Word: boxful
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Somewhat disingenuously, Lloyd Webber professes not to relish his new status, to be unaware of the impact his growing personal fame will have on his box-office appeal. "In the end," he insists, "it comes down to the quality of what you give them in the theater." So it does. And on that basis the canniest show composer of our time has long since confirmed his standing. But the sure-to-be-smash opening of Phantom will doubtless confirm something else too. The awkward London youth has grown up, conquered Broadway and become what he once only envisioned: Andrew Lloyd...
...Jeeves of 1975, Lloyd Webber has scored an unbroken string of triumphs over the past 15 years. His most financially successful show, Cats, has had 19 productions in cities ranging from Budapest to Tokyo to Sydney to Stockholm; eleven of them are still running. Cats has racked up total box-office receipts of more than $425 million...
...comes Phantom. Rarely has a show been so eagerly anticipated, and never has one enjoyed such a box-office buildup. Opening Jan. 26, it has already taken in an unprecedented $16 million in advance sales, $4 million more than the previous record holder, Les Miserables. On the day the Majestic Theater box office opened in November, buyers -- many of whom had queued up in the cold overnight -- snapped up $920,271 worth of tickets, easily breaking the one-day record of $477,275 set by Les Miz. As in London, where Phantom is the theatrical event of the season, seeing...
...though, things had changed: shooting stars can be falling stars too. And sometimes audiences can get along very nicely without stars at all. Only three of the year's ten top box-office hits could be called star vehicles, and each of them fronted a performer who seemed a corrupted form of one of the earlier models. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator: instead of an amiable hunk like Reynolds, an incredible hulk, muscle-bound and soul-bare -- Robo-star. Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop II: instead of the wailing bantam Pryor, a strutting rooster, increasingly aloof from his genial gifts...
...written by Dennis Shryack and Michael Blodgett and directed by Jerry London, Rent-a-Cop rarely rouses itself beyond cliche; it looks content to mark time till it hits the less demanding venue of pay cable. This is the kind of no-frills, no-surprises movie that a box-office champ could coast on, but that greases an ex-champ's skids...