Editing The Big Blue (section)

==Reception==
The film was met with positive reviews in Europe, where it was described as "one of the most significant cult movies of the 1980s" by French Cinema historian Rémi Lanzoni,<ref name="Lanzoni">''French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present'', Rémi Fournier Lanzoni, p.342-344.</ref> who described it as "ooz[ing] with a sensuous beauty unlike any other film at the time".<ref name="Lanzoni"/>

The film was slightly edited for US release to have a new, positive ending and the original score was also replaced.

The US release was met with above average reviews. The film aggregator, [[Rotten Tomatoes]] gave it 62%, based on 21 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Though this movie features beautiful cinematography, it drags on, being way too overblown and melodramatic."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_big_blue_1988|title=The Big Blue (1988)|website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|publisher=[[Fandango Media]]|access-date=11 November 2023}}</ref>

Kevin Thomas of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', praised its cinematography, but warned viewers to "be prepared to want to come up for air only minutes into [the film]", referring to the film's pointless plot.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-08-19-ca-531-story.html|author=Thomas, Kevin|title=Movie Review: 'The Big Blue' Sinks Deep Into Pointlessness|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=19 August 1988|access-date=2 February 2021}}</ref>

The film sold only 97,817 tickets in its opening week in and around Paris but went on to become one of the [[List of highest-grossing films in France|most popular French films of all-time in France]] with admissions of 9.2 million.<ref name=adm/>