How popular was this movie when it first came out?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Lost Boys
coastin_on_a_dream — 10 years ago(April 30, 2015 01:19 AM)
I just saw this movie for the first time and enjoyed it. I have heard of it before many times over the years, so I've always assumed it was a huge movie, but I never got around to seeing it until now. Plus it came out a few years before I was born. Was it popular when it first came out in 1987? What was its box office performance like? Was it a big hit or is this more of a cult movie that developed a following over the years? Were people talking about it a lot and flocking to theaters to see the two Coreys? Anybody remember?
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Ozymandias-King-of-Kings — 10 years ago(May 02, 2015 03:39 PM)
It did well theatrically, but was a very big long-term renter on video. It seemed to fit with the hair metal style that was popular at the time. It was one of those movies everyone rented, and came as part of a wave of supernatural teen movies that took over when the slasher genre lost steam in the mid-eighties (Fright Night, Vamp, Near Dark, etc). The cast got a fair amount of teen magazine coverage at the time, with Corey starting to become a teen idol off the back of this. In the UK this was given a TV premiere only about a year after it came out, which was a big deal at the time - it got large viewing figures and the soundtrack actually re-entered the charts and hit the top ten again. If you were a teenager between about '87 and '90 and you liked either rock or horror (most teens at the time) you were almost certain to have seen this.
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Lady_Elaine_Fairchild — 10 years ago(December 07, 2015 05:00 AM)
They had a decent size marketing roll out in 87 -TV commercials played quite a bit, covered in 17 mag, and Newspaper ads.
I was 16 as well and saw it when it opened in the summer of 1987 (many of my friends did too) The big deal for us was the soundtrack -I bought the cassette tape of the soundtrack and played in constantly in my 66 Mustang. We were all really into the songs and the Michael Hutchinson song helped to propel it as INXS was quite popular at that time.
It was everywhere in pop culture that year (1987) for similar effect today, think of the first Twilight before that Juggernaut really got rollin'.
The actors were all over the teeny bopper/music magazines.
I think the budget was $8.5m and by all accounts it made $32.2m domestically (if I remember correctly) I bet it made quite a bit in VHS rentals though.
Once it was released on VHS, it became a cult rental at our VHS rental store -it was always rented out & you had to waitlist it-I bet they made mad bank on late fees on it.
Just an aside FYI At first it (and any VHS) was way too expensive to buy the VHS, but after they were out a while, the price dropped down to under $20 but at first they were like over $100. Too rich for my blood at 17.
As a renaissance chick, I paint, write, and sing loudly off-key.
Conceive Deceive or Leave -
AmyJolamb — 10 years ago(May 10, 2015 07:55 PM)
I was 12 when it came out. This was a movie teens on our school bus would talk about. I remember the movie poster kinda scared me. But it also looked cool.
I didn't seen it though till it was on VHS. Maybe when I was 13 or 14. I loved it.
I do remember reading more about the movie in teen magazines like Teen Beat. Corey Haim & Corey Feldman both hung on my bedroom wall for years. Lol
But as far I remember it was popular from the start. -
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DrDanielChallis — 9 years ago(July 11, 2016 10:05 AM)
This movie was pretty popular, I'd say from the Summer of 87, to the Summer of 1991.
Funny enough, I recall this was the one movie we'd always rent while on a beach vacation - very appropriate.
I remember all the kids running around with water-gun uzis pretending to be the Frog Brothers, shooting each other with holy water
Yup - it was the quintessential vampire movie of the late 80s. It was too bad Near Dark got bumped from the spotlight, but, that was a much darker vampire movie for a select crowd (The Terminator and Aliens crowds).
Just too much pop-influence that helped to propel this into popularity. I remember dirt-bikes had a spike in sales because of this movie. Oh yea - you wanted to be Michael, leather jacket, pierced ear, and to have the hot vamp girlfriend.
That's when men were men! -
bishop-69757 — 9 years ago(July 14, 2016 05:29 PM)
I was a young kid at the time. I remember my teenage/early 20's cousins and my friends older siblings seemed to make a big deal out of it. It got bigger in the 90's with VHS and I think it was TBS that would show it all the time.
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PinkPancreas — 9 years ago(September 17, 2016 12:50 PM)
I remember this movie came out in the summer of 1987 (August) when I was 13. I think it was kind of a sleeper hit that developed more of a following once it hit vhs. It came out the same summer as Dirty Dancing so that seemed to get most of the summer movie attention- at least with teenagers. But I loved this movie and went to see it over and over again. One thing that helped this movie was MTV playing the video for INXS' "Good Times" all during the summer so us MTV watchers were all excited to see this movie with the great-looking cast. It was very stylish too and seemed different. It looked scary but also cool and fun. At least that is how it was for us in Charleston SC then. I don't know how it did in the rest of the country.
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huldu — 9 years ago(October 13, 2016 02:04 PM)
You didn't have internet or things like that back then so mostly things like that spread around friends or of course the video store. The video store back then was like a hangout spot to keep up to date on what was going on. I went to watch movies a lot at the cinema but over all I rented far more movies back in the 80's and early 90's. It was just a thing you did with your friends. It was a much more social time than these days that's for sure.
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Kandi73 — 9 years ago(October 28, 2016 10:58 PM)
it was big. there were magazines with all the guys in it like teen Beat, tiger beat etc. I had a couple of mags with Paul in them lol. I remember I put them in my locker every body rolled their eyes at me lol. The Movie tie in was big I finally found it on a road trip with my parents and I started laughing we were in California and I never did get to go to Santa Cruz cause my sister and bother got their pick there was a sigh and on the back of it said Lost Boys Rules I nearly freak out my mom asked me if I was ok cause I was laughing I told her what I saw and my sibs rolled their eyes at me. I was the only one who loved the movie. it was my first vampire movie where I really got in to Vampires.