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Wednesday
17Jun2009

Could Eddie Murphy's Box Office Slump Jeopardize 'Beverly Hills Cop'?

DateWednesday, June 17, 2009 at 2:23PM
There was a nationwide roll of the eyes last summer when plans for a fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie were announced. The combo of Eddie Murphy and Brett Ratner is not a proud one by our accounting, and it's not really a franchise that needs a lot of freshening up. One really solid action comedy and two slumping sequels.

A couple of weeks ago, Derek Haas, who is co-writing the script with Michael Brandt, gave an update on the film, which will come through the gates of Paramount. But will the studio still see dollar signs with the results of Eddie Murphy's latest film, Imagine That?

Even though it got much better reviews than his previous two comedies, Meet Dave and Norbit, the film opened with about half as much money as the pre-weekend estimates. In fact, his past two movies, both family comedies, opened with a total of $10.7 million versus budgets totaling $115 million.

If Norbit had not been a hit, I think Paramount might be having real second thoughts about casting Murphy in another Beverly Hills Cop flick. But that was only a couple years ago and it made almost $100 million here in the U.S. The difference is, Norbit wasn't a family film, but it appears that Murphy's drawing power in that arena may be next to nothing at this point.

You saw what happened with Tom Cruise a few summers ago: Mission: Impossible III did less business than it deserved to, and Cruise hasn't fully rebounded from the hit his public image took in the summers of 2005 and 2006. Specifically, Paramount pulled the rug out from under him, when Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone broke ties with Cruise following M:I 3.

Unlike Cruise, however, Murphy has been the face of three spectacular flops in the past seven summers. Nothing will compare with The Adventures of Pluto Nash, which recouped a lower percentage of its budget than any other $100 million movie ever made. Meet Dave only made $11 million, and Imagine That appears headed for similar results. And keep in mind that when Redstone "fired" Cruise, he specifically cited how much money he cost the company. And that was before the economy was truly awful.

There's no doubt that Paramount envisions Beverly Hills Cop as a big summer movie, and it's probably safe to say that it wouldn't do as poorly as Murphy's past two summer comedies. Let's also not lose sight of the Murphy's salary, which is extraordinarily high for a guy who doesn't deliver monster hits, and hasn't done so in a decade. (You can't count Shrek anymore than you can justify a huge salary for Albert Brooks because Finding Nemo was a huge hit. Animated films are a completely different ballgame.)

But maybe the studio would be better off rebooting it altogether, casting a younger actor with less baggage.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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