If there is one thing It Came From Hollywood does well, it's staying ahead of the curve on anniversary celebrations of groundbreaking films. On July 6, 1988, License To Drive hit theaters and completely changed the landscape of teenage film for decades. On a modest $8 million budget, License to Drive captured box office receipts in excess of $22.5 million. It propelled stars Corey Feldman and Corey Haim into the cinematic stratosphere, where they collectively (and separately) threw it all away.
$22.5 million on a $8 million budget in 1988 was astronomical for a movie like this. It is a historical shame that "The Haimster" and "The Felddog" couldn't pull it together, because they could have parlayed that chemistry and became the "Hope & Crosby" of the early 1990's youth set. Or at least, they could have ridden that box office spark for as long as it was viable... until it wasn't. The bottom line is that it could have provided a nice nest egg for themselves to weather the years to come.
It Came From Hollywood is yanking on your leg a bit here. License to Drive didn't change the teenage film landscape. It was a film of its time featuring two young actors who became huge stars "because" of their audience. Thirty-six years later, the movie is only remembered by those same youthful movie-goers who collectively paid $22.5 million to see it in 1988.
License to Drive is one of the late '80s quintessential teen films. It was expertly made and populated not only with Haim and Feldman playing their parts to perfection but also a supporting cast that included Heather Graham, who would finally break out in Boogie Nights (1997). License to Drive was made to do exactly what it accomplished: make a lot of money for the studio. But, it also etched its existence upon the minds of those young film-goers who paid to see it.
So, It Came From Hollywood pokes a bit of fun here. No other blog, website, or podcast will talk about the 36th Anniversary of License to Drive—not now or on July 6th, which marks the actual release date. We do things differently here. We celebrate those films that have been forgotten, and we don't wait for the 40th or 50th anniversary. Our collective time here is short, so why not celebrate a popcorn film filled with goofy entertainment that resonates with an entire generation who have become Grandparents in the last 36 years? This is what we do here.
In honor of License to Drive's upcoming 36th Anniversary, It Came From Hollywood is proud to share a rare artifact of the film's marketing: The Official Movie Souvenir Magazine, published in the Spring of 1988 before the July release. It contains 44 pages of solid gold marketing that was made to be thrown away. The pictures and poster pull-out were designed to be taped up on a bedroom wall and eventually ripped down once the fan had moved beyond the sparkle of "The Two Coreys." It Came From Hollywood acquired a pristine copy of this movie magazine, along with a mint print of the movie poster, faux-signed by Haim & Feldman, and we scanned in a complete digital copy and felt that this 36th Anniversary Celebration was the right time to let it all out to the public.
Because we enjoy making a bigger deal out of things than necessary, we offer free downloads of the Souvenir Magazine and the faux-autographed poster print in every conceivable size known to the world! You only need to download your favorite poster size and print it out (if you have that size of paper), of course!
Celebrate the 36th Anniversary of the release of License to Drive on us!
This post is dedicated to Corey Haim (1971-2010.)
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