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Critical reviews at the time were mixed, however. It was one of the highest-grossing independent films for many years. It was AIP's highest-grossing film until the release of The Amityville Horror later in the year. It went on to gross $44 million against a $3 million budget and ranking at number 13 on a list of the top grossing films of 1979. The film was a financial success, grossing $2,136,923 in its first 10 days. Shout! Factory released the film in February 2015 on Blu-ray Disc (with the original disco song by Bridges intact) as a double feature with Once Bitten (1985), the audio enhanced to 5.1 surround sound on both features. On the later VHS and DVD releases, the song played during the disco scene, "I Love the Nightlife" by Alicia Bridges, was removed and replaced with a different song. The film was first released on VHS in 1983 from Orion Home Video, again on VHS Jfrom Warner Home Video, and finally on DVD, July 12, 2005, from MGM. It expanded the following weekend into another 134 theaters in nine cities, including New York and Boston. The film opened in 88 theaters in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco on April 6, 1979.
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Director Stan Dragoti became attached to the project through Peter Sellers, an acquaintance of Kaufman. A script was financed for $100,000 and later acquired by Melvin Simon, a shopping-mall entrepreneur with an interest in films. The inspiration for the film came about while George Hamilton was entertaining screenwriter Robert Kaufman with poolside impressions of Bela Lugosi, and thoughts turned to what would happen if Dracula lived in modern New York City.
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Jeffrey is the grandson of Dracula's old nemesis Fritz van Helsing, who changed his name to Rosenberg "for professional reasons". He has admired her from afar, believing her to be the current reincarnation of his true love Mina Harker.ĭracula is ineptly pursued in turn by Cindy Sondheim's psychiatrist and quasi-boyfriend Jeffrey Rosenberg. While Dracula learns that late 1970s America contains such wonders as blood banks, sex clubs, and discotheques, the Count also proceeds to suffer the general ego-crushing that comes from life in the Big Apple, after he romantically pursues flaky fashion model Cindy Sondheim. only after an airport transport mix-up accidentally sends his coffin to be the centerpiece at a funeral in a black church in Harlem. The world-weary Count travels to New York City with his bug-eating manservant, Renfield, and establishes himself in a hotel. The infamous vampire Count Dracula is expelled from his castle by the Communist government of Romania, which plans to convert it into a training facility for gymnasts (including Nadia Comăneci).
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