Trivia / Dominick and Eugene

• Box Office Bomb: Budget: $5 million. Box Office: $3,076,031. Not a very large loss, but still couldn’t make back its own budget.
• Dueling Movies: With Rain Man, another drama film released the same year revolving around the relationship between two brothers, the older of which has a mental impairment which leads to a "rediscovery" of things in the family. The lead actors playing the older brothers were both nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor - Drama, which Dustin Hoffman of Rain Man won (in addition to also winning Best Actor that year at the Oscars).
  • It’s believed by some that Rain Man inadvertently ended up overshadowing Dominick and Eugene in the public consciousness due to being released a few months afterwards during the awards season and having a similar premise, along with having bigger names and a larger budget (more publicity and advertising that way).
• Executive Meddling: Averted. Producer Mike Farrell wanted Eugene to take Dominick with him at the end, but the filmmakers argued doing so would ruin the movie, as the point was Eugene feeling comfortable enough to leave Dominick on his own, and Dominick willing to let Eugene go. Ultimately, Farrell agreed to what the filmmakers wanted.
• Method Acting: To stay in character during filming, Tom Hulce kept Dominick's tooth in even when he wasn't on-screen.
• What Could Have Been: Sean Penn originally accepted the role of Dominick, but left the movie due to creative differences.
  • Miloš Forman was considered to direct the movie.