It was released in the United States in 1991. The film had a six-month theatrical run in the United States where it reached an audience of 1.15 million. By the end of the year, the film was the third highest grossing French film production in the United States. Besson felt that the film was inappropriately promoted in the United States, proposing that "Nikita is an action film but was released in American art houses. "The Big Blue" has the same problem, released in the United States as an intellectual work, and attracting the wrong audience."