It might be interesting to note the local reaction to their releases.
The Solaris was a big "Huh?", with not much more than the teenagers, who recently read the Lem's work, going to see it. Certainly not a movie for the masses. Narrow distribution, as far as I recall, one or two theaters in the city.
BTW, Lem initially HATED the film, it wasn't until the truly lame Soderbergh's version appeared that he came to peace with Tarkovsky's work.
The Mirror, shown more widely, created a stir, with perhaps 95% of viewers expressing strong negative feelings. "Too Western", and "decadent" were the most common labels. At our large department there were maybe 3-5 people who loved it... I honestly don't recall my initial reaction, other than being "strange" - most of us were ill prepared for such work. I think I truly appreciated it years later, upon our second viewing.
