Well, DTMTBD was kinda doomed, at least as far as reviews (it’s 35 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), but it made a modest $25 million at the box office on a $10 million budget. More importantly, though, it has enjoyed quite the afterlife, becoming a hit thanks to video store rentals and endless replays on cable.
“The cult following of Don’t Tell Mom is so surprising, because the movie didn’t do well when it came out,” Applegate told Variety in 2022. “I was so like, ‘I only want to do indies’ [to be taken more seriously]…And here was this studio film, and I was like, ‘I’m selling out, man!’ God, I hate that person; I’d do anything to do a studio movie these days. Now, that ‘I’m right on top of that, Rose!’ is still something that people quote all these years later—30 years later—freaks me out. But it hit a chord.”
The ever-upbeat Cassidy, meanwhile, couldn’t believe DTMTBD wasn’t more well-received when it first came out.
“It was adorable,” she told BuzzFeed. “This movie should have been huge.”
