Advertising plays a huge role. Studios decide the advert budget and considers whether the movie is good enough to make more money than other movies that it could be advertising for the same dollar. I presume this movie wasn't advertised, so there was no reason to distribute it, hence you never heard of it.
As to why the studios didn't think much of it, we can argue that. Personally, I found it ok but rather unrealistic in so many ways that it left me with little interest in further contemplation. Consider: A guy who is both a superb chef, painter, AND jazz musician AND overtly closes himself off to the people he lives with for years and yet secretly writes about how much he treasures them? That's just makes no sense.
And frankly, the role played by Eddie Murphy lacked significant demand for acting chops. Eddie Murphy is a fantastic actor (comedy or otherwise) and was wasted in this role that could have been played by anyone.
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caityshe
8 years ago
Agreed. The only reason anyone would care about a film as goofy as this is because of Eddie Murfy's presence after such a long hiatus. They were definitely planning on banking on that. Do you remember the part where she got hit by that scate boarder while pregnant? I laughed so hard I started crying, it was such a clunky scene.
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