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Kingpin (1996 film)

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Kingpin
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPeter Farrelly
Bobby Farrelly
Written byBarry Fanaro
Mort Nathan
Produced byBrad Krevoy
Steve Stabler
Bradley Thomas
Starring
CinematographyMark Irwin
Edited byChristopher Greenbury
Music byFreedy Johnston
Production
companies
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer[2]
Release date
  • July 26, 1996 (1996-07-26)
Running time
114 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25 million[4]
Box office$32.2 million

Kingpin is a 1996 American sports comedy film directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly and written by Barry Fanaro and Mort Nathan. Starring Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid, Vanessa Angel and Bill Murray, it tells the story of an alcoholic ex-professional bowler (Harrelson) who becomes the manager for a promising Amish talent (Quaid).

It was filmed in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,[5] as a stand-in for Scranton, Amish country, and Reno, Nevada.

The film was released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) on July 26, 1996, with a budget of $25 million. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $32.2 million.

Plot

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In 1979, in Ocelot, Iowa, bowling prodigy Roy Munson leaves home to pursue a professional career. In his debut, he defeats narcissistic pro bowler Ernie McCracken. Seeking revenge, McCracken convinces Roy to help him hustle local amateur bowlers for extra cash. When their scheme is discovered, McCracken escapes, leaving Roy behind with their victims, who destroy Roy's bowling hand in a ball return, ending his career.

Seventeen years later, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Roy is a cynical, scheming alcoholic, who wears a prosthetic rubber hand, and whose surname has become synonymous with failure and squandered potential. At a bowling alley, Roy meets naive Ishmael Boorg, a member of the local Amish community. Roy immediately recognizes Ishmael's bowling talent and offers to help him turn professional, but Ishmael declines, as his community frowns on his hobby. After Roy is forced to have sex with his elderly landlady to pay his rent, he sees an advertisement for a bowling tournament in Reno, Nevada, offering a $1 million prize. Roy infiltrates Ishmael's community to convince him to enter the tournament—he agrees after learning his family's farm is going to be seized by the bank.

Under Roy's coaching, Ishmael improves rapidly, and the pair earn money through local tournaments and hustles, including defeating wealthy bowling enthusiast Stanley Osmanski. Stanley assaults his girlfriend Claudia after she mocks his loss, and threatens to kill Roy for using counterfeit money to bet on their game. Roy, Ishmael, and Claudia flee, journeying together towards Reno. Roy and Claudia develop a combative relationship, each accusing the other of exploiting Ishmael. Their hostility eventually escalates into a fistfight, during which Ishmael runs away.

While searching for him, Roy and Claudia inadvertently drive through Ocelot. The pair bond after Roy confesses that he never returned to his hometown—not even for his father's funeral—out of shame for failing to live up to his father's expectations. They continue their journey and eventually find Ishmael, rescuing him from forced servitude as an exotic dancer.

In Reno, the trio encounters McCracken, now a national bowling superstar. McCracken reveals a past relationship with Claudia and mocks Roy, provoking Ishmael, who breaks his bowling hand attempting to punch him. Later, Stanley confronts Claudia, and she leaves with him—taking all the money the trio earned during their journey.

Ishmael convinces Roy to take his place in the tournament. Using his rubber hand, Roy gradually regains his confidence and wins the crowd's support, earning the nickname "The Rubber Man." He advances to the televised finals against McCracken, but Ishmael's brother arrives to take him back home. Left alone, Roy is devastated when McCracken wins the tournament by a single pin.

Days later, Stanley confronts Roy, claiming that Claudia has run off with his money and had been calling McCracken repeatedly. Roy angrily denies any involvement with McCracken—whom he had blamed for his failures—but now accepts that he is responsible for the loss of his hand and the state of his life. Stanley leaves to confront McCracken.

Some time later, Roy has returned home and discarded all his alcohol. Claudia arrives and explains that she left with Stanley to stop him from pursuing Roy and Ishmael, then led him after McCracken, hoping to get some revenge. She confesses her feelings for Roy, who reveals that although he lost the tournament, he earned $500,000 from an endorsement deal with Trojan condoms as "The Rubber Man." They visit Ishmael's family and recount the moral strength and decency he showed throughout their journey—qualities that helped change them for the better. Roy gifts his earnings to the Boorgs to save their farm before driving off with Claudia.

Cast

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  • Woody Harrelson as Roy Munson, the 1979 Iowa State Amateur Bowling Champion and a bowling prodigy. Munson loses his right hand after being caught in a hustle and abandoned by Ernie McCracken. He spends the next seventeen years as an alcoholic before meeting Ishmael.
  • Randy Quaid as Ishmael Boorg, an Amish man struggling to find his place among his people. He meets Roy after sneaking out to go bowling and decides to accompany Roy to Reno in a quest to save his home from foreclosure.
  • Vanessa Angel as Claudia, a beautiful woman who was dating Stanley until he physically abused her. She joins Ishmael and Roy and helps them earn the money they need to travel to Reno.
  • Bill Murray as Ernie "Big Ern" McCracken, Munson's arch-enemy. McCracken convinces the naive Munson to help him scam other bowlers but abandons Munson to face the consequences.
  • Lin Shaye as Mrs. Dumars, Roy's landlady.
  • Rob Moran as Stanley Osmanski, Claudia's ex-boyfriend. He pursues Claudia, Roy, and Ishmael across the country trying to get revenge for losing Claudia.
  • Chris Elliott as the gambler
  • Chris Schenkel as himself
  • Morganna, the Kissing Bandit as herself
  • P. W. Evans as himself

Cast notes:

Reception

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Box office

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See also: 1996 in film

Kingpin was released in the United States and Canada on July 26, 1996. During its opening weekend it grossed a total of $5.6 million from 1,956 theaters—an average of $2,853 per theater—making it the fifth-highest grossing film of the weekend, behind Courage Under Fire ($5.7 million) in its third week of release, and ahead of Supercop ($5.5 million) in its first.[8] In its second weekend, Kingpin fell to the number 6 position with a $4.5 million gross—a 19.3% drop from the previous week—placing it behind Phenomenon ($5.1 million), in its fifth weekend, and ahead of Courage Under Fire ($4.45 million).[9] In its third weekend, Kingpin fell to the number 10 position with a $2.86 million gross, placing it behind The Nutty Professor ($2.9 million), in its seventh weekend, and ahead of Twister ($1.6 million), in its fourteenth.[10] Kingpin left the top ten highest-grossing films by its fourth weekend.[11]

In total, Kingpin grossed $25 million in the United States and Canada, making it the 72nd-highest-grossing film of 1996.[11][12] Outside of the United States and Canada, Kingpin is estimated to have grossed a further $7.2 million, giving it a worldwide gross of $32.2 million, and making it the 65th-highest-grossing film of the year.[4][13]

Critical response

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of 40 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Kingpin has its moments, but they're often offset by an eagerness to descend into vulgar mean-spiritedness."[14] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[15] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B−" on a scale of A+ to F.[16]

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times had one of the more noteworthy positive reviews, giving Kingpin three and a half stars out of a possible four. He wrote that not all the jokes worked, but those that did were exceptionally funny because "you can’t see a lot of the laughs coming."[17] Gene Siskel of The Chicago Tribune also endorsed the film, putting it on his list of the ten best films for 1996.[18]

Nancy Gerstman mentioned the film as one of the nine most underrated films in the 1990s.[19]

In 2018, Vulture.com listed it at #2 on a list of Woody Harrelson's best films.[20]

Home media

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When released on DVD, Kingpin came in its original PG-13 theatrical version (113 minutes) and an extended, R-rated version (117 minutes).

Both versions are available on the Blu-Ray disc issued by Paramount Pictures on October 14, 2014.

References

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  1. ^ "Kingpin (1996)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on May 25, 2018. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  2. ^ "Kingpin (1996)". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on May 25, 2018. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  3. ^ "KINGPIN (12)". British Board of Film Classification. June 6, 1996. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  4. ^ a b "Kingpin (1996)". The Numbers. Archived from the original on May 25, 2018. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  5. ^ "City lands good share of movies" Archived November 21, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. The Vindicator. December 10, 1995. Archived at Google News. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
  6. ^ Berkowitz, Joe (December 30, 2016). "The Farrelly Brothers' Oral History of "Kingpin," Twenty Years Later". Fast Company. Archived from the original on July 11, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  7. ^ "The Lost Roles of Jim Carrey". March 17, 2011. Archived from the original on July 29, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  8. ^ "Domestic 1996 Weekend 30 July 26-28, 1996". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on February 9, 2025. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  9. ^ "Domestic 1996 Weekend 31 August 2-4, 1996". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on October 14, 2024. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  10. ^ "Domestic 1996 Weekend 32 August 9-11, 1996". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on October 24, 2022. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  11. ^ a b "Kingpin". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on January 22, 2025. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  12. ^ "Domestic Box Office For 1996". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on February 21, 2025. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  13. ^ "Top 1996 Movies at the Worldwide Box Office". The Numbers. Archived from the original on February 15, 2025. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  14. ^ "Kingpin (1996)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on July 5, 2022. Retrieved June 15, 2022.
  15. ^ "Kingpin Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved December 31, 2019.
  16. ^ "Cinemascore". Archived from the original on December 20, 2018. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  17. ^ Roger Ebert. "Kingpin". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on July 28, 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2006.
  18. ^ "TOP TEN MOVIES: 1969-1998". Chicago Tribune. October 15, 1999. Archived from the original on September 13, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  19. ^ "Film Comment's Best of the Nineties Poll: Part Two". Archived from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
  20. ^ "Every Woody Harrelson Movie Performance, Ranked". November 11, 2019. Archived from the original on July 11, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
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