How Boomerang had the same budget as Malcolm X [QUOTE]

I was listening to the commentary for the above film again and I had to share what the director said. I'll probably write more later.

From the commentary for the 1992 film Boomerang by director Reginald Hudlin (pictured above right)

"Boomerang was my second movie. I did House Party which is a movie that I wrote and directed for 2 ½  million dollars, took it to Sundance was a surprise hit there...again relative to what it cost did fantastic in the box office again spent 2 ½  made 27 million just in domestic theatrical box office alone, huge in home video, so we had a great hit out the box and we had offers from every studio so it was a great time.

poster for House Party (1990)

And then to top all that off with a call from Eddie Murphy saying you know hey let's make a movie together...once we decided on Boomerang suddenly you go from 2 ½  million dollar budget to a 40 million dollar budget.

And at the time I remember Spike Lee was really under a lot of pressure because he was spending 40 million dollars on Malcolm X. And I was like I'M NOT TELLING ANYBODY I GOT 40 MILLION DOLLARS TOO (laughs) because he can take that heat by himself."

Hudlin and Murphy on the set of Boomerang

ADDITIONAL INFO

I couldn't find documentation on either film's budget, but Wikipedia reports around $30 million for Malcolm X—Dankwa

Wikipedia reports that Boomerang "By the end of its theatrical run, the film had grossed over $70 million domestically, and $61 million outside of the U.S., making a total of $131,052,444. It was the 18th highest grossing film in the U.S. in 1992."

Box Office Mojo reports Malcolm X’s Domestic Total Gross: $48,169,910.


You can also read more about Malcolm X's budget issues @ Wikipedia


 @ IMDb Boomerang (1992)

Related Link
Read all of my posts about the Malcolm X film @ Cool Black Media here