of America Awards | PGA Hall of Fame – Motion Pictures | Robert Evans | Won | |
| Venice International Film Festival | Golden Lion | Billy Wilder | Nominated | |
| Writers Guild of America Awards | Best Written American Comedy | Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond | Won | [79] |
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
- 1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – No. 14[80]
- 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – No. 1[81][82]
- 2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- Osgood Fielding III: "Well, nobody's perfect." – No. 48[83]
- 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – No. 22[84]
The film was inducted in 1989 into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.[85] The Writers Guild of America ranked the film's screenplay the ninth greatest ever written.[86]
