The film grossed less than 30% of its budget at the box office, making it one of the biggest box-office failures in film history.
The film is #1 on Rotten Tomatoes' list of "The 100 Worst Reviewed Movies of All Time".
In the slow-motion shot of Ecks running from explosions, one of the pyrotechnics clearly goes off in Antonio Banderas's face. Fortunately he escaped with minor burns. Afterward, he was allegedly very vocal with the FX team about their miscalculation of the explosion's size. In a behind the scenes interview, he jokes that any serious injuries would have made him perfect to play the Phantom of the Opera.
According to director Wych Kaosayananda, Antonio Banderas suggested Lucy Liu for the role of Sever after working with her on Les adversaires (1999). When Kaos first read the script, he saw similarities to The Killer (1989) and Léon (1994), envisioning Chow Yun-Fat and Jean Reno as the perfect leads. Franchise Pictures didn't consider Chow or Reno to be box-office draws and refused to cast them.
Out of 119 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, not one is positive, resulting in an abysmal 0% rating. It shares this distinction with another 2000's film (coincidentally, also a Warner Bros. film), which is One Missed Call (2008).