Released in 1978, Grease was one of the biggest American movie blockbusters of all-time. So a sequel set a couple of years later at Rydell starring the latest crop of hot young actors was sure to be a slam-dunk. Well, not exactly.
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Released on June 11, 1982, and starring emerging stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Maxwell Caulfield, Grease 2 did not have the same trajectory as the original. The movie placed #5 after opening weekend, behind E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Rocky III, and Poltergeist.
The movie had arrived with a massive promotional blitz, splashing its young stars' faces all over magazines and newspapers leading up to the release. For her part, Michelle Pfeiffer only auditioned for the role at the behest of a handler.
“I went on a lark,” the actress recalled to James Corden. “My agent said, ‘Oh just go.’ I wasn’t a dancer, I wasn’t a singer, and I was in this short purple skirt with go go boots and we had the dancing auditions. I kept sneaking in the back and finally it was only me."
Critics were quick to savage the film, and Grease 2 was nominated for a "Stinkers Bad Movie Award" for Worst Picture.
"I learnt a pretty hard lesson early on," Caulfield said later. "After Grease 2, the films I was promised never materialized. Michelle was was smart. Right afterwards, she did Scarface with Al Pacino. That showed she had range, that she was versatile. Me? Well, I was stuck for a while with a reputation as a bubblegum actor."
"That film was a good experience for me. It taught me a valuable lesson," Pfeiffer said to the L.A. Times. "Before it even came out the hype had started. Maxwell and I were being thrust down the public's throat in huge full page advertisements. There was no way we could live up to any of that and we didn't. So the crash was very loud. But it did teach me not to have expectations."
The years have been kind to Grease 2, which is now being celebrated by fans that prefer it to the original. Totally '80s' very own Lyndsey Parker makes a strong case for why Grease 2 is indeed better than Grease. Even more recently, The Onion offshoot AV Club jumped on the Grease 2 bandwagon with this post in defense of the film.
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