Stillman's effectiveness at the box-office has been mixed. He filmed "Metropolitan" for about $250,000, according to Stillman, with a box-office return of about $3 million. "Barcelona" was then filmed on a budget of under $3 million, returning just under $8 million. His third film was not a box-office success; its budget of $8 million returned about $3 million. Stillman, in an AOL interview following the twenty-fifth anniversary of "Metropolitan", refers to himself as having been put into "director's prison" for more than ten years before he made "Damsels". His 2016 film, "Love & Friendship", a comedy based on a Jane Austen story, was a box office success, grossing more than $20 million worldwide against a production budget of $3 million.