{"id":227566,"date":"2025-10-27T04:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T04:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/227566\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T04:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T04:38:09","slug":"how-two-movies-almost-destroyed-bill-murrays-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/227566\/","title":{"rendered":"How two movies almost destroyed Bill Murray&#8217;s career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img width=\"1140\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Bill-Murray-Actor-2018-Harald-Krichel-Far-Out-Magazine--1140x855.jpg\" class=\"attachment-single-feature size-single-feature wp-post-image\" alt=\"Bill Murray - Actor - 2018 - Harald Krichel\" layout=\"fill\"  style=\"object-position: 50% 50%\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(Credits: Far Out \/ Harald Krichel)<\/p>\n<p> Sun 26 October 2025 20:00, UK <\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, actors know that the film they\u2019ve signed on to star in is going to be a runaway success, but on other occasions, they have to take a knowing risk and assume that a slightly less commercial venture could be the one that garners them attention. For <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/tags\/bill-murray\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Bill Murray\">Bill Murray<\/a> in the late 1990s, he had found himself in the latter camp for the first time in over a decade.<\/p>\n<p>Having starred as Peter Venkman in two massively successful <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/the-ghost-busters-the-show-ghostbusters-ripped-off-twice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\u2018The Ghost Busters\u2019: The show that \u2018Ghostbusters\u2019 ripped off twice\">Ghostbusters<\/a> films, and also impressed with turns in other comedies such as Caddyshack and Groundhog Day, the 1980s and early \u201890s were a fruitful period for the actor, and it appeared that he could do no wrong, especially if appearing in films of this genre.<\/p>\n<p>However, the latter half of the decade proved to throw a few obstacles in his way, and while his work in films during this period experienced a few forms of decline in quality, the films he was starring in also weren\u2019t successful, and were largely ignored by both the public and by critics. Sometimes, it\u2019s hard to avoid a dry spell, but understandably, it was something that frustrated Murray, and he wasn\u2019t entirely sure what else he could do to revitalise his career.<\/p>\n<p>Larger Than Life was a comprehensive failure, unable to meet the same box office figures as other family-oriented films that came out around the same time, with Jingle All the Way and Space Jam, which Murray had a cameo in, both stopped his lighthearted comedy alongside an elephant from having any success. After this, his next film, The Man Who Knew Too Little, a spy parody based on <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/alfred-hitchcocks-abandoned-titanic-movie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s abandoned \u2018Titanic\u2019 movie: \u201cThe craziest thing I ever heard\u201d\">Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s<\/a> The Man Who Knew Too Much, also bombed at the box office, and while it wasn\u2019t panned like Larger Than Life, it still didn\u2019t provide Murray with the lift he needed.<\/p>\n<p>Murray would try to justify his drought during an interview with Foreign Press. \u201cI realised, after movies like Ghostbusters, that I shouldn\u2019t give up even if the movie didn\u2019t have a ride at Disney World. I realised I don\u2019t need a blockbuster audience,\u201d he argued. While this may have been true, it didn\u2019t explain why the films he was appearing in were so lacklustre.<\/p>\n<p>He continued by trying to defend both Larger Than Life and The Man Who Knew Too Little, claiming that there were no issues with either of the films he\u2019d starred in. \u201cThose movies had good premises,\u201d he argued. \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of good premises, and at a certain point, I went, \u2018Jesus, one of these films has to hit.\u2019 But either way, I\u2019m too far in. I can\u2019t give up now just to chase money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This 1999 interview came during a press conference to promote Rushmore, the film he\u2019d just worked on for <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/benicio-del-toro-favourite-wes-anderson-movie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"Benicio del Toro\u2019s favourite Wes Anderson movie: \u201cIt\u2019s a dark horse\u201d\">Wes Anderson<\/a>, and while this wasn\u2019t necessarily a smash hit, it garnered a cult following and saw him develop a close working relationship with the director, going on to appear in multiple of his films throughout the subsequent years. Not only that, but his appearance in Lost in Translation in 2003 would add to the resurgence of Murray, and even though he may think differently about this late \u201890s blip, it\u2019s clear that the quality of the films he was starring in were becoming significantly greater, and it helped get his career back on track.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Harald Krichel) Sun 26 October 2025 20:00, UK Sometimes, actors know that the film&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[14718,96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-227566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-bill-murray","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}