Box office
Labyrinth opened at number eight at the US box office with $3,549,243 from 1,141 theaters, which placed it behind The Karate Kid Part II, Back to School, Legal Eagles, Ruthless People, Running Scared, Top Gun, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.[68] In its next weekend at the box office, the film dropped to number 13 in the charts, only earning $1,836,177.[69] By the end of its run in US cinemas, the film had grossed $12,729,917,[70] just over half of its $25 million budget.[49]
The film grossed $9 million in Japan during the summer.[71] In December, the film opened in Europe, opening at number one at the UK box office.[72] It was the highest-grossing film over the Christmas period in the UK, with a gross of $4.5 million in its first month, three times more than its competitors.[71] It was also the highest-grossing film for the period in Spain, Bolivia, and Venezuela.[71] By January 1987, it had grossed $7.5 million from eight other foreign territories (Australia, Brazil, Central America, Germany, Holland, Italy, Mexico, and Spain),[71][73] for a total worldwide gross of over $34 million at that time.
Critical response
As he did with less success in The Dark Crystal, Mr. Henson uses the art of puppetry to create visual effects that until very recently were possible to attain only with animation. The result is really quite startling. It removes storyboard creations from the flat celluloid cartoon image and makes them three-dimensional, so that they actually come alive and interact with living people. The technique makes animation seem dull and old-fashioned by comparison.
— Nina Darnton of The New York Times on Labyrinth's technical achievements.[10]
The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics.[74] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 77% based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "While it's arguably more interesting on a visual level, Labyrinth provides further proof of director Jim Henson's boundless imagination".[75] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 50 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[76] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[77]
Roger Ebert acknowledged that Labyrinth was made with "infinite care and pains", and he gave the film two stars out of four, as he felt that the film "never really comes alive". Ebert said that, as the film was set in an "arbitrary world", none of the events in it had any consequences, robbing the film of any dramatic tension.[78] Gene Siskel's review of Labyrinth for the Chicago Tribune was highly negative, and he referred to it as an "awful" film with a "pathetic story", "much too complicated plot", and "visually ugly style". Siskel objected to the film's "violent" plot, writing that, "the sight of a baby in peril is one of sleaziest gimmicks a film can employ to gain our attention, but Henson does it".[79]
Other critics were more positive. Kathryn Buxton of The Palm Beach Post found that it had "excitement and thrills enough for audiences of all ages, as well as a fun and sometimes slightly naughty sense of humor".[80] Roger Hurlburt of the Sun-Sentinel called Labyrinth "a fantasy fan's gourmet delight", writing that "though plot aspects are obviously borrowed from other fantasy stories – Cinderella, Snow White and the fairy tale classics, events are served in unique form".[81] Bruce Bailey of The Montreal Gazette admired the film's script, stating that, "Terry Jones has drawn on his dry wit and bizarre imagination and come up with a script that transforms these essentially familiar elements and plot structures into something that fairly throbs with new life". Bailey was also impressed by the film's depth, writing that, "adults will have the additional advantage of appreciating the story as a coming-of-age parable".[82]
Several critics noted the film's subtext and found it successful to varying degrees. Saw Tek Meng of the New Straits Times acknowledged that "Sarah's experiences in the labyrinth are symbolic of her transition from child to woman" but ultimately found the film "too linear" for its latent themes to come through.[83] The New York Times' Nina Darnton compared the film's tone to the writings of E. T. A. Hoffmann, stating that Hoffman's The Nutcracker "is also about the voyage to womanhood, including the hint of sexual awakening, which Sarah experiences too in the presence of a goblin king". Darton enjoyed the film and considered it more successful than Henson's previous collaboration with Brian Froud, The Dark Crystal.[10]
Colin Greenland reviewed Labyrinth for White Dwarf #85, stating that, "Like Time Bandits, Labyrinth is the story of a child trying to negotiate a dreamlike otherworld where logic is not all that it should be, and so it also borrows lavishly from The Princess and the Goblin, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Where the Wild Things Are. A couple of scenes along the quest are truly eerie. Others are doggedly sentimental."[84] Lynn Minton in Parade opined that "what [Labyrinth] lacks in story and memorable music it makes up for, in part, with amusing special effects, loveable and funny "people" and an emotionally satisfying ending".[85]
Connelly's portrayal of Sarah polarised critics and received strong criticism from some reviewers. Los Angeles Daily News critic Kirk Honeycutt referred to Connelly as "a bland and minimally talented young actress".[86] Jon Marlowe wrote for The Miami News, stating that, "Connelly is simply the wrong person for the right job. She has a squeaky voice that begins to grate on you; when she cries, you can see the onions in her eyes."[87] Hal Lipper of the St. Petersburg Times felt contrary to these negative views and praised her acting, saying that, "Connelly makes the entire experience seem real. She acts so naturally around the puppets that you begin to believe in their life-like qualities."[88]
Bowie's performance was variously lauded and derided. In his largely positive review of the film for Time, Richard Corliss praised him as "charismatic" referring to his character as a "Kabuki sorcerer who offers his ravishing young antagonist the gilded perks of adult servitude".[9] Bruce Bailey enjoyed Bowie's performance, writing that, "the casting of Bowie can't be faulted on any count. He has just the right look for a creature who's the object of both loathing and secret desire."[82] In a largely critical review, Hal Lipper found that, "Bowie forgoes acting, preferring to prance around his lair while staring solemnly into the camera. He's not exactly wooden. Plastic might be a more accurate description."[88]
Henson came "the closest I've seen him to turning in on himself and getting quite depressed" following the film's mixed reception, his son Brian told Life magazine.[89] It was the last feature film directed by Henson before his death in 1990.
Labyrinth has been re-evaluated by several notable publications after Henson's death. A review from 2000 in Empire magazine called the film "a fabulous fantasy" and wrote that, "David Bowie cuts a spooky enough figure in that fright wig to fit right in with this extraordinary menagerie of Goth Muppets. And Jennifer Connelly, still in the flush of youth, makes for an appealingly together kind of heroine."[90] Michael Wilmington described Labyrinth as "dazzling", writing that it is "a real masterpiece of puppetry and special effects, an absolutely gorgeous children's fantasy movie", for the Chicago Tribune in 2007.[91] In 2010, Total Film ran a feature called "Why We Love Labyrinth", which described Labyrinth as a "hyper-real, vibrant daydream, Labyrinth's main strength lies in its fairytale roots which give the fantastical story a platform from which to launch into some deliriously outlandish scenarios".[92] In their February 2012 issue, Empire featured a four-page spread on Labyrinth as part of their Muppet Special.[21]
Accolades
Labyrinth was nominated at the British Academy Film Awards for Best Special Visual Effects[93] and received two Saturn Award nominations for Best Fantasy Film and Best Costumes. The film was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.[94]
In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated Labyrinth for inclusion on its Top 10 Fantasy Films list.[95] Labyrinth is ranked 72nd on Empire's "The 80 best '80s movies"[96] and 26th on Time Out's "The 50 best fantasy movies".[97] In 2019, The Daily Telegraph named it as one of "The 77 best kids' films of all time".[98]
Legacy
Despite its poor performance at the American box office, Labyrinth was a success on home video and later on DVD.[99] David Bowie told an interviewer in 1992 that, "every Christmas a new flock of children comes up to me and says, 'Oh! you're the one who's in Labyrinth!'"[100] In 1997, Jennifer Connelly said that, "I still get recognized for Labyrinth by little girls in the weirdest places. I can't believe they still recognize me from that movie. It's on TV all the time and I guess I pretty much look the same."[101]
Labyrinth has become a cult film.[102] Brian Henson remembered his father Jim Henson as being aware that Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal both had cult followings by the time of his death in 1990, saying that "he was able to see all that and know that it was appreciated".[103] Academic Andrea Wright wrote that Labyrinth has managed to maintain audience popularity long after its initial release to a greater extent than The Dark Crystal.[56] Since 1997, an annual two-day event called the "Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball", in which revelers attend dressed in costumes inspired by the film, has been held in various locations, including San Diego, Hollywood, and Los Angeles.[104] Labyrinth has developed a significant internet fan following since the early 1990s, and, as of 2021, FanFiction.Net hosts more than 10,000 stories in its Labyrinth section.[105][106]
The strong DVD sales of Labyrinth prompted rights-holders the Jim Henson Company and Sony Pictures to look into making a sequel,[99] and Curse of the Goblin King was briefly used as a placeholder title.[107] However, the decision was ultimately taken to avoid making a direct sequel and instead produce a fantasy film with a similar atmosphere. Fantasy author Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean were called in to write and direct a film similar in spirit to Labyrinth, and MirrorMask was ultimately released in selected theaters in 2005 after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.[99] On January 22, 2016, Sony Pictures announced that a reboot is in development with Lisa Henson as producer and Nicole Perlman attached as the screenwriter.[4] However, on January 25, Perlman confirmed on Twitter that, while she is working on a Labyrinth project with the Jim Henson Company, it is not a remake or reboot.[108] Perlman also discussed the timing of the rumors in conjunction with David Bowie's death and said that, "Henson Co & I started talking in late 2014, so the timing of these rumors is so upsetting. I would never seek to profit from Bowie's death."[109]
