Hugh Grant became rom-com loyalty in the 1990s and 2000s and starred in some of the most successful and influential movies of the genre, but one of them had a disastrous start. Hugh Grant’s acting career began in the early 1980s and gained recognition for his role as Clive Durham in the romantic drama Maurice. However, the movie that boosted his career and turned him into an international star was Four Weddings and a Funeral. Directed by Mike Newell, Four Weddings and a Funeral marked the first collaboration between Newell and Grant.

Written by Richard Curtis, Four Weddings and a Funeral follows Charles (Grant) and his group of friends: his brother David, his flatmate Scarlett, the aristocratic Fiona and her brother Tom, and couple Matthew and Gareth. Charles is always the best man at weddings, and at one he meets Carrie (Andie MacDowell), an American woman he has an instant connection with and who he continues to meet at different events through the years. Four Weddings and a Funeral was a hit and is now a classic among rom-coms, but it had a not-so-encouraging start at its premiere.

Four Weddings And A Funeral’s Opening Was Too Much For Its First Audience

The Premiere Of Four Weddings And A Funeral Wasn’t Entirely A Success

Four Weddings and a Funeral is now not only one of Hugh Grant’s best movies, but also one of the most important rom-coms of the 1990s – however, it had a rocky start that, luckily, wasn’t an omen to what would come for the movie. Four Weddings and a Funeral had its premiere in January 1994 at the Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah, before its theatrical release in March 1994. Speaking to The Guardian in 2014, Richard Curtis reminisced about the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral, which wasn’t exactly a hit.

Curtis shared that the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral had a rough start as the first minutes of the movie were too much for some. Four Weddings and a Funeral opens with the group preparing for a wedding. Charles, as usual, is running late, and the problem is that he’s the best man at the wedding. Charles ends up rushing to get ready and get to the wedding on time, and he has some strong words when he realizes he slept in. The constant cursing by Charles and Scarlett led to around 30 people leaving the screening.

Curtis explained that all the town council, who were Mormons, didn’t like all the swearing in the opening of Four Weddings and a Funeral, and he and Grant saw them leave. Curtis thought this was going to be a bad sign for the movie’s future, and it was “not going to be as popular” as they hoped – luckily, this was just a minor bump on the road and it didn’t dictate the movie’s success.

Four Weddings And A Funeral Became A Huge Critical & Commercial Success

Four Weddings And A Funeral Is One Of The Most Influential Rom-Coms Of The 1990s

Four Weddings and a Funeral ended up being a critical and commercial success, and it holds a 92% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics praised the performances of its cast, the movie’s tone blending comedy, romance, and drama, and the charm and chemistry of its lead characters (Grant and MacDowell). Grant received a lot of praise from critics as a leading man, and Four Weddings and a Funeral turned him into a Sєx symbol in the US.

Four Weddings and a Funeral grossed $245.7 million against a budget of $4.4 million, and at the time, it became the highest-grossing British movie. Four Weddings and a Funeral is often ranked among the best rom-coms of all time and was highly influential in the genre, changing the approach to these stories, the writing, and the characters throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Four Weddings and a Funeral might not have been for its initial audience, but there was a much bigger audience waiting for it.

Source: The Guardian.