MovieChat Forums > Scarface (1983) Discussion > People hated ‘Scarface’ until hip-hop ga...

People hated ‘Scarface’ until hip-hop gave it cred


https://nypost.com/2018/04/12/people-hated-scarface-until-hip-hop-gave-it-cred/

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True. Theatre profits for this were slim.
This became glorified once it hit HBO.
So many films did this even of different genres in the 1980's.
Instead of trying to please with something for everyone, they spent less on production value and made more by gearing films to one audience and it's taste. The audiences had become to diversified in age and product approach (Theatre/tv/video/cable/even video games etc..).

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I dunno... Me and all my male white friends saw it multiple times in the theater and then rented the video.

"Come on pelicans!"

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The fact that you enjoyed letting all your male white friends play with your BBC has no bearing on the artistic merit of this movie.

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I never gave a fuck what “hip-hop” had to say about it, I loved it from the moment I saw it.

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Not true, people always liked it.

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Scarface was released theatrically in North America on December 9, 1983. The film earned $4.5 million from 996 theaters during its opening weekend, an average of $4,616 per theater, and ranking as the second-highest-grossing film of the weekend behind Sudden Impact ($9.6 million), which debuted the same weekend. It went on to earn $44.6 million in North America and $20.4 million from other markets, for a total of $65.1 million. This figure made Scarface the 16th highest-grossing film of 1983, and seventh highest grossing R-rated film in North America for 1983.


Wikipedia lists the budget as "$23.5–37 million". I'm not sure which figure is correct, the high or low estimate. It did make a profit, and considering it was an R-rated and controversial film it didn't relatively well for that time.

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Movies have to make 3x the budget to make a profit

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That article is incorrect.

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Roger Ebert liked it. Gene Siskel did not.
They mentioned that the film almost got an X rating, for violence.
https://youtu.be/geRPVCKofeU

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