Big Trouble In Little China star Kurt Russell wasn't a fan of the movie's ad campaign - here's why. While the film is rightfully hailed as a masterpiece now, John Carpenter's remake of The Thing underperformed critically and financially upon release in 1982. This quickly impacted Carpenter's career, who was fired from a planned adaptation of Stephen King's Firestarter and had trouble finding work. He eventually signed on for another King adaptation with Christine, despite admitting he felt little connection to the material. He followed that up with sci-fi romance Starman, to prove he could branch out beyond horror.
He later re-teamed with regular leading man Kurt Russell for 1986's Big Trouble In Little China, a splashy blockbuster with martial arts sequences and a subversive sense of humor. The twist with Russell's "hero" Jack Burton is that despite his bravado and tough talk, he's kind of an idiot who is really the sidekick to Dennis Dun's Wang Chi. Just like The Thing, Big Trouble In Little China is now considered a classic but sank upon release in a summer movie season filled with heavy hitters like Top Gun and The Karate Kid Part II.
Part of the reason Big Trouble In Little China failed was down to a confused marketing campaign, and the studio not having much faith in the movie. They thought they were getting an Indiana Jones-style adventure and were worried about Jack Burton's lack of heroics. To this end, they insisted on a new opening scene where Victor Wong's Egg Shen praises Jack as a hero to frame him in a more positive light. The studio was also releasing Aliens that summer and decided to focus their energies on that, and only allotted a merger marketing budget for Big Trouble In Little China.
Neither Kurt Russell nor John Carpenter were happy about 20th Century Fox's marketing plan, which involved running big banner ads in newspaper priors to Big Trouble In Little China's release. The issue with this campaign was the failed attempt at building mystery, with artwork depicting a likeness of Russell with questions asking "Who is Jack Burton?" The trailers took the same approach, trying to give Jack an Indiana Jones mystique as characters constantly ask who he is before the promo declares he's coming to save the summer.
On Big Trouble In Little China's commentary track Kurt Russell's recalled with amusement seeing these ads, which posed questions like "Who is this?" and "Where is he going?" with the actor declaring most people's reactions were "Who gives a s**t? I don't know who that is and I don't care." He also compared his likeness in these ads and on the poster to that of Jeff Bridges, and in the end, this campaign did little to drum up excitement for Big Trouble In Little China.