The film garnered mostly negative reviews, with web site Rotten Tomatoes showing only 18 positive reviews out of 92 tallied, for a "Rotten" score of 21%.[6]
Meet Dave opened on July 11, 2008 in 3,011 theaters in the United States and Canada and grossed an estimated $5,300,000, ranking seventh at the box office.[7] 20th Century Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston said of the box office bomb that cost $55 million to make, "It was a tough concept to get across. It's upsetting for all of us and for Eddie. He's very funny in this. Just not enough people came."[1]
Also, in its third weekend, it broke the record for the highest number of theater drops for a film in wide release, losing 2,523 theaters.[8]
The film's performance became a joke for comedians, with Jay Leno saying that the movie's title was going to be changed to Meet Dave: At Blockbuster insinuating that the movie should have been a straight-to-DVD release.[citation needed]
The film grossed just $11,803,254 at the domestic box office. However, the film has performed better in other parts of the world making a current overseas tally of $38,291,240 and bringing the worldwide gross to $50,094,494.
Eddie Murphy skipped the Meet Dave premiere because he was working on a new film, the 2009 comedy A Thousand Words.[9] Screenwriter Bill Corbett also missed the premiere, which he said was due to family plans, "not an act of protest, per se."[4]
Bill Corbett said he would love to record a Meet Dave track on RiffTrax, a site featuring downloadable audio commentaries recorded by Mystery Science Theater 3000 alum Michael J. Nelson and other regular commentators, including Corbett. However, Corbett said the track was not likely to ever be recorded since comedies rarely work as spoofs.[4]