The Young Guns of New Hollywood
In the late 1970s, Robert Zemeckis and his writing partner Bob Gale were ambitious protégés of Steven Spielberg. Their first two directorial efforts, 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' and the screenplay for Spielberg's '1941,' were critical darlings but commercial
flops. They had a reputation for writing scripts everyone loved but that didn't translate into box-office success. For their next project, they landed on an idea from Spielberg and John Milius: a dark comedy about warring used car salesmen. The result was 'Used Cars,' a chaotic and gleefully profane satire starring a young Kurt Russell.
A Tale of Two Car Lots
The premise of 'Used Cars' (1980) was simple but savage. Rudy Russo (Russell) is a salesman at a failing lot owned by the kindly Luke Fuchs. Across the street, Luke’s wealthy, malevolent twin brother, Roy Fuchs, runs a successful dealership and schemes to take over his brother’s land. Both brothers were played by Jack Warden. When Luke suddenly dies, Rudy and his colleagues hide the body and take over the lot, employing increasingly outrageous and illegal stunts to drive sales—from hijacking a presidential address to air a commercial to hiring strippers to dance on the hoods of cars. It was, by Zemeckis's own admission, a Frank Capra movie where everyone is corrupt.
Success So Good, It Was a Disaster
The problem wasn't a bad movie; it was a test screening that went too well. According to Bob Gale, a preview in Dallas produced some of the highest scores in Columbia Pictures' history at the time. Executives saw the numbers and, smelling a hit comparable to 'Smokey and the Bandit,' decided to rush its release. They moved the premiere up a month but failed to prepare an adequate marketing campaign. Zemeckis and Gale felt the studio completely botched the rollout, releasing it in only half the country with a weak ad campaign.
Buried at the Box Office
The film's rushed release placed it in theaters just one week after another comedy, 'Airplane!', which had become a word-of-mouth sensation. Audiences flocked to 'Airplane!', and 'Used Cars' was left in the dust. It made a meager $11.7 million on an $8 million budget and was considered a failure. The experience left Zemeckis and Gale in so-called 'director jail.' For years, they struggled to get their next project, a script about a time-traveling teenager, off the ground. That script, 'Back to the Future,' was rejected by every major studio.
Redemption and a Cult Following
It wasn't until Zemeckis directed the 1984 hit 'Romancing the Stone' for Michael Douglas that he finally gained the industry clout needed to get 'Back to the Future' made. While 'Used Cars' nearly ended his career before it truly began, the film has since been reclaimed as a cult classic. Critics and fans now celebrate its cynical humor, manic energy, and surprisingly sharp satire on American consumerism and politics. The film that was once a commercial disaster is now seen as an essential, R-rated entry in the filmography of one of America's most beloved directors.
