Buckaroo Banzai has since attracted a loyal cult following and has been popular on home video. Richter said, "It has had the most dramatic reactions of anything I've worked on. Some loathe it and others are willing to die for it". The director feels that the film failed commercially because the narrative was too complex; he would have liked to have had more coverage for certain scenes and felt he could have edited the film better, as there were too many master shots and two-shots that left little for the editor to work with.