Line #7 Trivia/ComingToAmerica


1	* ActingForTwo: Creator/EddieMurphy and Arsenio Hall. Technically, both are Acting For Four.
2	* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget $36 million. Box office $288.8 million[[note]]And according to various sources, could go as far as 350 million[[/note]]. Yes, you are reading this right - Paramount claims ''to this very day'' this film didn't turn profit, despite a lawsuit against the claim. Should [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchwald_v._Paramount that lawsuit]] end up in any other way than outside-the-court settlement, it could potentially put an end to UsefulNotes/HollywoodAccounting.
3	* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/JamesEarlJones was initially interested in playing Cleo, but the creators wanted him to play King Jaffe and managed to persuade him to accept that role instead.
4	* DawsonCasting: The movie opens on Prince Akeem's 21st birthday. Creator/EddieMurphy, who played the prince, was actually 27 at the time.
5	* DeletedScene: Creator/CubaGoodingJr shot a scene in which his character (Boy Getting Haircut) tells Clarence that he does not have money to pay for his haircut. Clarence responds by cutting a big chunk out of the boy's hair. But to Gooding's disappointment, the scene was deleted.
6	* ExecutiveMeddling: Creator/EddieMurphy and Creator/ArsenioHall claim that Paramount pressured them into including a white cast member, so Murphy and Hall decided on Creator/LouieAnderson, [[TokenWhite in order to avoid an all-black cast]].
7	* FakeNationality: Among Creator/EddieMurphy's roles is the Jewish Saul. This was Creator/JohnLandis' idea as a sort of payback for Jewish comedians wearing blackface in the early 1900s.
8	* HeAlsoDid: The tribal dance that accompanies Imani's introduction was choreographed by Music/PaulaAbdul. It's also a high-tempo rendition of the dance from Music/MichaelJackson's "Music/{{Thriller}}" (also directed by Creator/JohnLandis).
9	* HostilityOnTheSet: While Creator/EddieMurphy and Creator/JohnLandis worked together well on ''Film/TradingPlaces'', here they had a clash of personalities, though they did work together again on ''Film/BeverlyHillsCopIII''. Landis recalled:
10	-->The guy on ''Trading Places'' was young and full of energy and curious and funny and fresh and great. The guy on ''Coming to America'' was the pig of the world... But I still think he's wonderful in the movie."
11	** In a ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' interview, Murphy [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJq6QSBX0AIJ5bV?format=jpg&name=medium claimed that they almost came to blows]]:
12	-->We had a tussling confrontation...We didn't come to blows. Personalities didn't mesh. I grabbed him, and he thought I was playing. So he tried to grab my balls and I pushed him away. But I wasn't kidding. He was doing some silly shit that made me mad. He directed me in ''Trading Places'' when I was just starting out as a kid, but he was still treating me like a kid five years later during ''Coming to America''. And I hired him to direct the movie! I was gonna direct ''Coming to America'' myself, but I knew that Landis had just done three fucked-up pictures in a row and that his career was hanging by a thread after the ''[[Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie Twilight Zone]]'' trial. I figured the guy was nice to me when I did ''Trading Places'', so I'd give him a shot...I was going out of my way to help this guy, and he fucked me over. Now he's got a hit picture on his resumé, a movie that made over $200 million, as opposed to him coming off a couple of fucked-up movies – which is where I'd rather see him be right now (laughs).
13	* MissingTrailerScene: There was a scene featured in the theatrical trailer that was cut from the final film. In it, Cleo [=McDowell=], Akeem, and Semmi walk into Cleo's office, where he asks if either of them have had any fast food work experience. Semmi responds "Certainly not!" Akeem then nudges Semmi, and tells Cleo that this is their first job in the United States.
14	* PlayingAgainstType: Eddie Murphy, famous for his fast-talking, StreetSmart characters, instead plays a kind, friendly NaiveNewcomer.
15	* RealitySubtext: The story is largely based Creator/EddieMurphy's frustrations with dating women that were more interested in being with a celebrity than getting to know him as a person.
16	* RecycledTheSeries: A television pilot of a weekly sitcom version of the film was produced for CBS, following the film's success, starring Tommy Davidson as Prince Tariq, and Paul Bates reprising his role as Oha. The pilot went unsold, but was televised on July 4, 1989 as part of the Creator/{{CBS}} ''Summer Playhouse'' pilot anthology series.
17	* TechnologyMarchesOn: If mobile phones were more widespread at the time, Semmi might have texted Akeem that his parents, the King and Queen, are in New York, and he's gone with them to the Waldorf Astoria.
18	* ThrowItIn: [[RuleOfThree Cleo gets interrupted by Darryl three times]]. On the third time, Cleo accidentally stumbles on the stairs. John Amos actually tripped during this take, and it was kept in.
19	* TrendKiller: This film is often credited for having killed off the Jheri Curl hairstyle due to the unflattering "Soul-Glo" parody.
20	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
21	** Creator/SidneyPoitier was considered for King Jaffe Joffer.
22	** Music/VanessaWilliams was originally considered for the role of Lisa [=McDowell=].
23	** In addition to Creator/DonAmeche and Creator/RalphBellamy reprising their roles from ''Film/TradingPlaces'', Paul Gleason was supposed to appear as Clarence Beeks, but he was busy filming ''Film/DieHard''.
24	* WordOfSaintPaul: Creator/SamuelLJackson revealed in his ''Masterclass'' that he played his armed robber character as a JustifiedCriminal who's robbing the store to support his girlfriend and child.
25	* WorkingTitle: ''The Quest''.

Context Trivia / ComingToAmerica