30 Years Ago, A Disney Comedy Went From Box Office Flop To Beloved '90s Classic

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

In a lot of ways, the '90s was a true golden age for Disney. From absolutely monster animated hits like "The Lion King" to the true Christmas classic that is "The Muppet Christmas Carol," it was a rich time for the Mouse House. Yet, not everything can be a winner out of the gate. Such was the case with "Heavyweights." Released in 1995, the live-action comedy about kids at a fat camp whose summer is upended by a weight loss guru simply didn't connect with audiences in its day.

As has often been the case throughout Disney's history, animation has been the studio's bread and butter. That was no different in the '90s, as hits like "Aladdin" and "Beauty and the Beast" took center stage. But the studio did have a lot of luck with live-action fare during this period, including sequels like "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid" and director Stephen Herek's hockey flick "The Mighty Ducks," which ended up spawning an entire franchise. Unfortunately, despite having an army of talent, those talented folks couldn't turn this fat camp comedy into a money-maker. At least not at first.

In this week's Tales from the Box Office, we're looking back at "Heavyweights" in honor of its 30th anniversary. We'll go over how the film came to be, how it helped kickstart the careers of several comedy titans, what happened when the movie hit theaters, what happened in the years after its initial run, and what lessons we can learn from it all these years later. Let's dig in, shall we?

The film as we know it centers on a group of underdog kids who discover their beloved summer camp, Camp Hope, has been sold to a wannabe fitness guru who is making their lives miserable in the hopes of creating a hit weight loss infomercial. After taking things too far, the rag-tag group bands together to take back the camp.

Writer Steven Brill, coming off of the success of "The Mighty Ducks," earned the director's chair for "Heavyweights." Rather than write it himself, he teamed up with a young upstart by the name of Judd Apatow, a man who would go on to write and direct some of the best comedies ever such as "Anchorman" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," among many others. This was his first feature credit.

Brill and Apatow had the basic concept of a comedy set at a fat camp, but the idea was worked and reworked several times over before "Heavyweights" as we know it came to be. Leah Lail, who plays nurse Julie, in "The Making of Heavyweights," revealed that a lot of what's in the film was pulled from Brill and Apatow's own life. As she explained:

"It's really funny, having known Steve and Judd both before, to see these characters take shape because they're actually just extensions of Steve and Judd. Every little prank and every line out of their mouth, I think I've heard for real."

Despite this being Brill's feature directorial debut, he had no trouble assembling an impressive cast. Brill brought along several cast members from "The Mighty Ducks," including Aaron Schwartz (Gerry), Shan Weiss (Josh), and a pre-"Saturday Night Live" Kenan Thompson (Roy). The kids who make up the members of the camp were just the tip of the iceberg though. Brill managed to rope in a few comedy legends into the proceedings as well.

Though they hadn't quite achieved legendary status yet, eventual "Bridesmaids" director Paul Feig starred as counselor Tim, alongside Tom McGowan as Pat, and Leah Lail as nurse Julie. Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara would cameo as the previous owners of Camp Hope, with Jeffrey Tambor, Tim Blake Nelson, and Allen Covert also appearing in supporting roles. Most important of all, Ben Stiller, coming off of "The Ben Stiller Show" and "Reality Bites," was cast as fitness maestro Tony Perkis. Stiller would go on to become a gigantic star in the years that followed.

Stiller, in "The Making of Heavyweights," wouldn't drop the joke and seems borderline method in his commitment. He waxed "80% of his body" and worked with a personal trainer to become Tony Perkis, not to mention the black hair dye. "Tony's not trying to take anyone's fun away," Stiller said at the time. "He's just trying to run a weight loss camp. Now, sometimes, as he says in the film, fun is involved but pain is the ultimate tool in shifting a belief. It's just the way it is."

"He would lift weights in between takes," Apatow recalled of Stiller in a featurette on the "Heavyweights" Blu-ray titled "Video Chat: Judd & Kenan." In that same featurette, Thompson recalled thinking that the kids didn't fully grasp what the film was going to be. They were just along for the ride.

"We didn't really understand the vision, honestly. I didn't understand the vision of what the movie was going to be. I just thought, 'Yeah, sure, I'll go down here with my Mighty Ducks buddies and make another movie.' But basically just hang out in the woods at camp for a whole summer. Are they filming it? Is it like a reality thing? I really didn't get it."

"It was a little darker than your normal Disney movie," Apatow mused in the featurette. "Why is everybody home? Did someone die?" Schwartz's Gerry asks casually early on in the film. Later, after Tony takes over, Gerry writes in a letter, "Someone once said, 'War is hell,' They've never been to fat camp." So yeah, it's a little dark by Disney standards.

Disney had to try and find a way to palatably market this semi-dark PG film about kids at a fat camp to the masses. That was no easy task. Selling a comedy about an underdog hockey team? There were hooks for people to grab onto there. Without true star power in front of the camera, this proved to be a more difficult sell. It also didn't help that critics, at the time, were at best mixed on the film. "There's never been a remotely significant summer camp film, and Disney's 'Heavyweights' does nothing to advance the genre," Leonard Klady wrote for Variety at the time.

Fans of the "Friday the 13th" films might have a bone to pick with that "significant summer camp film" line but the point remained that "Heavyweights" didn't have a lot going for it, commercially speaking, when it hit theaters on February 17, 1995. It opened directly against "The Brady Bunch Movie" and "Just Cause," both of which performed better with $14.8 million and $10.6 million debuts, respectively. Brill's feature debut had to settle for a mere $6 million, scarcely more than Adam Sandler's "Billy Madison" ($5.5 million) made on its second weekend.

Come March 3 when the Jonathan Taylor Thomas star vehicle "Man of the House," also a Disney joint, topped the charts, it was all but over for Disney's semi-dark comedy. "Heavyweights" finished its run with just $17.6 million domestically. With an estimated $10 million production budget, it would have struggled to even make back those costs, let alone what the studio spent on marketing. It was a failed experiment, at least in the short term.

Fortunately, in the '90s and early 2000s, a movie's ultimate fate was not determined at the box office alone. In the case of "Heavyweights," it found its audience on home video and, perhaps more importantly, cable television. In those days, video rental stores such as Blockbuster Video could move the needle for certain movies. In this case, though, the movie's regular rotation on the Disney Channel in the years that followed cannot be overstated in terms of turning the tide regarding its reputation.

The path taken by this now adored '90s favorite is not unlike the one traveled by box office flop "Hocus Pocus," which has since become a cherished Halloween staple. For a great many kids who grew up with cable, they might be stunned to discover that this comedy was not a success out of the gate. Those very same people have changed the narrative.

"When it came out it didn't make any noise but oddly it seems like tons of people have seen it and enjoy it," Apatow wrote on Instagram in 2022 to commemorate the movie's 27th anniversary. "I talk about it all the time. It's definitely a fan that pays attention favorite," Thompson said in that Blu-ray featurette. "It's a special little movie."

More than just a fun movie, for certain viewers, it was an important one as well. "As a kid, I watched 'Heavyweights' non-stop with my friends, feeling seen and affirmed by the campers," BJ Colangelo wrote of "Heavyweights" for /Film in 2022. It's also considered to be one of the more underrated Disney movies, right alongside the likes of "The Emperor's New Groove" and "The Rocketeer." As Camp Hope camper Josh might say, "This pleases me."

The real shame of looking back at a movie like "Heavyweights" is realizing just how unlikely its turnaround success story is in today's modern, streaming-dominated climate. Until it debuted on Disney+ several years ago, those who enjoyed it were largely relying on DVD or Blu-ray copies in an era when physical media is now a niche market. How likely is it that a theatrical flop aimed at younger audiences will find its audience on Netflix or VOD after the fact?

Streaming's algorithm-curated home pages aren't friendly to crafting cult classics. The notion of simply watching what was on one's favorite cable channel back in the day has extinguished a lot of discovery viewing. Video stores are no longer a thing, and one doesn't have to take a chance on a movie just because they like the box art anymore. Heck, even retail giants like Best Buy have stopped selling DVDs and Blu-rays altogether. It's all about the algorithm.

Sometimes, that algorithm can help craft a hit. Disney's "Encanto" absolutely exploded on Disney+ after merely doing okay-ish business at the box office. It now feels like one of the more culturally pervasive animated Disney films in recent memory, despite not being a theatrical hit. That's far from the norm though. The next "Heavyweights" is far more likely to fall into obscurity these days, and that's a shame.

What's the solution? That's tough to say. What's true now though is that voting with your dollar matters perhaps more than it ever has. If something doesn't make money in theaters and during its VOD run, it probably never will. When certain movies lose money, Hollywood tends to make fewer of them. The only real way to ensure that something doesn't fall through the cracks is to support it loudly.