Recommended music: James Horner – Airk’s Army
From the archives today, we’re still celebrating the Magic of Willow with the Willow Official Comic Adaptation!
I don’t know too much more that can be said about the comic adaptation of the Willow film that I haven’t already shared about the graphic novel version. While the cover dates are August, September, and October of 1988, it appears the actual release dates were 4/26, 5/31, and 6/28/88.
This means that by the time the film hit the big screen (opening at #1 on 5/20/88), the first third of the story had already been spoiled in comic book form. Even though the film added a few theaters for Memorial Day weekend, it slid to #2 at the box office behind the debut of Crocodile Dundee II. The following week, the 2nd volume of the comic was released in comic shops. The comic and additional advertising/merchandising were not enough to keep audiences interested amongst stiff competition the following weekend either as Crocodile Dundee held the top spot, followed by the debut of Tom Hanks in Big (which, rated PG, likely took some of the family audience), Rambo III, Funny Farm, and then Willow rounding out the top five.
In Willow’s 6th weekend in theaters, the film actually added 172 more screens, which it kept through the following week (a long 4th of July weekend), with the remainder of the story coming out in comic form in between these two weekends. By this point in the summer, Who Framed Roger Rabbit had debuted, removing any chance of Willow rebounding to be the top-grossing family film of the summer, as Roger Rabbit was the highest-grossing film overall in 1988 with over $156 million in US ticket sales compared to Willow’s $55 million domestic gross.
The Willow film turns 37 years old TODAY! I figure there’ll be a new Willow item from my collection to share here for the rest of the month. Happy 37 years to the Magic of Willow!
Dale's Toys 