Grease 2 : Why did this movie flop??

Why did this movie flop??

This movie was really good. It featured Maxwell Caulfield (who was SOOOO gorgeous and very sweet) as Michael Carrington...it had Michelle Phiefer who was beautiful and was just starting out in her now established career. It featured some good actors and some really great songs (Charades and Reproduction, anyone?) and some really fun dance numbers. So why did it flop? What happened? Why wasn't this movie more popular?

Can anyone shed some light? I wasn't even born when this movie came out, but saw it when I was about 10 or 11 and loved it.

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Re: Why did this movie flop??

Also was the summer Poltergeist came out too, right? Which may have taken a chunk of out Grease 2's profits right there.

Re: Why did this movie flop??


Lack of good taste and bad ratings.

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Poltergeist was released a week prior and had Spielberg's name also attached to it. It wasn't a megahit but it did well. Also keep in mind that Raiders of the Lost Ark was having its first re-release as well that summer! It literally was the summer of Spielberg. Grease 2 and many other films had no chance.

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Re: Why did this movie flop??

I'm sure there's lots of reasons, but personally I think an inferior soundtrack probably had a lot to do with it. One of the things that made the first Grease so popular was its soundtrack album. The album went to #1, had 4 big hit songs (Hopelessly Devoted To You, Summer Nights, You're The One That I Want, and the title song), and was sung for the most part by well-known or at least established singers. Even a Grease "Megamix" was a hit in England and Australia in the 90's, its songs are still played on radio today,and it was back on Broadway a couple years back,so the music is certainly standing the test of time.

The music from Grease 2, sorry to say, not so much; the songs may have been fine for the movie, but most of them wouldn't have worked on the radio in 1982. Since it had no hit songs or album, coupled with a lack of stars from the 1st movie and bad reviews, it was probably pretty hard to get people out to see the movie, especially when E.T. was taking business away left and right.

Re: Why did this movie flop??

It flopped because there were no big stars, it got really bad reviews, and because the movie flat out sucked. There were no big, inspiring dance numbers, and many of the songs were just ridiculous (Reproducttion, Who's That Guy, and Love Will Turn Back the Hands of Time), and Maxwell Caulfield's singing was horrible. It also opened up against E.T.

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I don't know where you are getting your info from. Grease 2 was released in July 82. ET was not released until December 82, therefore could not have had any effect on the film.

Let Zygons be Zygons

Re: Why did this movie flop??

Well let's see .

1. Stupid plot , role reversal in comparison to the original Grease . from bad boy.good girl to bad girl ,good boy
2. Bad acting by relatively unknown and forgettable actors - Michelle Pfeiffer was an unknown in 1982 and I disagree that she was so good in this movie - She was boring and a caricature. Maxwell Caulfield gorgeous? please ,another untalented pretty boy simply used for eye candy(teenage girls wanted his jock im sure)
3. Really bad songs and musical numbers - the opening number is not good and I don't understand why some people think it is and the other ones are really stupid and inappropriate.
4. Plot Holes- The morons who starred as the new t-birds and the pink ladies especially Adrian Zmed,who the hell's idea was it to cast this nobody who cant do anything right besides look stupid in a pompadour about 3 feet high. Ok so all the original T-Birds and pink ladies graduated one or two years prior ? Where were these losers when Travolta and the gang were seniors, and how come frenchie isnt a pink lady anymore and still at rydell two years later - did she flunk twice? And why would Michael want or need to be a T-bird , where was it implied that pink ladies could only or would only date t-birds- was this some stupid new rule?. In Grease, Sandy dated Danny and she wasnt a pink lady although she did get sleazy later on to get his attention, still in the end she didnt become a pink lady.
5. Grease was a one shot movie in my opinion. Although supposedly it was designed to have several sequels for some dumb reason and a tv series. Greedy hollywood yet again. This isnt star wars ,its a one shot movie that told its story in one movie - the end period.


Re: Why did this movie flop??

BigWhiskers:

As for your number 4 reason about Pink Ladies only allowed to date T-Birds, Frenchy explained this to Michael and there were several instances where the Pink Ladies were talking about how they "were T-Bird chicks, at least till grad". That tells me there was some code or something that said only T-Birds could date Pink Ladies. How do you know Sandy didn't become a Pink Lady. She could very well have been "initiated" as a Pink Lady after the carnival at the end. Just because it isn't shown on-screen, doesn't mean it isn't implied that she probably did become one. I felt that Frenchy was still a Pink Lady. She still wore her Pink Lady jacket anyways...

I do agree about Adrian Zmed though. He was very unappealing and hard to watch. I found it funny that in the trivia section, it states they had wanted Tom Cruise for the part, but then decided they wanted someone taller. I thought Adrian looked very short in this movie!!! Don't know if it was because everyone else was so tall or what.

I did enjoy this movie and I still do today. But, I think it's because I was only about 11 or 12 when I first saw it and I hadn't watched the original Grease before. Today, I prefer Grease 2 over the original because of this.

Re: Why did this movie flop??

The thing is that Grease 1 does not mention the "Pink Ladies can only date T-Birds" rule.

For example, Rizzo and Marty went to the dance with Leo. While this pissed off Kenicke and Sonny, they didn't demand that they turn in their Pink Lady jackets.


"Good night, and grease for peace."

http://youtu.be/TBAuO1McLxg

Re: Why did this movie flop??

'Maxwell Caulfield gorgeous? please ,another untalented pretty boy simply used for eye candy(teenage girls wanted his jock im sure)'
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But wasn't Travolta also "gentle" in his own way? I never believed Travolta as this macho guy; it was a Hollywood phony type of macho. You say Max Caulfield is untalented, why, because he's pretty? The reason why he was cast is because he was 'gorgeous' (if we can use that word). He probably could had been a star like Pfeiffer if he played his cards right.( But didn't teenage girls want John's jock too?) Which is it?

Re: Why did this movie flop??

He probably could had been a star like Pfeiffer if he played his cards right.
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Do you feel that Caulfield, could have had a bigger career? He had the right looks; but what about his talent? I have only seen him in a few things and wasn't overly impressed with his acting. You may know a little bit more about him.

I would put my money on it, that he is certainly isn't 'heterosexual' and would be pretty much 100% gay. If he was bi', I would also say he'd have a wider preference for MEN.

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I read that he has been good in the plays he does, but I don't remember his acting. He was on The Colby's until he was fired or quit, and vaguely recall some conflict he had with it's older lead actress. (unless I'm thinking about another actor)
The success may have to this head, regardless of how talented he is, and gotten a bad rep. His "problem" was that he wore his very good charasmatic looks on his sleeve and looked unapproachable; not a good thing for an actor

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I never believed Travolta as this macho guy; it was a Hollywood phony type of macho.
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I saw it as about being 'cool', not so much macho, which I see as being tough and rough. That was one of the main themes of the film. Travolta's character couldn't even play sports well. The scene before he meets Sandy again at the bonfire meet, he tells his friends who are acting like jerks..."Come on guys, be cool!".

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'I never believed Travolta as this macho guy; it was a Hollywood phony type of macho.'
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Plus the fact that's it's a musical makes a difference, I read Jeff Conaway played his role on Broadway

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I agree i really liked this movie to... i guess people didn't like it without Sandy and Danny?

Tormented! Marcus (L) ;]

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Re: Why did this movie flop??

I think the lack of success was because of the dramatic leap-of-faith with the bicycle goggles serving as a sufficient disguise for so long. I liked the songs, but they weren't ever of the standard of the first movie.
So, I always regarded it as a film for young people; a bit of a fantasy. I was young (14, I think) when it came out. At that age, I thought Michelle Pfeiffer was just about the prettiest girl I had ever seen in a movie. (She is still rather easy on the eyes.)

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I didn't see it because I was only 12 and didn't have any money for movies. When it came out on betamax, my family watched it but it didn't go over well. I agree, some of the songs are catchy but its not a good sequel imo.

No dessert Jerri. Don't touch the dog. DON'T rub your feces on the lamp shade.

Re: Why did this movie flop??

I was young when I first watched this and hadn't seen the original first. I really liked it and waited several years before actually watching the original. To this day, I still prefer Grease 2. I think it has a lot to do with people who loved the first and were disappointed with the sequel. If you had never seen the first, this movie wasn't bad at all. I have it on VHS and still watch it if it comes on TV. However, I will say, Maxwell Caulfield was extremely hot in this movie, but he did not age well. I don't think he is very good-looking anymore. His appearance in Empire Records as Rex Manning kind of closed the book on him for me. He was just disgusting in that movie.

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I agree with what most people said. The sequel lost the 2 stars of the first film. That alone is going to cause many people to lose interest. This combined with the fact this movie had to share opening weeks with Speilberg pretty much sealed its demise. However I do not think the music was sub par at all. I really enjoy the music and the "Reproduction" scene is hilarious.

Maxwell Caulfield was GORGEOUS unfortunately he did not see the same success with this career as Michelle Pfeiffer but a beautiful blond actress is almost always going to make it big eventually once she makes the big screen.

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The songs are are not too bad, they are just not as good as the original movie. Michael Caulfield has had a good broadway career and still looks hot now, this movie finished him in Hollywood as lead material.

The dance numbers weren't as good either. At the end this is a Musical so plot does not matter too much, but the problem was they were not as good dancers as the original cast or singers. Also it stretches credulity that anyone would see max caulfield as some unattractive geek. In the real world someone so devastatingly pretty would have all the girls practically tackling him to the ground.

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Re: Why did this movie flop??

Charades is the worst song in the whole film!

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Re: Why did this movie flop??

The songs ruined the movie.

PROUD P U-A HATER

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Charades is the worst song in the whole film!


I thought the same thing when I was a kid. When I got older and finally found the soundtrack (copies weren't a dime a dozen like the first film's album), I realized the reason I didn't like it is because they mutilated the song in film editing. Of course, I think "Back to School" and "Reproduction" are the only songs on the LP that are the same versions used in the film, and anything incidental in the film (like the twins' song) was omitted from the album. Grease arguably had the best tie-in album ever released, but so little care was put into the Grease 2 album that it's one of the worst (not knocking the songs themselves, many of which are great, it's the presentation and reorchesteation that was dreadful).

But back to the topic at hand, there are lots of reasons the film flopped (and I think they've all been addressed) but the biggest was E.T. It was such a stupefying success that all of the competition suffered. Funny thing is, a great many of those flops of 82 later became classics thanks to TV and video.

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I think the question is more: "How could this movie NOT flop?"

Grease was a phenomenon, the highest grossing film of 1978. It's become iconic over the decades, since. Everyone knows the songs, and sings along with them.

With John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, and Stockard Channing, it had star power. It also didn't just dominate the movie theaters in 1978, but the pop charts. The theme song, You're the One That I Want, Hopelessly Devoted To You, and Summer Nights were huge hit singles.

How could Grease 2 possibly follow that? There was no way it could live up to the original. It was doomed from the start.

It wasn't alone in the early 80s. The same fate befell Shock Treatment, the sequel to another 70s musical phenomenon, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Re: Why did this movie flop??

The original "Grease" was a major hit and a tough act to follow. "Grease 2" was lackluster at best. It didn't have a chance.

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Grease 2 could not take itself seriously enough to be considered a good movie. It was nothing but a spoof of the original movie. Just look at the silly dance number at the beginning of the movie. You have them all rolling their arms from side to side and then around the world. With that this movie was doomed within the first few minutes.

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This has to do with more of the director, Pat Birch. She was the choreographer for G1. If you really take a good look at all the musical numbers, they are more 'theater-staged' than anything else.

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I never reeally could put my finger on what was off about the numbers in G2 but I think you nailed it! Especially in Cool Rider and Reproduction.

When you're 17 a cow can seem dangerous and forbidden...am I alone here?

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I was a kid when the movie came out and didn't see it in the theater, but saw it on cable the next year. If I recall, the movie got really bad reviews and had no 'star power'. I loved it though.

Dammit Carol Sue, where is the vodka?!

Re: Why did this movie flop??

Several reasons:

1. It's kind of a cheesy film, with songs that just are not as strong as the original. Even thirty years later, the songs from the original film are played on the radio.

2. The director was inexperienced, and was a choreographer not an established film director.

3. "Grease 2" had zero star power among the leads. Keep in mind in the 1970s, Olivia Newton-John was one of the biggest recording artists in the world, John Travolta was coming off the success of "Saturday Night Fever," Stockard Channing was known for TV and film roles, and Jeff Conaway was known for TV and theater roles, though he wasn't as big a star as the other three. Maxwell Caufield was rising at that time, but not very established, and Michelle was pretty much an unknown.

4. I think something was just missing overall with this film. The cast just isn't as charismatic, and some of the characters (Johnny, especially) are just plain unlikeable. I found most of the characters in the original film to be likeable, though they weren't always the smartest or most sensible of characters.

5. The gender switching of roles (good boy and bad girl) didn't work as well. In the original film, both Danny and Sandy were willing to make changes about themselves to be with each other, yet Stephanie changed nothing about herself and Michael had to completely change himself to be with her. That wasn't as appealing a storyline, IMO.

Re: Why did this movie flop??

lilamendezes12, you pretty much summed it up!

It's a fun movie and I enjoy it, but way below the bar set by the original....


"Good night, and grease for peace."

http://youtu.be/TBAuO1McLxg

Re: Why did this movie flop??

lilamendezes12, totally agree with you about everything! Spot on.

"Grease" is just more memorable overall, for so many reasons.

The gender switching roles, I agree, did not work as well. I remember one thing people have criticized "Grease" for over the years was that Sandy changed herself to be with Danny, but the truth is Danny was also willing to change himself to be with Sandy. At the end of the movie, he comes out with a Letterman jacket and said he was going to do anything he could to be with Sandy. Their relationship clearly was not one-sided in that sense. In "Grease 2" Michael made himself over to be with Stephanie, but I don't recall her making any changes about herself for him, so that was all very one-sided.

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It flopped for the same reason most hit films with a sequel flop. The studio & investors were greedy. First- there was no reason to make a 2nd film if the main cast from the first wasn't coming back. Salary alone probably nixed Travolta from returning. Second- what would the story be? This one was gawd awful.Third -there was no way they'd repeat that hit soundtrack. Sequels are usually so bad it's not funny when they do nothing but copy a lot from the original film and with a 4th rate cast that was cheap salary wise. Michelle Pfeiffer manage to go on to big film success but Maxwell Caulfield, who was on his way up because of his stage work, fell off the radar and never really recovered to have any kind of film career. Let me add that John Travolta could sing and dance while Olivia Newton John was already a famous singer. Maxwell Caulfield & Michelle Pfeiffer could do neither!

Sheldon:"Was the starfish wearing boxer shorts? Because you might have been watching Nickelodeon."

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Grease was a popular Broadway show first that ran for almost 10 years. When it was turned to a film, they went for stars in casting the characters, originally Henry Winkler and Marie Osmond then getting John Travolta right off big hit Saturday Night Fever and popular singer Olivia Newton-John.

Grease 2 was just a sequel, it had no following and had no stars. Some like Michelle Pfeiffer would have a long, successful career afterwards and others would continue on as character actors.

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In a 2003 interview, Didi Conn explained why her character, Frenchy, disappeared halfway into the movie. She said the script was not finished when they began filming, but the draft they were using still included Frenchy. The character was written out during filming, and she was told halfway through that she was no longer needed. The filmmakers ultimately decided to include Frenchy in the final cut, though they had limited footage. Didi described the filming process as "rushed, frantic, and unorganized".

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This was more of a spoof on the first movie than anything else. It's real simple why it flopped. The movie was terrible, and so was the music. I was about 10 or 11 when it first came out and I liked it then. But I watched it again when I got older and thought it was pure garbage.

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I'm watching it right now on ABC Family. I said to my Dad I wonder why nobody ever really liked this one. He said probably because it didnt have Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. While I do agree its not as good as the first one, I always liked it.

Zivas turning in circles. Either the trails gone cold, or shes about to mark her territory-Tony

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It didn't have Kinickie in it.

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I love the movie but the music didn't match the era the film represented. The movie was made in 1982 but was meant to be represent 1961.
Michelle Pfieffer's "Cool Rider" sounded so 80s.

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Bad music meaning not very representative of the period and they all sounded the same, no chemistry by the leads, dumb plot. Looked very amateurish.

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What this film needed, was a decent 'film' director to helm it and not a choreographer. Wannabe director, Patricia Birch, should have stuck to what she knew best. This was the producers fault. It lacked the magic touch, that Randal Kleiser brought to GREASE. The songs and script may not have been up to par; but it could have still had a bit more flair and charm infused into the proceedings, by someone who knew how to direct actors. It also needed to be more era appropriate and not with an anachronistic 80's, look and sound, to appeal to the MTV crowd.

The characters are not likeable, Maxwell Caufield was too pretty and gay to be cool, he doesn't possess the same charisma as Travolta and his chemistry with Michelle Pfeiffer was zilch. He was a male version of Sandy and it didn't work. Pfeiffer's character, came over as a stuck up b!t@h and it amazes me that the talent that I saw shine through in SCARFACE-83', a year later, wasn't evident to me here. When I saw SCARFACE about a year later, I had forgotten who she was and didn't even make a connection with her and GREASE 2. There was no integrity or passion, put into this abysmal, by the numbers production.

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"Maxwell Caufield was too pretty and gay to be cool"
WTF is that even supposed to mean?!

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WHY?! Because it wasn't the original cast...the SAME people from before! Sequels are only good when its the same cast from the FIRST! I mean they could've all been together again in COLLEGE next since they graduated high school in the end in that first one!
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