“Innerspace” did not do well at the box office, but it was a hit on VHS! A classic science fiction comedy from 80's master Joe Dante.

"Innerspace" synopsis

The greatest experiment of the century is about to begin at a research institute in the United States. Tak, a former pilot, enters an experimental pod and is reduced to microscopic size. It was supposed to be injected directly into the rabbit's body, but at that moment, a spy aiming for the microchip broke in. The director was cornered and fired the syringe in his hand at Jack, a man who was passing by...! !

Index

• At the time of its release, the box office performance was surprisingly poor.
• A realistic internal world designed by the ILM team
• The developer of the image editing software that everyone knows will also be participating! ?

At the time of its release, the box office performance was surprisingly poor.

This movie, directed by Gremlins director Joe Dante, was released in the United States on July 1, 1987. All of the preview screenings held before the film's release were a huge success, with audiences laughing and cheering a lot, and everyone involved said, ``Maybe this will be a bigger hit than `` Gremlins ''!?'' It is said that it was

However, when I opened the lid, a strange phenomenon occurred. In the box office rankings for the weekend surrounding Independence Day, `` Innerspace '' was unable to beat `` Dragnet '' and `` Spaceballs '' in their second week of release, and only started in third place. Furthermore, after the second week, it lost momentum at the box office, which was full of strong competitors, and before we knew it, it had disappeared outside of the top 10. On the other hand, around this time, the film that steadily rose from the bottom of the rankings was Chris Columbus's ` `The Babysitter Adventure .'' One can only imagine how director Joe Dante must have been feeling when the young Columbus, who once worked on `` Gremlins '' as a screenwriter, was unceremoniously passed over.

All of the viewers who actually watched `` Innerspace '' were very satisfied. However, the box office performance was poor... Why has such a gap arisen? If you listen closely to the commentary on the DVD, you can hear director Dante complaining about his defeat: ``The distribution company's marketing was poor.'' In short, ``only the science fiction elements were emphasized, and the comedic elements,'' another of the film's appeal, were overlooked.'' That may seem silly, but when you think about it, ``Dragnet'' and `` Spaceballs '' are works with strong comedic elements, and `` The Babysitter Adventure '' is also similar. In the 1980s, when comedians from ``Saturday Night Live'' were extremely popular, ``comedy'' may have been a key factor in determining the American box office.

"Innerspace" © Photofest / Getty Images

Director Dante also seems to have been dissatisfied with the title `` Innerspace, '' and still regrets that he couldn't think of a better title to replace it. It is true that compared to the title `` Babysitter Adventure '', which is instantly recognizable as a comedy, it cannot be denied that the sound is a little weaker. In fact, the title `` Innerspace '' is a word that appears twice in the ``Fantastic Voyage'', a science fiction masterpiece from the 1960s that can be said to be the source material for this work. Even though he inherited it, he was unable to create box office magic. That is one of the unfortunate things about this work.

But it wasn't all about losing. Rather, the counterattack of `` Innerspace '' occurred when the software was sold. It is said that the VHS sales of this work were explosive at the time, perhaps because of the lessons learned from the campaign at the time of its release, or perhaps because the quality of the work slowly spread to the public over time.

Speaking of the campaign, Japan also had its own VHS rollout. Beat Takeshi was in charge of supervising the Japanese subtitles, and Hideki Noda and Shozo Uesugi from the then-popular theater troupe "Yume no Yuminsha" were in charge of supervising the Japanese subtitles, and the Japanese dubbed version was as outstanding as Martin Short and Dennis Quaid. Show off the combination. Various efforts were made to convey the fun of this movie in an easy-to-understand way.