The movie failed at the box-office leading one person to comment that the picture should have been called "The Empty Cinema".
The film was made and released about two years after its source Cliff Hardy novel of the same name by Peter Corris had been first published in 1983.
Novelist Peter Corris wrote the first few drafts of the screenplay but was unsatisfied with the final script and the film though Corris did praise Bryan Brown's interpretation and characterization of his Cliff Hardy detective.