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Sep 20, 1996 · The First Wives Club: Directed by Hugh Wilson. With Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, Maggie Smith. Reunited by the death of a college friend, three divorced women seek revenge on the husbands who left them for younger women.
- (53K)
- Comedy
- Hugh Wilson
- 1996-09-20
- Plot
- Cast
- Development
- Music
- Reception
- Further Developments
- External Links
In 1969, four friends, Annie, Brenda, Elise, and Cynthia, graduate from Middlebury College. Cynthia gives each of them matching pearl necklaces and during a celebratory champagne toast, she has them promise always to be there for each other before they take a group photo. In the present day, the four women have lost touch, and Cynthia's ex-husband,...
Bette Midler as Brenda Morelli-Cushman, a wise-cracking Sicilian-Jewish single mother who helped set her husband Morty on his feet financially, before he left her for his younger employee Shelly, c...Goldie Hawn as Elise Eliot-Atchison, a former one-time Oscar-winning actress, now an alcoholic and heavy smoker relegated to B movies due to her "unprofitable" age. Her husband, Bill, who left her...Diane Keaton as Annie MacDuggan-Paradis, the vehicle for the film's sporadic voice-over and its central character; an anxious and slightly neurotic housewife, saddled with self-esteem problems, att...Writing
The film project originally belonged to Sherry Lansing, who bought the unpublished manuscript of the novel in 1991, after many publishers had rejected it, and handed it over to producer Scott Rudin when she became CEO of Paramount Pictures in 1992. "It was one of the single best ideas for a movie I've ever heard," she said in a 1996 interview with The New York Times. "The situation of a woman getting left for a younger version of herself was far too common. But we didn't want a movie about wo...
Casting
Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn were the first actresses reported to have landed one of the three starring roles. While Midler had wanted to play the "more glamorous role" of Elise at first, Rudin intended to cast Jessica Lange in the role before the team decided to rewrite the character of the book in favour of a "glitzier" version which eventually went to Hawn. Hawn, in turn, persuaded Sally Field to join the cast in the role of Annie but Field declined, citing her lack of musicality. The role...
Production
Principal photography took place over three months at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York City, between December 4, 1995, and March 19, 1996. Among the 60 sites showcased on screen are Christie's auction house in the Delmonico's Hotel grand ballroom on Park Avenue, the Bowery Bar, a suite at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, Café des Artistes on One West 67th Street, the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel, Frank E. Campbell's funeral home, and Barneys. Other famili...
Soundtrack
An official soundtrack album titled Music from the Motion Picture The First Wives Club... And Then Some was released on September 17, 1996, through Work, shortly before the film's premiere. The compilation peaked at number 90 on the US Billboard 200chart.
Box office
The First Wives club grossed $105.4million in the United States and Canada, and $76million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $181.4million. becoming the 11th highest-grossing film of 1996. The film also ranked 11th on the 1996 North American box office year-end list, while leading the yearly PG Rated1996 chart. In the United States and Canada, the film opened at number one at the box office, making $18.9 million in its opening weekend over September 20–22, 1996. It would remain a...
Critical reception
The First Wives Club received mixed reviews from film critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that based on 74 reviews, 50% of critics gave the film a positive rating, with an average score of 5.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "The First Wives Club is headlined by a trio of comedic dynamos, but the script lets them down with tepid plotting and a fatal lack of satirical bite." On Metacritic, which uses a normalized rating system, the film holds a 58/100 ra...
Accolades
The First Wives Club earned composer Marc Shaiman his third Academy Award nomination. In 2000, the film earned recognition from the American Film Institute when it was shortlisted for the organization's AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughslisting.
Sequel
For years there have been rumors of a sequel to the film. Although columnists Stacy Jenel Smith and Marilyn Beck reported in a 2002 article that producer Scott Rudin would refuse to work on a sequel, the actresses have made various statements to the contrary. In a Chicago Sun-Times interview in 2003, Keaton expressed her readiness to appear in a second film. A year later, writer Paul Rudnick reportedly started writing a draft, entitled Avon Ladies of the Amazon, and in 2005, Midler confirmed...
On stage
A musical stage version of the film opened at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California on July 17, 2009, in previews, through August 23, 2009, prior to a projected Broadway engagement. The book was by Rupert Holmes, with a score by the "one-time only reunited" Holland–Dozier–Holland songwriting team from 1960s Motown soul music fame. Francesca Zambello directed the San Diego production. The creators and Zambello were engaged for the project in 2006. An industry reading of the musical wa...
TV series
TV Land announced in March 2016, that it had ordered a pilot for a television adaptation of the film, to be written by Rebecca Addelman and executive produced by Jenny Bicks and Karen Rosenfelt. However, the network failed to pick up the pilot. The project went to the Paramount Network for redevelopment in early 2017. In October 2017, Tracy Oliverwas tapped to write the series.
The First Wives Club at IMDbThe First Wives Club at AllMovieThe First Wives Club at Box Office MojoThe First Wives Club at Rotten Tomatoes- $26 million
- Marc Shaiman
- September 20, 1996 (United States)
- Scott Rudin
First Wives Club: Created by Tracy Oliver. With Jill Scott, Michelle Buteau, RonReaco Lee, Mark Tallman. TV adaptation of the 1996 comedy about about three divorced wives who share a common past.
- (968)
- 2019-09-19
- Comedy
- 30
First Wives Club is an American comedy television series based on the 1996 film of the same name written by Robert Harling; it premiered on September 19, 2019 on BET+. [1] [2] The series was renewed for a second season on November 26, 2019, premiering on July 15, 2021.
- 29
- September 19, 2019 –, present
- 3
- BET+
Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton are longtime friends. After years of helping their hubbies climb the ladder of success, each has been dumped for a newer, curvier model. But the trio is determined to turn their pain into gain. 7,960 IMDb 6.4 1 h 42 min 1996. X-Ray UHD PG.
Watch The First Wives Club with a subscription on Paramount+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video. First Wives Club is headlined by a trio of...
- (76)
- Comedy
- PG
Summaries. Reunited by the death of a college friend, three divorced women seek revenge on the husbands who left them for younger women. After years of helping their hubbies climb the ladder of success, three wives have been dumped for newer, curvier models. But the trio is determined to turn their pain into gain.
