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'Grease 3: The Grease Awakens'

This is a no brainer... Isn't it?

By Southern HostilityPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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Courtesy of the John W. Engeman Theater.

There's a trend in Hollywood: reduce, reuse, and recycle. There aren't all that many blockbusters that are irresistibly original like Lady Bird or Birdman, but in place of originality we have sequels and reboots that have turned out great, but flooded the market. Whether or not this should be happening is a completely different article. Rather: what should they make next?

I know I'm in the minority here, but I think Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, is a perfect movie. Watching that movie, if you've never seen it before, you won't have a single complaint. I think the part where Grease gets a bad rap is that it was probably played around you for so long it's annoying to even think about. I don't think that's fair, but I digress.

Grease was a smash hit. Forty years later, the box office sits at almost four-hundred million dollars. THAT'S an impressive number, but just to put that number in perspective... The movie was made for six million dollars and made a little more than eight million dollars in the first weekend. A movie making its budget back is considered a win. A movie making its budget back in a WEEKEND is phenomenal.

The movie was so successful, there was talk about a Grease television show that would take place in the Grease mythos. As far as who or what the show would be about is a mystery, but the fact there was a show in the works off of a movie based on a play is a testament to reception, if not quality. It only makes sense that there's a sequel.

Grease 2, as much as I've seen it and continue to watch it, is abysmal. There are very few redeeming qualities about Grease 2, those being: the first professional appearance of Michelle Pfeiffer, a few catchy songs, a new look at a few characters from the film before, but other than that, there aren't a slew of redeeming qualities for the instances of nonsensically wacky plot devices and weird acting (I don't want to say it's bad, because the performances are committed, but it's definitely awkward at times). It's truly one of those movies that is so bad it's good, but it's not good at all.

Grease 2 had a production budget of thirteen million two-hundred thousand dollars (over double what the original cost to make), but only made fifteen million dollars back. Not fifteen million dollars in a weekend, only fifteen million dollars. Needless to say, the future of the Grease franchise was cancelled, if not postponed until further notice.

After Grease 2 was released, the idea of a Grease television show was scrapped, and the idea of a third Grease film was seemingly thrown out of a very high window onto a very busy street. I'm the last person to promote a conspiracy theory, but I think that this one holds real weight: Grease was such a success, they wanted to make the same movie with a bigger budget and put all the nuances of an interesting love story to the side for longer dance numbers and a guy on a motorcycle.

When Grease 2 crashed and burned, like a motorcycle off of an unfinished freeway, Paramount likely scrapped any and every thing that had to do with the Grease franchise and moved on to bigger and better things, but I doubt anybody in the Paramount Pictures offices, at the time, could've predicted is that there'd be a huge influx of eighties and nineties nostalgia, a good forty years after the release of Grease in 1978, but no new plans of a Grease continuation. This feels like a missed opportunity.

Now, I'm not going to tell you there's not plans for a new Grease movie, because the rumor is Didi Conn (who played Frenchy in both Grease films) managed to convince the studio that there should be a new Grease film. The problem is, that was nearly fifteen years ago. Things change in fifteen years; that one rumor has seen three different presidents and weed legalization, so either it's not happening or there's no finite plan to actually do it and it's all wishful thinking.

Lets just say that this isn't speculation, and there's just been a fifteen year (and counting) production speed bump. What would the movie be about? Danny and Sandy when they're old and tap dancing through the last stages of life before (or during) retirement? I don't think that'll break the box office the way the original did.

"But, wait a minute," I hear you thinking, "if all you're going to do is build up this idea, just to shoot it down, what's the point of even writing this?" I'm so glad you asked, reader. I've got something for JUST such an emergency.

Let's call it: The Force Awakens' Method. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the highest grossing movie of all time, domestically in the United States, and the second highest of all time internationally, grossing over a billion dollars at the box office. It sets up a host of new, interesting characters with a story that takes place decades after the original film, while paying homage to the story of the films before, and even ties the happenings of the new films back to all that's happened in the movies before.

What's brilliant about this method is that it gives the older fans closure and the newer fans something to call their own. The Force Awakens' Method was also seen in Jurassic World, almost to a tee. New protagonists, decades after the original film, with call backs to the original film sprinkled all throughout. Jurassic World actually held the record for highest grossing movie domestically; that is, until The Force Awakens took that spot. I think there's a pattern here.

A third Grease movie has all of the requirements to use The Force Awakens' method beautifully. Imagine: a new cast of T-Birds and Pink Ladies, the T-Birds rising back to the reverence in the first movie and the Pink Ladies actually DO something, like organizing school events, or better yet, help the community around the high school with all of their actions culminating to come face to face with a terrifying foe. That logline alone smells like money to me, but I'm no studio exec, I'm just an observant movie lover. (Paramount, if you're reading, feel free to use any ideas in this article, but you might want to call me before hand. I have a script ready for you.)

All in all, I just feel like there's a huge missed opportunity there on Paramount's end. This is a billion dollars in cash, opening weekend, waiting to happen. Regardless if my script (which is nothing more valid than every day fan fiction, and upon recent rereading isn't perfect, but can be tweaked) actually becomes a movie, so long as the next chapter in the Grease mythos is told, told well, and rakes in the money to send off the series for the rest of eternity... Or until the next generation decides they like Grease... Whichever comes first.

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