MovieChat Forums > Harlem Nights (1989) Discussion > flop?

flop?

posted 17 years ago by douglasferguson21
6 replies | jump to latest

why do people say this movie was a flop. it was made for 30m and made 16m on its opening weekend(little more then half the original budget) and it made 95million wouldwide. now i don't maybe i'm stupid but that sounds like a hit to me. 95 million from 30 million thats good money thats a 60 million dollar profit. granted its not as big as eddies flicks before this but still. and when you think of how good it is, you wonder should eddie try his hand again at directing. my answer YES!!!

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] stevenackerman69 15 years ago

Well, box office figures can fool you. Yes, it made money. But it wasn't liked by many people, that's the problem.

[–] TMC-4 9 years ago

I'm guessing that Harlem Nights didn't do as well as Eddie Murphy's movies up until that point because rightly or wrongly, it was perceived too much as being a "black movie". Granted, Coming to America had a predominately black cast too, and yet it was a huge hit at the box office and critics. Coming to America however, likely had more "crossover appeal" due to it being a fish-out-of-water/romantic comedy (and not a violent, ultra foul-mouthed, '30s style gangster movie).

There was also the fact that there were a series of shootings at theaters, which most definitely cut into attendance numbers (and just further added to the bad publicity).

[–] stanleyhetz 10 years ago

why do people say this movie was a flop. it was made for 30m and made 16m on its opening weekend(little more then half the original budget) and it made 95million wouldwide. now i don't maybe i'm stupid but that sounds like a hit to me. 95 million from 30 million thats good money thats a 60 million dollar profit. granted its not as big as eddies flicks before this but still. and when you think of how good it is, you wonder should eddie try his hand again at directing. my answer YES!!!

I agree with you.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] pypsqweek 10 years ago

I wouldn't call it flop. Technically, it depends on who you talk to. In some instances, it seems like a black cult classic in the black community. You know movies like Bebes Kids. Growing up, my friends and others people would quote the movie verbatim and you knew it came from this scene and laugh. For others, they wouldn't know what it was but when they,saw it they thought it was funny.