Successes, failures and the death of James Belushi’s career (13 photos)

In the 90s, films with James Belushi were extremely popular. What is the film "K9: Dog Work" worth? True, films with his participation were successful mainly in our country, but in the USA things were completely different. It even got to the point that many considered James Belushi cursed due to the constant failures of films with his participation.





Brief biography

James Belushi was born into an Orthodox family of Albanian descent, where besides him there were three more children, namely an older brother John, a younger sister Marian and a younger brother Billy. By the way, his brother John made a pretty good acting career, and perhaps he would have starred in more than one cult film if he had not died from an overdose of illegal substances.

John Belushi (the older brother) was a real pride of the family and from childhood showed everyone his creative talent. James, seeing how proud his parents were of John, always tried to attract attention to himself. However, James did it in a very strange way. To be more precise, he was caught more than once in various offenses, such as petty theft or car theft.



Nevertheless, James was drawn to creativity, and since his school days he participated in the school drama club and choir. After graduating from school, he entered college, and then the University of Southern Illinois in the acting department.

After graduating from university, James decided to become an actor, and since 1977 he has been a member of the theater "The Second City".

Beginning of a career: first successes and failures

When James participated in the theater productions of "The Second City", he began to receive his first offers to act in films. His first project was the television series "Who's Watching the Kids?" (1978), where he played the role of a womanizer. And in the same 1978, he played a cameo role as a guy on the beach in the film "Fury".

The first most significant project for Belushi was the film "Thief" (1981), where the actor played one of the leading roles. The film, of course, did not become a big hit, but nevertheless it was noticed at several film festivals, and the audience found it very interesting. As a result, with a budget of 5.5 million dollars, the film collected a little more than 11 million.





Still from the film "Thief"

But the most important thing is that John Belushi followed his brother's career and often came to him on the set. Yes, he was sincerely glad that his brother got a significant role, albeit not in a box office, but not in a flop film. True, John could no longer follow his brother's career, since some time after the release of the film "Thief" he died, which was a great shock for both James and all of Hollywood.



James and John Belushi

The death of his brother really hit James hard, which is why he dropped out of the cinema a little. No, he didn't stop acting. Moreover, he appeared in such films as "Trading Places" with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd and "The Man with One Red Shoe" with Tom Hanks. But in these films he was somewhere in the third roles.

The real takeoff of James Belushi's career happened in 1986, when he starred in the film "What Happened Last Night". The most interesting thing is that John Belushi was originally supposed to play in this film, but James asked him not to. John agreed with his brother, as a result of which the filming was frozen for several years.



Still from the film "What Happened Last Night" (1986)

And it seemed like his career was going to take off, especially since James started getting offers to star in rather expensive films. But the miracle didn't happen, because in the film "Jumping Jack" he got a very small role, and the film "Little Shop of Horrors" was a total box office failure, having collected 39 million dollars with a budget of 30 million. And for those who don't know, a film only pays for itself when it has collected at the box office an amount at least twice its budget.

Then came the film "Salvador" (1986), where James played one of the main roles. They expected Oliver Stone, the director of the film "Platoon", to make a new hit, but the miracle didn't happen, because with a budget of 5 million dollars, the film collected only 1.5 million at the box office. Nevertheless, the film was well received by viewers and even received an Oscar nomination, which had a positive effect on James Belushi's future career.



Still from the film "Salvador"

In 1987, James was invited to the film "The Principal" for the lead role, which Michael Keaton turned down in favor of Tim Burton's film "Beetlejuice". With a budget of 11 million dollars, the film was able to collect about 20 million. And the next film "Real Men" did not collect even 900 thousand dollars at the box office, which, of course, shook the actor's career.

Success

It would seem that constant failures should have put an end to the actor's career, but then 1988 happened. It was then that James Belushi got into the film "Red Heat" with Arnold Schwarzenegger. This was a great success for the actor, because at that time Arnold Schwarzenegger's career was going uphill by leaps and bounds.



Still from the film "Red Heat"

But the most interesting thing is that the director allowed James to improvise on camera and come up with humorous scenes for his character. True, for this role, James had to gain an extra 5 kilograms of weight to look like a stereotypical cop who eats only donuts.

As a result, with a budget of 29 million dollars, the film "Red Heat" collected 34 million in the American box office, which, of course, did not recoup the budget. But thanks to the worldwide distribution, the film managed to come out on top. However, Arnold himself considered the film a failure. There was even a feeling that James Belushi was cursed, since wherever he appeared, the films did not receive the desired success, or even failed at the box office. But Arnold himself did not think so, and he repeatedly said how much he enjoyed working with James.

And then what many of you were waiting for happened. Yes, James Belushi got the lead role in the film "K9: Dog Work" (1989). In our country, this film is considered a real hit, although American critics did not like the picture very much. Nevertheless, with a budget of 17 million dollars, the film collected 78 million dollars at the box office, not counting the money received from video sales.



By the way, the role of Jerry Lee was played by a real police shepherd, who, unfortunately, died in the line of duty two years after the film's release.

Failures

But the success of the film about a detective and a German shepherd did not greatly elevate James. The fact is that the film "Homer and Eddie", released the same year, was a box office failure. Moreover, the film was not even released in the US, so it had to be content with distribution in Europe, and only in a few countries.

And then there were films like "Mr. Destiny," "How to Succeed in Business," and "Forgetting Palermo," which also flopped at the box office. Yes, in our country in the 90s many films with Belushi were successful, but we must not forget that at that time an inexperienced viewer could consider any Western film a hit. But in the USA these films were not very popular with viewers.



And in 1991 the film "Curly Sue" was released, which the viewers really liked, but which, as always, flopped in the USA. And this despite the fact that the film was shot by the famous box office director and screenwriter John Hughes, who is directly related to such hits as "Home Alone", "Beethoven", "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", "The Breakfast Club", "16 Candles" and others.



With a budget of 25 million dollars, the film collected only 33 million at the box office. Here again, the theory comes to mind that James Belushi is cursed, and that every film he gets into turns out to be a failure, no matter what cult actors and directors take part in them.

This failure affected John Hughes himself, and after the failure of "Curly Sue" he no longer filmed anything, but only wrote scripts and produced films.

As for James Belushi, he continued to actively act in films, but most of the films with his participation turned out to be failures.

Upset by this turn of events, James Belushi decided to try to pull himself out of the comedy role. Thus, he got into the film "Trail of Blood" (1992), where he played the main role of detective Jack Dobson. But this did not help, since "Trail of Blood" also failed at the box office, after which Belushi completely lost good offers.



Still from the film "Blood Trail"

The actor's career went into steep decline. He practically stopped appearing in films that were released on the big screen. One can only note the science fiction thriller "Time Slip" (1997), where Belushi played a killer. Although the film did not become a box office hit, it was awarded 6 film awards.

Career Death

Due to constant box office failures, James Belushi stopped receiving offers to star in promising films, and already in the second half of the 90s he completely switched either to television films and series, or to films that were released directly to video.

Yes, Belushi was constantly flashing somewhere, but the films with his participation were either low-budget and unknown to anyone, or he was awarded only supporting and third-plan roles, and also took part in the voiceover of cartoons.

The sequels of the film "K-9", released in 1999 and 2002, did not help the actor return to the clip. The sequels were not popular, and they were released directly to media, bypassing cinemas.



Poster for the film "K-911"

By the way, an interesting fact. After filming the film "K-9: Dog Work" he got himself German shepherds. And in the second part of the film, in the role of Jerry Lee's shepherd, we see one of the actor's dogs.

In the 21st century, the actor completely disappeared from the radar, and he was practically invisible in films. The most notable appearance in recent years can only be called his role as Bradley Mitchum in the series "Twin Peaks" (2017).



Still from the TV series "Twin Peaks" (2017)

And so the career of James Belushi died, which, in all fairness, did not even have time to begin.