Editing Die Hard (section)

===Box office===
''Die Hard''{{'}}s premiere took place on July{{nbsp}}12, 1988, at the Avco theater in Los Angeles, California.<ref name="Premiere"/> In North America, the film received a limited release in 21 theaters in 13 cities on July{{nbsp}}15, 1988, earning $601,851—an average of $28,659 per theater.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Daily Variety]]|page=1|title=Fox Pushing 'Hard' Bow Back 2 Weeks|date=May 14, 1990}}</ref> It was considered a successful debut with a high per-theater average gross.<ref name="NYTimesDebut"/> The ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' said that the late change in advertising focus and diminishing popularity for action films should have worked against ''Die Hard''. Instead, positive reviews and the limited release had made it a "must-see" film.<ref name="LATimesDebutWeek"/>

It received a wide release the following week on July{{nbsp}}22, 1988, across 1,276 theaters, and earning $7.1{{nbsp}}million—an average of $5,569 per theater. The film finished as the number three film of the weekend, behind ''Coming to America'' ($8.8{{nbsp}}million)—in its fourth week of release—and ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' ($8.9{{nbsp}}million), in its fifth.<ref name="TheNumbersWeekofJuly22"/> The film fell to number four in its third week with a further gross of $6.1{{nbsp}}million, just behind ''Coming to America'' ($6.4{{nbsp}}million), ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' ($6.5{{nbsp}}million) and the debuting romantic comedy ''[[Cocktail (1988 film)|Cocktail]]'' ($11.7{{nbsp}}million).<ref name="TheNumbersWeek3"/> In its fourth weekend, it rebounded to the number three position with $5.7{{nbsp}}million.<ref name="TheNumbersOveralL"/> While the film never claimed the number-one box office ranking, it spent ten straight weeks among the top five highest-grossing films.<ref name="VultureRetro"/><ref name="TheNumbersOveralL"/> In total, the film earned an approximate box office gross of between $81.3{{nbsp}}million and $83{{nbsp}}million.<ref name="TheNumbersSummary"/><ref name="BOMWorldwide"/> This made it the seventh-highest-grossing film of 1988, behind ''Crocodile Dundee II'' ($109.3{{nbsp}}million), buddy comedy ''Twins'' ($111.9{{nbsp}}million), fantasy-comedy ''[[Big (film)|Big]]'' ($114.9{{nbsp}}million), ''Coming to America'' ($128.1{{nbsp}}million), ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' ($154.1{{nbsp}}million) and comedy-drama ''[[Rain Man]]'' ($172.8{{nbsp}}million).<ref name="TheNumbers1988Domestic"/>

Outside North America, ''Die Hard'' is estimated to have earned $57.7{{nbsp}}million, giving it an approximate cumulative gross of between $139.1{{nbsp}}million and $140.7{{nbsp}}million.<ref name="TheNumbersSummary"/><ref name="BOMWorldwide"/>{{efn|The 1988 box office of $139.1–$140.7{{nbsp}}million is equivalent to ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|139100000|1988}}}}–${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|140700000|1988}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}.}} This figure makes it the [[1988 in film|tenth-highest-grossing film worldwide of 1988]] behind ''Big'' ($151{{nbsp}}million), ''Cocktail'' ($171{{nbsp}}million), ''[[A Fish Called Wanda]]'' ($177{{nbsp}}million), ''Rambo III'' ($189{{nbsp}}million), ''Twins'' ($216{{nbsp}}million), ''Crocodile Dundee II'' ($239{{nbsp}}million), ''Coming to America'' ($288{{nbsp}}million), ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' ($329{{nbsp}}million) and ''Rain Man'' ($354{{nbsp}}million).<ref name="BOMWorldwide"/><ref name="TheNumbersWorldwide"/>{{sfn|Groves|1989|p=11}}{{efn|[[The Numbers (website)|The Numbers]] and [[Box Office Mojo]] provide North American box office figures, but they do not include the international figures for many 1988 films. When failing to take into account the international grosses of some films, ''Die Hard'' is the eighth-highest-grossing film worldwide of 1988. Based on other industry reports in 1988 by ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', the worldwide grosses of ''[[Cocktail (1988 film)|Cocktail]]'' and ''[[A Fish Called Wanda]]'' were greater than ''Die Hard''{{'}}s, lowering it to the tenth-highest-grossing film overall.<ref name="BOMWorldwide"/><ref name="TheNumbersWorldwide"/>{{sfn|Groves|1989|p=11}}}}

The summer of 1988 saw box office grosses totaling $1.7{{nbsp}}billion, breaking the previous year's record-breaking summer by $100{{nbsp}}million,<ref name="NYTImesAssessment"/> and it was the most successful summer since 1984, when only three films earned more than $100{{nbsp}}million in North America.<ref name="LATimesSummerReview"/> Defying pre-release expectations ''Die Hard'' was considered an enormous success.<ref name=Independent1/><ref name="LATimesSummerReview"/> In a year otherwise dominated by comedy films, ''Die Hard''{{'}}s overperformance was an anomaly compared to other action films such as ''Rambo III'' and ''Red Heat'', which failed to meet box office expectations.<ref name="EbertSeitz"/><ref name="NYTimesComedy"/> Film critic [[Sheila Benson]] believed this demonstrated a generational shift in audiences and their tastes; in particular, 25- to 37-year-old men had turned against alcohol abuse, sexism, and mindless machismo.<ref name="LATimesBenson"/> Along with films like ''Big'' and ''[[Young Guns (film)|Young Guns]]'' (1988), ''Die Hard'' is credited with revitalizing 20th Century Fox, which had had few successes in preceding years. It also showed the action genre was not "dead".<ref name="NYTImesAssessment"/>