Eddie Murphy

[teke184 0]

The problem is that Eddie's 4 classic films all were made within a small period of time.

 

 

48 Hours, Trading Places, and Beverly Hills Cop were done in the course of about 3 years.

 

Coming To America was done about 4-5 years after Cop.

 

 

The output since then has been pretty abysmal by the standards of those four films.

 

 

 

 

To contrast with another superstar from the 1980s, Arnold made a bunch of blockbusters from the early 80s (Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator) through the end of the 80s and start of the 90s (Running Man, Total Recall, Predator, T2).

 

He made a misstep when he did Last Action Hero, but made up for it with True Lies.

 

 

Arnold's only made a few movies since then, mostly bad, but some of the films like T3 and Eraser are still watchable, which is more than I can say for a lot of the post-America movies by Murphy.

 

 

 

They're even comparable in that they got paid a shitload of money to do a huge bomb (Pluto Nash for Murphy, Batman And Robin for Arnold), but Arnold's part in the disaster that was Batman And Robin was far smaller than Murphy's in Pluto Nash.

 

(B&R was an ensemble piece and the least-bad portions of it tended to be Arnold's, writing non-withstanding. Uma Thurman, Alicia Silverstone, and George Clooney all gave performances that helped turn a bad film into a truly awful one.)

 

 

Murphy also gets less of a pass for HIS bomb because he should have learned the lesson the FIRST time, when he was paid a shitload of money to help save Best Defense.

 

Doing it a second time gets a lot less sympathy and forgiveness, ESPECIALLY since he'd made a point of trashing Best Defense every chance he got in the 80s and talking about what a mistake he made. If he'd really thought he'd made a mistake, he wouldn't have gotten himself back into that situation.

 

 

 

 

 

In short, Eddie had a run in the 80s that was very good, one of the most lucrative in box-office history. However, his own bad decisions since then have seen his career go up and down, never getting back to the level he was at right after he released Coming To America.

 

Other stars from that time period with comparable success have also had hard times, but they've had a much better idea of projects to go after and they've been less likely to repeat stupid mistakes like Eddie has.

[Betty Houle 0]

Eddie Murphy can never tarnish his legacy. I love so many of his movies, his SNL stuff, his standup, and he's still pretty hot.

 

Although I did not care for Beverly Hills Cop II and I'm always perplexed when people praise it.

[Jericholic82 0]

Well....Eddie Murphy playing multiple characters in a movie has always been kickass to me so I will see this.

 

And yeah, eddie has done some shitty movies like Holy Man, Haunted Mansion and shit like that, but I will be damned if anyone calls Golden Child a bad movie.

 

And Metro, Distinguished Gentlemen, Vampire in Brooklyn, I Spy and Boomerang were all severely underrated.

 

And if you saw what they paid him to do Pluto Nash, you would have told him to do Pluto Nash. Didn't he get like 20 million for that.

 

People can bitch about the doolittle movies and the Klumps (I actually like the Klumps and Nutty Professor) but they made a shit load of money.

yea stop deameaning the awesomeness of golden child

 

Brother Numsey backons you

[The Niggardly King 0]

I thought Eddie Murphy was like #3 or #4 on the top 5 box office draws of all time?

[migoli 0]

I Dont understand how people can say his kid movies are bad......those are for kids not adults! It doesnt matter what you think as long as kids like so go ask some kids if they liked it

[Ginger Snaps 0]

wow...you "Pro-Norbit" guys can't be serious?

 

This movie looks entirely stupid, but I'm positive it will be a big hit for him. I don't know the numbers, but I wouldn't be surprised if his bad comedy films (like the Nutty Professor movies, or the Doolittle movies) were bigger money-makers than his classic comedies like Coming to America or Trading Places. People love crap like this because it's safe, and Eddie can do this sort of easy comedy very well.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

Well....Eddie Murphy playing multiple characters in a movie has always been kickass to me so I will see this.

 

And yeah, eddie has done some shitty movies like Holy Man, Haunted Mansion and shit like that, but I will be damned if anyone calls Golden Child a bad movie.

 

And Metro, Distinguished Gentlemen, Vampire in Brooklyn, I Spy and Boomerang were all severely underrated.

 

And if you saw what they paid him to do Pluto Nash, you would have told him to do Pluto Nash. Didn't he get like 20 million for that.

 

People can bitch about the doolittle movies and the Klumps (I actually like the Klumps and Nutty Professor) but they made a shit load of money.

 

I liked Metro, and Boomerang, but I hated I Spy and Vampire in Brooklyn.

 

The Nutty Professor 1 and 2 were both really funny movies I thought.

[teke184 0]

wow...you "Pro-Norbit" guys can't be serious?

 

This movie looks entirely stupid, but I'm positive it will be a big hit for him. I don't know the numbers, but I wouldn't be surprised if his bad comedy films (like the Nutty Professor movies, or the Doolittle movies) were bigger money-makers than his classic comedies like Coming to America or Trading Places. People love crap like this because it's safe, and Eddie can do this sort of easy comedy very well.

That would be correct if you didn't adjust for inflation, or the fact that a lot of his "kid movies" are so special-effect intensive that the cost highly exceeds those of his "dirty" comedies.

 

 

 

*US* totals only for his live-action films. I'm *NOT* counting voice-work for Shrek or Mulan towards this.

 

 

 

Eddie's glory years-

 

 

48 Hours pulled about $78 million in 1982.

 

Trading Places pulled about $90 million in 1983.

 

Best Defense pulled $20 million in 1984 (Film cost unknown, but Eddie's co-star role paid at least $1 million)

 

Beverly Hills Cop pulled about $230 million in 1984-1985. (#46 of all-time in the US)

 

Golden Child pulled $80 million in 1986

 

Beverly Hills Cop 2 pulled $150 million in 1987

 

Coming To America pulled $130 million in 1989

 

 

 

 

 

Eddie's downturn years-

 

Harlem Nights pulled $60 million in 1989

 

Another 48 Hours pulled $80 million in 1990

 

Boomerang pulled $70 million in 1992

 

Distinguished Gentleman pulled $46 million in 1992

 

Beverly Hills Cop 3 pulled $43 million in 1994 (Below the $50 million budget)

 

Vampire in Brooklyn pulled $20 million in 1995

 

 

 

Nutty Professor and beyond-

 

 

Nutty Professor pulled $130 million in 1996

 

Metro pulled $32 million in 1997 (Below the $55 million budget)

 

Dr. Dolittle pulled $145 million in 1998

 

Holy Man pulled $12 million in 1998 (Below the $60 million budget)

 

Life pulled $64 million in 1999 (Below the $75 million budget)

 

Bowfinger pulled $67 million in 1999

 

Nutty Professor II pulled $123 million in 2000

 

Dr. Dolittle pulled $113 million in 2001

 

Showtime pulled $38 million in 2002 (Below the $85 million budget)

 

Pluto Nash pulled $5 million in 2002 (Below the $100 million budget)

 

I Spy pulled $34 million in 2002 (Below the $70 million budget)

 

Daddy Day Care pulled $104 million in 2003

 

Haunted Mansion pulled $76 million in 2003 (Below the $90 million budget)

 

Dreamgirls has made about $50 million already in 2006-2007, before the big Oscar push

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you go by gross totals alone, the Dr. Dolittle and Nutty Professor series all made a comparable amount to Beverly Hills Cop 2, with Daddy Day Care coming up just short of that.

 

However, if you adjust for inflation, all of Eddie's 1980s movies but Best Defense likely grossed over $100 million in today's dollars, with Beverly Hills Cop 1 likely grossing in the $300-400 million range.

 

That would be the equivilant of something like The Passion Of The Christ today, which grossed $370 million on a shoestring budget ($30 million) comparable to what Cop 1 cost in 1984 ($15 million).

 

 

 

The numbers also show that Eddie has consistently grossed LESS than the budget on most of his recent pictures, with Daddy Day Care and Bowfinger being the only ones to perform well outside of his flagship franchises.

 

That's showing that his ability at the box office is dropping for the most part, as he's incapable of getting his budget back on most of his projects.

 

 

 

 

In short, Eddie used to be pure money in the 1980s and hasn't completely recovered from his long string of underperforming films between Coming To America and Nutty Professor, although he's still able to put together a decent gross every once in a while.

 

It just takes a LOT of shine off of him, considering he was such a shooting star when he jumped from SNL to the movies.

[Ripper 0]

I think you need to shift your downturn years to around Distinguished Gentlemen(which did well, but didn't do "EDDIE" numbers).

 

But seroiusy, he has 7 movies that didn't make their budget back, (8 really, but you didn't count Mulan which unless I am confused, didn't make the money back)

 

And 4 of those 7 where arguably good movies. THere is no defese for Holy Man, and Pluto Nash. I haven't seen Haunted Mansion.

 

I think the fact that all 8 of those offensive failures happened between 1994-2003 makes it looks worse than it is, namely because he had at least 6-7 HUGE hits in that same time period.

 

My point still is that the Eddie Murphy career death is overrated. Noone could concievably keep up the pace he had in the early part of his career. He made nearly a billion dollars in the 80s off of 7 movies.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

By the way, Life is one of my personal favorite movies of all time.

 

And wouldnt' Shrek count as a big hit for Eddie?

[Ripper 0]

By the way, Life is one of my personal favorite movies of all time.

 

 

As well it should be seeing as it is one of the most kick ass movies of all time.

 

I also would like to say its not fair not to count Shrek or Mulan(even though Mulan was a failure). Eddie Murphy was as much of the reason why Shrek was so popular as anyone else. As a matter of fact, Myers was the straight man in those movies. Eddie was a driving force to the success of both those movies.

[teke184 0]

By the way, Life is one of my personal favorite movies of all time.

 

 

As well it should be seeing as it is one of the most kick ass movies of all time.

 

I also would like to say its not fair not to count Shrek or Mulan(even though Mulan was a failure). Eddie Murphy was as much of the reason why Shrek was so popular as anyone else. As a matter of fact, Myers was the straight man in those movies. Eddie was a driving force to the success of both those movies.

 

Would you count Lion King towards Jonathan Taylor Thomas and/or Whoopi Goldberg's grosses, or Toy Story to Tom Hanks and/or Tim Allen's grosses?

 

Lion King is easily comparable to Mulan, except in gross, while Toy Story has the same all-star cast doing voices that Shrek had.

 

 

 

I'm willing to give you Mulan since I'd definitely consider Aladdin to be Robin Williams' movie alone.

 

The Shrek series, though, is a tougher one because it's not just Murphy and Myers, but also Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow, Antonio Banderas, and others.

[Ripper 0]

I would count toy story towards Allen and Hanks, seeing as they made the freakin movie. Taylor Thomas was in less than half of LIon King and Goldberg was a bit character.

 

Eddie Murphy was a marquee guy in Shrek, and his character is arguable the most popular one and was the comedy of the film. I don't see how you can prepare the roles of young simba or Hiena 3 to the role of Donkey in Shrek.

[Betty Houle 0]

Should I add Life to my Netflix?

[Toshiaki Koala 0]

The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps is the only movie that has actually made me cry. The scene at the end where he becomes retarded is just too moving for words.

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps is the only movie that has actually made me cry. The scene at the end where he becomes retarded is just too moving for words.

Been a while since I've seen the film -- I honestly don't remember that.

[Shanghai Kid 0]

Life is pretty underrated. I don't see how anybody can call it a bad movie. It's definetly Martin Lawrence's best performance, and it's the best drama/comedy Eddie has done.

[razazteca 0]

I guess Moni Love, Starr Jones, Monique, Countous Vaugh all turned down the role.

[Special K 0]

Bowfinger was really funny. Life was good, and stuff like Dr. Dolittle is fine for what it is: Kid's fare.

 

And I would count Shrek. He's half of those movies, and he's unmistakenly Murphy.

 

I will say while the Nutty Professor is funny enough, but I'll say it bugs me. It's 90 minutes of making fun of fat people, then tacks on a hysterical "don't laugh at fat people, you wicked audience!"

 

And Norbit looks just abysmal.