Jerry Maguire is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama sports film starring Tom Cruise,
Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Renée Zellweger.
It was written, co-produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe.
The film was inspired by sports agent Leigh Steinberg, who acted as Technical Consultant
on the crew.
It was released in North American theaters on December 13, 1996, distributed by Gracie
Films and TriStar Pictures.
The film received very positive reviews, praising the performances of Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding,
Jr. and Renee Zellweger and the screenplay.
The film was a financial success, bringing in more than $270 million worldwide, against
its $50 million budget.
It was the ninth top-grossing film of 1996.
The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for
Tom Cruise, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The film was also nominated for three Golden Globes, with Tom Cruise winning for Best Actor,
and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. winning Best Supporting
Actor.
Plot Jerry Maguire is a glossy 35-year-old sports
agent working for Sports Management International.
He writes a mission statement about perceived dishonesty in the sports management business
which prompts Management to send Bob Sugar, Jerry's protégé, to fire him.
Jerry and Sugar call all of Jerry's clients to try convincing them not to hire the services
of the other.
Sugar secures most of Jerry's previous clients.
Jerry speaks to Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell, one of his clients who is disgruntled
with his contract.
Rod tests Jerry's resolve through a very long telephone conversation while Sugar is able
to convince the rest of Jerry's clients to stick with SMI instead.
Leaving the office, Jerry announces that he will start his own agency and asks if anyone
is willing to join him, to which only 26-year-old single mother Dorothy Boyd agrees.
Meanwhile, Frank "Cush" Cushman, a superstar quarterback prospect expects to be the number
one pick in the NFL Draft, also stays with Jerry after he makes a visit to the Cushman
home.
However, Sugar is able to convince Cushman at the last minute to sign with SMI.
After an argument, Jerry breaks up with his disgruntled fiancée.
He then turns to Dorothy, becoming closer to her young son, Ray, and eventually starts
a relationship with her.
However, Dorothy contemplates moving to San Diego as she has a secure job offer there.
Jerry concentrates all his efforts on Rod, now his only client, who turns out to be very
difficult to satisfy.
Over the next several months, the two direct harsh criticism towards each other with Rod
claiming that Jerry is not trying hard enough to get him a contract while Jerry claims that
Rod is not proving himself worthy of the money for which he asks.
Jerry marries Dorothy to help them both stay afloat financially and to keep her from moving
away.
He is emotionally and physically distant during the marriage but is clearly invested in becoming
a father to Ray.
Although Dorothy loves Jerry, she breaks up with him because she believes that he does
not love her.
Before the start of a Monday Night Football game between the Cardinals and the Dallas
Cowboys, Rod plays well but appears to receive a serious injury when catching a touchdown.
He recovers, however, and dances for the wildly cheering crowd.
Afterwards, Jerry and Rod embrace in front of other athletes and sports agents and show
how their relationship has progressed from a strictly business one to a close personal
one, which was one of the points Jerry made in his mission statement.
Jerry then flies back home to meet Dorothy.
He then speaks for several minutes, telling her that he loves her and wants her in his
life, which she accepts.
Rod later appears on Roy Firestone's sports show.
Unbeknownst to him, Jerry has secured him an $11.2 million contract with the Cardinals
allowing him to finish his pro football career in Arizona.
The visibly emotional Rod proceeds to thank everyone and extends warm gratitude to Jerry.
Jerry speaks with several other pro athletes, some of whom have read his earlier mission
statement and respect his work with Rod.
The movie ends with Ray throwing a baseball up in the air surprising Jerry.
Jerry then discusses Dorothy about Ray's future possible career in the sports industry.
Cast
Janet Jackson auditioned and was initially accepted for the role of Marcee Tidwell, though
it later went to Regina King, who previously co-starred in Jackson's debut film Poetic
Justice.
Jackson is referenced twice in the film, with a Janet poster seen hanging in Teepee's room
and Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character Rod Tidwell asking "What Have You Done for Me Lately?",
paying homage to Jackson's hit of the same name.
Cameos Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, ESPN
draft guru Mel Kiper Jr., former NFL quarterbacks Drew Bledsoe, Troy Aikman, and Warren Moon,
German ice skater Katarina Witt, then-current Dallas Cowboys head coach Barry Switzer, and
former Detroit Lions coach Wayne Fontes play themselves in the film.
Other NFL players that make cameos as themselves are Tim McDonald, Johnnie Morton, Rick Mirer,
Rob Moore, Ki-Jana Carter, Herman Moore, Art Monk, Kerry Collins, and Dean Biasucci.
Sportscasters Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Roy Firestone, Mike Tirico, and Dan Dierdorf
also make cameos.
Former NBA basketball player Brent Barry is featured in the film as an athlete who refuses
to sign an autograph for a young boy.
Actresses portraying ex-girlfriends of Maguire include Lucy Liu, Ivana Miličević, Alison
Armitage, Emily Procter and Stacey Williams.
Reagan Gomez-Preston also had a minor role in the film as part of the Tidwell family.
Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell makes a brief appearance in the film as a copier
store clerk.
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay makes a cameo as Jerry Maguire's boss.
Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner is seen briefly as an SMI CEO as Maguire departs the
company.
Artie Lange filmed a scene for the film, but it was cut from the final version of the movie.
Product placement Tristar received merchandise and marketing
services of over $1.5 million from Reebok in exchange for incorporating a commercial
into the film and depicting the Reebok brand within certain agreed-upon standards; when
the film was theatrically released, the commercial had been left out and a tirade including "broadsides
against Reebok" was included.
When the film aired on television, the Reebok commercial had been embedded into the film
as originally agreed upon.
Release Box office
The film debuted at number one.
It earned $17,084,296 its opening weekend, and eventually grossed $153,952,592 in North
American box office and approximately $119.6 million overseas for a $273,552,592 worldwide
total, on a budget of $50 million.
It is the ninth top grossing film of 1996 and the fourth highest-grossing romantic drama
film of all time.
Critical response The film received critical acclaim, with an
85% positive reviews on the film-critics aggregate Rotten Tomatoes.
Its critical consensus states: "Anchored by dazzling performances from Tom Cruise, Cuba
Gooding Jr., and Renée Zellweger, as well as Cameron Crowe's tender direction, Jerry
Maguire meshes romance and sports with panache."
Cuba Gooding, Jr. won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of
Rod Tidwell, the Arizona Cardinals football player who sticks with Maguire.
Cruise was also nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the movie marked Renée
Zellweger's breakout role.
The film itself was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and crew members on
the film were nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Film Editing awards.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3/4 stars, writing that there "are
so many subplots that Jerry Maguire seems too full" and also commented that the film
"starts out looking cynical and quickly becomes a heartwarmer."
Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote "An exceptionally tasty contempo comedic romance, Jerry Maguire
runs an unusual pattern on its way to scoring an unexpected number of emotional, social
and entertaining points.
Smartly written and boasting a sensational cast, Cameron Crowe's shrewdly observed third
feature also gives Tom Cruise one of his very best roles..."
In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Jerry Maguire one of the 100 Greatest Characters
of the Last 20 Years.
Accolades
Home media Jerry Maguire was first released on VHS and
Laserdisc on May 29, 1997.
It is the best-selling non-Disney VHS tape of all time, with over 3 million copies sold
on the first day and another 1 million on the second day and sold 1 million copies each
day, including Blockbuster Video, Hollywood Video, Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and many
other rental stores/retail chains.
The previews shown before the movie were: My Best Friend's Wedding, Men in Black and
Starship Troopers.
it was re-released on VHS around late 1999, without any of the aforementioned previews.
The film was first released onto DVD on June 24, 1997 and around 2002 respectively in both
a standard edition and a two-disc "Special Edition".
While the standard edition contains no special features, the two-disc edition primarily includes
deleted scenes, commentary tracks, featurettes, and a music video for Bruce Springsteen's
"Secret Garden."
The film was later released onto Blu-ray on September 9, 2008, with the same special features
found on the second disc of the DVD "Special Edition."
Legacy Jerry Maguire spawned several popular quotations,
including "Show me the money!", "You complete me," "Help me help you," "The key to this
business is personal relationships" and "You had me at 'hello'", and "Kwan," a word used
by Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s Tidwell meaning love, respect, community, and money to illustrate
the difference between himself and other football players: "Other football players may have
the coin, but they won't have the 'Kwan'."
These lines are largely attributed to Cameron Crowe, director and screenwriter of the film.
Zellweger said of filming the famous "hello" line, "Cameron had me say it a few different
ways.
It's so funny, because when I read it, I didn't get it — I thought it was a typo somehow.
I kept looking at it.
It was the one thing in the script that I was looking at going, 'Is that right?
Can that be right?
How is that right?'
I thought, 'Is there a better way to say that?
Am I not getting it?
I just don't know how to do it.'"
A video blog "Everything is Terrible!" is running a campaign to salvage remaining VHS
copies of the movie.
In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten Top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film
genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community.
Jerry Maguire was acknowledged as the tenth best film in the sports genre.
It was also voted by AFI as #100 on its list of 100 Passions.
The quotes "Show me the money!"
and "You had me at 'hello'" were also ranked by AFI on its list of 100 Movie Quotes, ranked
#25 and #52 respectively.
American Film Institute Lists AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – Nominated AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – #100
AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs: Secret Garden – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: "Show me the money!" –
#25 "You had me at "hello."" –
#52 "You complete me." –
Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – Nominated AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated
AFI's 10 Top 10 – #10 Sports Film Soundtrack
The motion picture soundtrack CD includes: Music not on the soundtrack
Includes: AC/DC – "For Those About to Rock"
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass – "The Lonely Bull"
The Durutti Column – "Requiem Again" Nirvana – "Something in the Way"
Tom Petty – "Free Fallin'" The Replacements – "I'll Be You"
The Rolling Stones – "Bitch" Merrilee Rush – "Angel of the Morning"
a clip of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Charles Mingus performing
"Secret Garden", originally a Springsteen track from 1995, was re-released in 1997 after
its exposure in the film and on the soundtrack, and peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot
100.
The film was scored by director Crowe's then-wife, Nancy Wilson, who was a member of the rock
band Heart.
References
External links Jerry Maguire at the Internet Movie Database
Jerry Maguire at Metacritic The Jerry Maguire Journal, a log kept by Crowe
during the film's production and published in Rolling Stone in December 1996.
"Things we think and do not say", the memo that led Maguire to establish his own agency.
Archived from the original on November 9, 2012.
Jerry Maguire, film script Leigh Steinberg talks about Cameron Crowe
and the film