New Line Cinema released “The Pick of Destiny” in theaters over Thanksgiving weekend in 2006. Amidst mixed reviews, the film was buried at the box office, failing to crack the top 10 in its debut. It topped out with less than $14 million worldwide against a $20 million budget, making it a sizable flop in its day. But, as Black pointed out in the same interview, the tide has very much turned in the years since the film’s original release:
“Even though when it first came out it was a box-office disaster, it ended up still being our proudest moment and the pinnacle of our creativity. Over the years, it’s become a hit and it’s actually made all its money back. You can tell the extent of this because when we perform all around the world, everyone knows every word of every song in that movie.'”
Between home video sales and streaming/cable rights, it appears that the film has managed to get out of the red. Beyond that, as Black points out, the songs from the film’s soundtrack became popular divorced of the movie, with fans loving the likes of “Master Exploder” and “Dude (I Totally Miss You).” It may not have been a hit, but the film has undoubtedly found its audience over the years.
Because of the film’s failure initially, a sequel never materialized. However, Black and Gass did return with another project in 2018 in the form of “Tenacious D in Post-Apocalypto.” The hand-drawn series was released by the band directly on YouTube spanning six episodes, which essentially equated to a feature-length project when stitched together. An album of songs from the animated series was also released.