July 13, 2023 – Beverly Hills Cop

It’s another Throwback Thursday, and today we’re featuring the year 1983. The biggest movie that year was Beverly Hills Cop, starring Eddie Murphy. Apparently Michael Eisner, who was then-president of Paramount Studios, came up with the idea for the movie after getting a speeding ticket. He drove a beat-up station wagon, and after getting a ticket from a police officer with an “air of superiority and quiet condescension”, he had the idea to make a movie about a Hollywood cop. It took more than five years to get the script right.
Mickey Rourke was first offered the part of Axel Foley. He signed a $400,000 holding contract, but when revisions took longer than anticipated, he left to do another film. Sylvester Stallone then signed on to play the main character. He rewrote the script, taking out most of the humor and making it into a traditional action movie, which the producers didn’t care for. Stallone ultimately dropped out, just two weeks before filming was to start. The final draft of the script, with Eddie Murphy’s input, wasn’t completed until the day production began.
Beverly Hills Cop was released on December 5, 1984. It was an immediate blockbuster and shot Murphy to international fame. The movie went on to gross $234 million at the North American box office, making it the highest-grossing film of the year. It’s estimated that the movie sold over 67 million tickets in the U.S. Adjusted for inflation, Beverly Hills Cop is the 3rd highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, behind The Exorcist and The Godfather.
The film spawned a franchise with two sequels. In 2019, it was announced that Paramount Pictures made a deal with Netflix to create the 4th film in the series. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley is currently in post-production and is set to be released by Netflix sometime soon. Learn more here.