“Almost Famous” was a box-office dud when it was released 22 years ago — despite receiving rave reviews.
The semi-autobiographical film — written and directed by Cameron Crowe — follows a teenage music journalist on tour with an up-and-coming band in 1973.
The movie, starring Kate Hudson and Billy Crudup, faced stiff competition in September 2000 from “Remember the Titans” and the director’s cut of the 1973 movie “The Exorcist.”
“It actually got demolished by a re-release of ‘The Exorcist,’ a movie from 1973,” Crowe told Page Six exclusively at the Broadway opening of the musical version of “Almost Famous.” “So it was like we do this work to make it authentic to 1973 and ‘Almost Famous.’
“And then a real movie from then comes in and just takes us down,” he continued. “There was also a Jamie Foxx movie that came out that weekend that did really well. But what happened was VHS. The VHS tape of ‘Almost Famous’ gathered steam for us. And so that’s, you know, probably accurate too, it’s like the ’70s-ish thing. So, like, the antique version of film watching is what gave us success.”
The “Jerry Maguire” director confesses that it’s “bizarre” seeing his unusual teen years performed on stage.
“It’s like the story that I never thought was going to really be more than something very private and small that I wrote,” he explained before adding that it’s the movie that he’s become “most remembered” for and “has the most life. And I think it’s because it’s all about real people and things that really happened.”
Other celebs at the Broadway opening included Paul Rudd, Vanessa Williams, Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner, Clive Davis and Crowe’s favorite interview subject ever, Joni Mitchell.
“Joni Mitchell hadn’t done an interview in 10 years and chose me to be the young reporter that would do the interview, and it remains the best interview I’ve ever done,” he confided.