What’s with today, today? It’s Rex Manning Day, of course.
In 1995, Regency Enterprises released Empire Records, a movie about 24 hours in the lives of quirky alternative teens working at an independent compact disc store. The events of the film take place on April 8th.
The date was chosen to honor the late Kurt Cobain, whose passing was discovered on this day exactly one year prior. I mention it here because it’s a fact. But I exclude it from this list below because it’s not fun.
Also, we mustn’t dwell… no, not today, not on Rex Manning Day.
10 Fun Facts About Empire Records
- The fictional Empire Records is located somewhere in Delaware. But don’t worry. It’s not actually there. There’s still no good reason to go to Delaware.
- The actual Empire Records set was fabricated out of an existing bar on Front Street in Wilmington, North Carolina.
- Screenwriter Carol Heikkinen was inspired to create the script for Empire Records based on her time working in a Tower Records in Phoenix, Arizona.
- Speaking of Arizona, the Gin Blossoms (from Tempe) enjoyed a #9 Billboard Hot 100 hit with the inclusion of “Til I Hear It From You” on the film’s soundtrack.
- It was one of two charting hits from the soundtrack. Edwyn Collins, former frontman for Scottish post-punk group Orange Juice, scored the biggest hit of his career, reaching #34 with “A Girl Like You”.
- Critics despised the film. Variety called it a “soundtrack in search of a movie.”
7. The film’s best moment may be the appearance of schlock-thrash-metal legends Gwar. In the scene, Mark (Ethan Embry) enjoys a pot brownie-induced hallucination, is beamed into a Gwar video, and is happily devoured by the band’s World Maggot. It turns out the whole scene was conceived and directed by Embry. He pitched the idea to director Allan Moyle, went to a Gwar concert with a camera crew, and did the whole thing himself.
8. Even Gwar couldn’t save this film from commercial disaster. Empire Records was made on a $10 million budget. It generated just over $300,000 at the box office.
9. Because Regency Enterprises had just invested in this particular teen-oriented movie, the studio passed on Clueless, which netted $57 million for Paramount. Oof.
10. At least the soundtrack sold a lot of copies, right? Well, the studio really wanted to secure the participation of the ascendant Gin Blossoms. So they straight up gave the soundtrack rights away to the band’s label. A&M Records landed a charting record (#63 on the Billboard 200) and fared much better with critics than did the filmmakers.
Bonus: Music video director Jordan Dawes was only commissioned to shoot a 17-second clip of Rex Manning’s signature hit “Say No More, Mon Amour”. Clearly inspired by the source material, Dawes just went ahead and made a whole video. And we’re so grateful that he did: