The film was originally meant to be made by Thorn EMI in Britain but was eventually established in Australia with entirely Australian money.[5]
Filming began 18 August 1986.
Box office
Les Patterson Saves the World grossed $626,000 at the box office in Australia.[6] "It was a disaster of major proportions", said Jonathan Chissick of Hoyts, who distributed the film in Australia.[5]David Stratton wrote in 1990, "The gala opening was an embarrassing occasion, and it is still rumoured in the industry today that the Federal Treasurer Paul Keating, who attended, was so angry that he decide to end rorts in the film industry."[5]
The movie was released to British cinemas in 1988 but was not successful there either.[citation needed]
Filmink argued the film "would have been successful – had it been grounded in some kind of reality" but it "add a pure movie-movie plot... a riff on spy movies, complete with fictitious Arabian countries recreated on the backlot a la some racist British comedy of the 1950s. Edna had left the land of verisimilitude to morph into more of a showbiz in-joke – which was admittedly still funny and worked a treat on stage and television, but not on film, as she didn’t have Barry McKenzie as an anchor. Instead, the film was driven by Sir Les Patterson, who was an even broader figure than Edna."[8]
^Michael Adams, Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies : a film critic's year-long quest to find the worst movie ever made.New York : Itbooks, 2010. ISBN978-0-06-180629-2 (p.144)
