35 Years Ago Today, an Iconic ’90s Movie Day Delivered Two Sequels (1 Changed Hollywood, 1 Became a Meme)

A big part of the overall Hollywood experience is that competing movies open in theaters on the same day. It’s just how it is. It’s how you get variety at the theater with multiple movies having the same opening day, giving the ticket-buying audience a choice in what they opt to see. Sometimes, it means you get head-to-head blockbusters or movies that are seemingly absolute opposites that end up creating wild cultural moments (we’re looking at you, Barbenheimer). Or, sometimes, you get a unique situation where two movies share a release date and both end up leaving unique marks on entertainment that have lasted for decades—just in very, very different ways. And 35 years ago today, we got such a pairing with one film changing Hollywood forever while the other, well, it became a meme.

July 3, 1991, was a solid holiday weekend for moviegoers. Not only did you have films like The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and City Slickers still doing their time on screens but there were big new releases as well, including two sequels: Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Problem Child 2. The films couldn’t be more different, with Terminator 2 being a sci-fi action film and Problem Child 2 being a dark comedy, but what they had in common was that they were both well-anticipated sequels to their box office hit predecessors. However, it’s Terminator 2 that ended up not only winning the box office but leaving an indelible mark on entertainment.

Terminator 2 Revolutionized Effects and Movies And Changed Our Expectations For Summer Blockbusters

There really is no way to get around the impact that Terminator 2 has had on Hollywood because it stretches to more than just the way films are made, though that is certainly a big component of things. Terminator 2 gave movies the first major blockbuster movie character to be generated using computers, specifically T-1000, the advanced, shape-shifting Terminator prototype made of liquid metal played by Robert Patrick. The effects for that character were insane at the time and if you go back today and watch t hem, what might be even crazier is that they still hold up. The use of CGI in Terminator 2 completely changed the quality of CGI in movies, but how they were integrated into film. Thanks to Terminator 2, these digital effects were no longer merely background elements. You could actually employe digital work to do major storytelling and character elements, allowing filmmakers to pull off some pretty impossible-seeming things, particularly in terms of sci-fi. The work on the film genuinely paved the way for how CGI was used in future films and we’re still seeing the impact of it today.

Beyond the world of CGI, however, Terminator 2 reshaped the idea of the summer blockbuster as well. Now, we’re not saying that there weren’t big summer blockbusters before Terminator 2. However, the film was very much a gamble. Terminator 2 was a hugely expensive film to make because of its effects and scale—the film was the most expensive ever made at the time. A high production cost is always a gamble, but this was a sequel, int he summer. The stakes were high. However, it all paid off. Terminator 2 was a massive hit, bringing in over half a billion at the box office and proving that massive, expensive films like this could very much be event films and therefore the “must-see” movie of the summer. Pretty much every summer since, Hollywood has been putting out a big, franchise tentpole of some sort and fans turn up for the cultural event of the season—we’ll be doing it again in a few weeks when Spider-Man: Brand New Day webs its way into theaters.

Problem Child 2, On the Other Hand, Well It’s Legacy is a Laugh

But while Terminator 2 completely changed howe studios approached movies and summer blockbusters, Problem Child 2 might have been completely forgotten to movie history had it not ended up turning into a social media meme. While Terminator 2 ended up a massive box office hit, Problem Child 2 was a disappointment. The film didn’t flop; It doubled its budget and made $32 million at the box office, but that was still less than the first film. It also was met with a bit more criticism. The film follows an adopted orphan who deliberately causes chaos for his adoptive family and literally everyone around him and, in this sequel, he’s not alone, as he meets a little girl who is even worse than he is. The film was criticized for being crude and arguably a worse film than the first one, which while popular, was criticized for its insensitive jokes about adoption. Like many average sequels, it probably would have just passed into general movie history rather quietly.

However, thanks to social media and the power of the nostalgia of Millennials and Gen X, Problem Child 2 has become a meme. The film has somehow found a new life, thanks in no small part to various scenes, notably Junior shrugging his shoulders, the carnival ride sequence, and the lemonade stand scene all becoming popular social media memes. This in turn has also led to something of a reevaluation of the film. What’s really interesting about looking back at some of the movies from the ‘90s is that you can see just how different the approach was and just how different what was considered socially acceptable as compared to what we would allow now. With Problem Child 2 getting a bit of a popularity bump thanks to being a meme, audiences are looking back at it and realizing that a movie like that wouldn’t fly today and there’s something actually really refreshing about how insane it is as well as how actually raw (and mean) it is compared to most family-oriented fare now. It doesn’t make the movie better, but it definitely gives viewers a fresh appreciation for it.

One holiday weekend, two movies, and two very different impacts on Hollywood. It’s interesting to look back and see how any given weekend at the movies can impact entertainment and July 3, 1991, was certainly one for the ages.

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