The film that dethroned The Matrix had one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but almost no one remembers it – Film News

It stole the number one sci-fi film starring Keanu Reeves, but ended up being an undisputed flop.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of The Matrix, a film that revolutionized science fiction and action cinema. This helped make it an impressive box office success, but the truth is that during its third weekend in US cinemas it was dethroned by a film whose main hook was the presence of Eddie Murphy, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars at that time. era.

An ephemeral joy

The film I’m talking about is Until They Do Part, a curious prison comedy that tells the lives of two petty criminals – the other is played by Martin Lawrence – who are instantly condemned to spend the rest of their lives in prison .

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Life, in the original, was a riskier bet than it seems on Universal’s part, as the studio entrusted a budget of 80 million dollars to director Ted Demme (Playing Seduce) to make a comedy aimed at an adult audience, in which he relies more on the sympathy aroused by his characters than on the ability to make the viewer burst into laughter.

It premiered on April 16, 1999 in the USA and during its first weekend in North American cinemas it grossed 20.4 million dollars, more than enough to take first place from The Matrix. However, its maintenance was quite poor – the following week the film starring Keanu Reeves returned to first place – and ended up ending its global commercial career with revenues of just 73 million.

This made Until Escape Do Us Part an undisputed commercial failure, although a small audience subsequently emerged around it. Not enough to prevent it from being highly unknown to a large sector of the public, but enough to make it clear that this is not a waste of time.

In turn, The Matrix was one of the biggest commercial triumphs of the year, grossing 463 million dollars. It soon became a franchise and Warner recently announced the production of Matrix 5.

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