After Daiei briefly exhibited a subtitled print of the film in Los Angeles, RKO purchased distribution rights to "Rashomon" in the United States. The company was taking a considerable gamble. It had put out only one prior subtitled film in the American market, and the only previous Japanese talkie commercially released in New York had been Mikio Naruse's comedy, "Wife! Be Like a Rose", in 1937: a critical and box-office flop. However, "Rashomon"s commercial run, greatly helped by strong reviews from critics and even the columnist Ed Sullivan, earned $35,000 in its first three weeks at a single New York theater, an almost unheard-of sum at the time.