In 1985, the films ‘Real Genius,’ ‘Weird Science,’ and ‘My Science Project’ were somehow all released within seven days of each other.
“Don’t cannibalize the audience” is an unwritten mantra in Hollywood. If a movie that is coming out has a similar subject matter or serves a similar viewership as one you are releasing, you try and put some distance between them so as not to ruin your chances of success. If two movies come out that are too similar, it’s likely to split the audience and hurt both of them. That seems like a no-brainer point of view. And yet, 40 years ago this week, three movies were released in a seven-day span that are so similar, it’s almost unfathomable. But it happened.
Those movies are Weird Science, starring Anthony Michael Hall; Real Genius, starring Val Kilmer; and My Science Project, starring Fisher Stevens. They were released on August 2, August 7, and August 9, 1985, respectively. Which I was completely unaware of until I was looking for films to cover for milestone anniversaries and the dates jumped out at me. How the heck did not two, but three movies about nerdy people using science to do off-the-wall things all get released in the same week?
That question, unfortunately, I don’t have the answer to. What I do have is history to look back on and try and dig into it. When you think of nerdy 1980s movies, the first one most of us think of is Revenge of the Nerds. Released in July 1984, the film grossed over $40 million worldwide and was largely considered a hit. We can only assume what happened next, but the fact these three movies all came out just about a year after Nerds sure seems like Hollywood was thinking, “We need more movies with nerds as heroes.” A year later, these came out.
The first one out of the gate was Weird Science on August 2. Weird Science is the story of two outcasts (Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith) who hack a computer to make a virtual woman (Kelly LeBrock) with whom they can do whatever they want. This one is notable for a few reasons.
