Wayne’s World, the big-screen adaptation of the popular 1990s Saturday Night Live sketch, turns 30 years old today.
The big-screen adventure of Mike Myers‘ Wayne Campbell and Dana Carvey‘s Garth Algar was made for just $20 million, but it went on to earn over a most excellent $180 million worldwide — the most successful SNL sketch-turned-movie to date. However, considering some others included A Night at the Roxbury, It’s Pat and The Ladies Man, that might not come as a surprise.
Wayne’s World made #5 on 1992’s list of the Top 10 highest-grossing films, with a performance that year of more than $120 million.
The movie centered on the titular pair’s tangling with a TV producer played by Rob Lowe, who wants to take their Aurora, Illinois, public access show to the big time. However, along the way, the producer tries to sabotage the deal, and steal Wayne’s rock-singer girlfriend, played by Tia Carrere.
The movie, which also starred Ed O’Neill, Brian Doyle Murray, the late Chris Farley and Lara Flynn Boyle, also had cameos from Alice Cooper and the late Meat Loaf.
The film boasted a number-one soundtrack that included Cooper, who performs in the film, as well as The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cinderella, among others.
However, the most famous contribution to the film might just be Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which saw new life after it was included in Wayne’s World‘s memorable headbanging car-cruising scene. The song re-entered the charts and peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Director Penelope Spheeris has said she had to “walk on eggshells” with Myers, who was reportedly nervous about losing the spotlight to Carvey, who at the time was a bigger star.
Although she’s since softened on reported tensions with Myers, she wasn’t asked to direct the movie’s 1993 sequel — and in retrospect it was a blessing: The follow-up was not nearly the critical and commercial hit that the original movie was.
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