Short Circuit (1986 film) nicely acted". The "Sun-Sentinel" gave a good review, saying, "Number Five is the real star of this energetic film. Sheedy, Guttenberg and company are just supporting players." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" rated it 1.5 out of 4 four stars and called it "too cute for its own good". "Short Circuit" debuted at No. 1 in the US box office. It grossed a total of $40,697,761, ranking it 21st for 1986 in the United States; it performed slightly better than other 1986 hits like "Pretty in Pink", "The Fly", "Three Amigos", "Little Shop Of Horrors" and "About Last Night".
The Little Shop of Horrors remembers that "When [Welles] and I forgot my lines, I improvised a little, but then I was the writer. I was allowed to." However, Welles states that "Absolutely none of it was ad-libbed [...] every word in "Little Shop" was written by Chuck Griffith, and I did ninety-eight pages of dialogue in two days." According to Nicholson, "we never did shoot the end of the scene. This movie was pre-lit. You'd go in, plug in the lights, roll the camera, and shoot. We did the take outside the office and went inside the office, plugged in, lit and rolled. Jonathan