Gere is now convinced Hackford made the right decision. Screenwriter Michael Hauge, in his book "Writing Screenplays That Sell", echoed this opinion: "I don't believe that those who criticized this Cinderella-style ending were paying very close attention to who exactly is rescuing whom." Two versions of the film exist. The original, an uncensored R-rated cut and an edited-for-broadcast television cut (which first aired on NBC in 1986) are nearly identical. The main difference is that the nudity and a majority of the foul language are edited out when the film airs on regular television. However, the group marching song near the beginning of the film and Mayo's solo marching song are not voiceover edits; they are reshoots of those scenes for television. Also, the sex scene between Mayo and Paula is cut in half, and the scene where Mayo finds Sid's naked body hanging in the shower is also edited. The film has been available on various formats, first on VHS and also DVD. It was first released on DVD in 2000 with two extra features, audio commentary and film trailer. It was released as a collectors edition in 2007 with new bonus material. The film debuted on Blu-ray in the U.S. by Warner Bros. and UK by Paramount Pictures in 2013, however the same bonus features ported from the 2007 DVD are only on the U.S. release. It was re-released in 2017 by Paramount Pictures. "An Officer and a Gentleman" was an enormous box office success and went on to become the third-highest-grossing film of 1982, after "" and "Tootsie". It grossed $3,304,679 in its opening weekend and $129,795,554 overall at the domestic box office. It sold an estimated 44 million tickets in the US. "An Officer and a Gentleman" was well received by critics and is widely considered one of the best films of 1982. The film holds a 79% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 reviews, with the consensus: "Old-fashioned without sacrificing its characters to simplicity, "An Officer and a Gentleman" successfully walks the fine line between sweeping romance and melodrama". It received rave reviews from critics, most notably from Roger Ebert, who gave it four stars. Ebert described "An Officer and a Gentleman" as "a wonderful movie precisely because it's so willing to deal with matters of the heart...it takes chances, takes the time to know and develop its characters, and by the time this movie's wonderful last scene comes along, we know exactly what's happening, and why, and it makes us very happy."