Fathers' Day was a much publicized teaming of superstar friends Robin Williams and Billy Crystal. Anticipated as a shoe-in success, the film never garnered the critical nor box office response expected. None of this reflected on Bruce Greenwood very much, but it impacted a great deal on the two comedians, who scrapped all future plans for co-starring. A few reports follow:

Daily Variety
May 12, 1997

'Fifth goes first; no pop in 'Fathers'

Sony's sci-fi actioner "The Fifth Element" rocketed to a powerful $17.2 million estimated bow, routing its freshman rival, Warner Bros., "Fathers' Day," which had to settle for just over half that amount.

Warners projected the Ivan Reitman-helmed "Fathers' Day" would sire a disappointing $9 million in its first three days. But even that number was considered optimistic, predicated as it was on a helfty turnout on Mother's Day, a traditionally soft moviegoing day.

Daily Variety
January 7, 1998

1997 a disappointment for WB

Warner Bros.' stream of disappointments really began with the summer comedy "Fathers Day," starring a seemingly surefire combination of comic thesps Billy Crystal and Robin Williams. It bombed in theaters, generating a not-at-all-funny $28 million. But the most visible breakdown of the star-driven style of moviemaking that has seen Warners through much of the last decade or two arrived with the Costa-Gavras directed "Mad City," which paired Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta, yet dredged up only $10 million.

"'Fathers Day' and 'Mad City' were in my mind the biggest disappointments because we had such high hopes for them," said Daly.