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* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget: $13 million. Gross: $20,378,470
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* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget: $13 million. Gross: $20,378,470$20,378,470. Not the massive flop it's often made out to be, but also not profitable.
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** Because of the obvious Beatles connection, Creator/RichardLester was approached to direct but found the whole concept too bizarre to even consider.
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** Because of the obvious Beatles connection, Creator/RichardLester was approached to direct direct, but found the whole concept too bizarre to even consider.
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** Because of the obvious Beatles connection, Creator/RichardLester was approached to direct but found the whole concept too bizarre to even consider.
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Old Shame is In-Universe only
* CreatorBacklash: For pretty much everyone. In fact, two weeks into production, Music/TheBeeGees tried like hell to get dropped from the film. In [=VH1=]'s ''100 Most Shocking Moments in Rock & Roll'' miniseries from 2001, Music/AliceCooper admitted that if he'd have known how the movie would have turned out, he wouldn't have agreed to be cast. The Bee Gees' lampshaded the experience by saying "it was the best of times, but the worst of films."
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* OldShame: For pretty much everyone. In fact, two weeks into production, Music/TheBeeGees tried like hell to get dropped from the film. In [=VH1=]'s ''100 Most Shocking Moments in Rock & Roll'' miniseries from 2001, Music/AliceCooper admitted that if he'd have known how the movie would have turned out, he wouldn't have agreed to be cast. The Bee Gees' lampshaded the experience by saying "it was the best of times, but the worst of films."
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* ActingForTwo: Music/TheBeeGees as the Henderson Brothers and the voices of Mr. Mustard's fembots.
* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget: $13 million. Gross: $20,378,470
* BreakawayPopHit:
** The film versions of "Got to Get You Into My Life" and "Come Together" were hits for their performers and still turn up on oldies (and, for the latter, classic rock) radio.
** These songs were also {{Breakaway Pop Hit}}s for the soundtrack album, one of the biggest flops in pop music history. Sales were high at first...but then the returns started happening. An estimated ''four million [=LPs=]'' were returned to the label, who ultimately had to destroy hundreds of thousands of copies and remainder the rest of them. Compare this to Music/EarthWindAndFire's "Got to Get You Into My Life" single, which was a Gold-selling top ten hit based on its own merits as a good cover independent of the movie.
* CoveredUp: Music/EarthWindAndFire's performance of "Got to Get You Into My Life" hit #1 on the Soul charts in the U.S., earned the group a MediaNotes/GrammyAward for Best Instrumental Arrangement, and became a mainstay of their concert performances, with the result that it's almost more identified with them than with the Beatles. Many fans will tell you that theirs is the superior performance.
* CreatorDrivenSuccessor: Producer Robert Stigwood had previously had a huge hit with the 1975 film adaptation of ''Music/{{Tommy}}'' and was trying to repeat its success.
* CreatorKiller: This is one of only two known credits that screenwriter Henry Edwards got; the other was on the obscure 1980 film ''The Great Skycopter Rescue''.
* DisownedAdaptation: None of Music/TheBeatles approved of the film. Music/PaulMcCartney and Music/RingoStarr, who both attended the premiere, subsequently shunned the film, while Music/JohnLennon and Music/GeorgeHarrison refused to view the film altogether.
* MethodActing: During the filming of Strawberry's funeral, Music/PeterFrampton forced himself to cry by thinking of the then-recent Music/LynyrdSkynyrd plane crash that claimed the lives of several friends and associates.
* NoExportForYou: The comic book adaptation is an inversion. Despite being published by Creator/MarvelComics, ''Marvel Super Special #7'' was never published in the US due to the film's abysmal performance, but ''was'' released in France, the Netherlands, and (possibly) Japan. Despite what you might expect, instead of simply having the next comic (an adaptation of [[Recap/BattlestarGalactica1978SagaOfAStarWorld the pilot]] of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'') marked as #7, they skipped straight to #8.
* OldShame: For pretty much everyone. In fact, two weeks into production, Music/TheBeeGees tried like hell to get dropped from the film. In [=VH1=]'s ''100 Most Shocking Moments in Rock & Roll'' miniseries from 2001, Music/AliceCooper admitted that if he'd have known how the movie would have turned out, he wouldn't have agreed to be cast. The Bee Gees' lampshaded the experience by saying "it was the best of times, but the worst of films."
* ProductionPosse: This wasn't the first time that Creator/FrankieHowerd had worked with Music/TheBeeGees. He was their co-star in 1970's ''Cucumber Castle'' TV special, which was an earlier attempt to mix Bee Gees music with comedy and fantasy elements (though Robin had briefly left the band for an abortive solo career, so The Bee Gees were just Barry and Maurice at the time).
* SpecialEffectFailure: In every scene where the main characters have to cry, it looks suspiciously like someone from the makeup department just splashed some water on their faces with an eye dropper.
* StarDerailingRole:
** Many of the musicians and actors involved hit career slumps or derailment in the wake of this movie's failure. Sandy Farina probably came off the worst, never acting on the big or small screen again, and her music not getting a whole lot of attention thereafter. Music/PeterFrampton also never acted in another movie and his extremely successful musical career took a significant downturn after 1978. As far as the actors were concerned, Creator/FrankieHowerd seemed to take the brunt of the film's failure, never appearing in another film again and with his TV career mostly hitting the skids in the 80s.
** For a while, it looked like Music/TheBeeGees would survive appearing the movie. They were the biggest musical act in the world in 1978, and their songs (both their own and songs they wrote for others) dominated radio that year. After the film bombed, the band kept going strong, and had three #1 hits in a row with the singles from their next album ''Spirits Having Flown''. Although the group had a great 1979 as a result, that trio of ''Spirits'' hits would be their last chart-toppers. ''Sgt. Peppers'' hurt their reputation enough that the Bee Gees struggled to retain their popularity after disco's demise, and they only had one more Top 10 hit after 1980.
** The only people whose career wasn't killed/nearly killed/affected whatsoever were Creator/SteveMartin,[[note]]He was making his film debut in ''Pepper'' and was so popular at the time as a standup comedian, that even the poor reception of the movie couldn't kill his film career before it started. The fact that he made ''Film/TheJerk'' a year later didn't hurt, either.[[/note]] Music/EarthWindAndFire,[[note]]Whose cover of "Got to Get You Into My Life" was the biggest hit on the soundtrack, and they kept on having having hits afterward with no slump.[[/note]] and Robert Stigwood.[[note]]The creative force behind the movie and the Bee Gees' manager, Stigwood could have very easily ruined his career from the failure of ''Sgt. Pepper''. Lucky for him, he was also the producer of ''Film/{{Grease}}'', released later in 1978, which was such a blockbuster that it completely erased any losses he or his RSO company had from ''Pepper''.[[/note]]
** Creator/GeorgeBurns and Creator/DonaldPleasence also managed to get off relatively lightly, mostly because they had other big hits at the same time (''Film/OhGod'' and ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'' respectively).
** Sadly played straight for Music/{{Aerosmith}}, who should have been one of the least embarrassed parties that were involved with the film. Their "Come Together" cover was a hit, but it would be their last Top 40 entry for ''nine years'' (Music/RunDMC's "Walk This Way" notwithstanding). Around this time, The band was falling apart due to drugs and personality clashes. Needless to say, appearing a historic flop of a movie did not help the band's morale or waning popularity. [[CareerResurrection It got better for them]], but it took nearly a decade for them to return to where they were before they made the film.
** This wound up being Sandy Farina's first and only role in a film, and her ensuing attempt at a singing career wasn't helped by the film's underperformance. Aside from an appearance on ''Series/StarSearch'' and performing the songs "The Pride is Back" and "Body Talk" for the films ''Light of Day'' and ''Film/TheToxicAvenger'', she would make no further forays into film before her death in November 2023.
* WagTheDirector: The shooting script called for Music/PeterFrampton's character to kill Steven Tyler's, but when it came time to film this scene, Music/{{Aerosmith}} threatened to walk out. "There's no fucking way that Steven is gonna get directly offed by Frampton," commented Joe Perry. "It's gotta be an accident, the way it was in the original script we fucking agreed to." They finally agreed to a compromise, with Tyler's character being accidentally pushed to his death by Sandy Farina.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Supposedly ''Music/{{KISS}}'' was approached to play Future Villain Band, but they turned it down. Given the then-recent flop of their own movie, ''KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park'', it's not surprising. (Considering that KISS has become the living embodiment of MoneyDearBoy, in hindsight it would have been oddly appropriate.)
** Music/OliviaNewtonJohn turned down the role of Strawberry Fields.
** Music/DonnaSummer turned down the role of Lucy.
** Music/EltonJohn, Music/BarryManilow and Creator/BobHope were considered for Mr. Kite.
** Creator/OliverReed was considered for the part of Mr. Mustard. But he turned it down because of a falling out with producer Robert Stigwood after making ''Film/{{Tommy}}''.
** Creator/RockHudson and Creator/DorisDay were supposed to play Mr and Mrs Fields.
** Creator/JohnTravolta was asked by Robert Stigwood to appear during the "Our Guests at Heartland" sequence at the end. He declined as he was busy doing a press tour for ''Film/{{Grease}}''.
----
* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget: $13 million. Gross: $20,378,470
* BreakawayPopHit:
** The film versions of "Got to Get You Into My Life" and "Come Together" were hits for their performers and still turn up on oldies (and, for the latter, classic rock) radio.
** These songs were also {{Breakaway Pop Hit}}s for the soundtrack album, one of the biggest flops in pop music history. Sales were high at first...but then the returns started happening. An estimated ''four million [=LPs=]'' were returned to the label, who ultimately had to destroy hundreds of thousands of copies and remainder the rest of them. Compare this to Music/EarthWindAndFire's "Got to Get You Into My Life" single, which was a Gold-selling top ten hit based on its own merits as a good cover independent of the movie.
* CoveredUp: Music/EarthWindAndFire's performance of "Got to Get You Into My Life" hit #1 on the Soul charts in the U.S., earned the group a MediaNotes/GrammyAward for Best Instrumental Arrangement, and became a mainstay of their concert performances, with the result that it's almost more identified with them than with the Beatles. Many fans will tell you that theirs is the superior performance.
* CreatorDrivenSuccessor: Producer Robert Stigwood had previously had a huge hit with the 1975 film adaptation of ''Music/{{Tommy}}'' and was trying to repeat its success.
* CreatorKiller: This is one of only two known credits that screenwriter Henry Edwards got; the other was on the obscure 1980 film ''The Great Skycopter Rescue''.
* DisownedAdaptation: None of Music/TheBeatles approved of the film. Music/PaulMcCartney and Music/RingoStarr, who both attended the premiere, subsequently shunned the film, while Music/JohnLennon and Music/GeorgeHarrison refused to view the film altogether.
* MethodActing: During the filming of Strawberry's funeral, Music/PeterFrampton forced himself to cry by thinking of the then-recent Music/LynyrdSkynyrd plane crash that claimed the lives of several friends and associates.
* NoExportForYou: The comic book adaptation is an inversion. Despite being published by Creator/MarvelComics, ''Marvel Super Special #7'' was never published in the US due to the film's abysmal performance, but ''was'' released in France, the Netherlands, and (possibly) Japan. Despite what you might expect, instead of simply having the next comic (an adaptation of [[Recap/BattlestarGalactica1978SagaOfAStarWorld the pilot]] of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'') marked as #7, they skipped straight to #8.
* OldShame: For pretty much everyone. In fact, two weeks into production, Music/TheBeeGees tried like hell to get dropped from the film. In [=VH1=]'s ''100 Most Shocking Moments in Rock & Roll'' miniseries from 2001, Music/AliceCooper admitted that if he'd have known how the movie would have turned out, he wouldn't have agreed to be cast. The Bee Gees' lampshaded the experience by saying "it was the best of times, but the worst of films."
* ProductionPosse: This wasn't the first time that Creator/FrankieHowerd had worked with Music/TheBeeGees. He was their co-star in 1970's ''Cucumber Castle'' TV special, which was an earlier attempt to mix Bee Gees music with comedy and fantasy elements (though Robin had briefly left the band for an abortive solo career, so The Bee Gees were just Barry and Maurice at the time).
* SpecialEffectFailure: In every scene where the main characters have to cry, it looks suspiciously like someone from the makeup department just splashed some water on their faces with an eye dropper.
* StarDerailingRole:
** Many of the musicians and actors involved hit career slumps or derailment in the wake of this movie's failure. Sandy Farina probably came off the worst, never acting on the big or small screen again, and her music not getting a whole lot of attention thereafter. Music/PeterFrampton also never acted in another movie and his extremely successful musical career took a significant downturn after 1978. As far as the actors were concerned, Creator/FrankieHowerd seemed to take the brunt of the film's failure, never appearing in another film again and with his TV career mostly hitting the skids in the 80s.
** For a while, it looked like Music/TheBeeGees would survive appearing the movie. They were the biggest musical act in the world in 1978, and their songs (both their own and songs they wrote for others) dominated radio that year. After the film bombed, the band kept going strong, and had three #1 hits in a row with the singles from their next album ''Spirits Having Flown''. Although the group had a great 1979 as a result, that trio of ''Spirits'' hits would be their last chart-toppers. ''Sgt. Peppers'' hurt their reputation enough that the Bee Gees struggled to retain their popularity after disco's demise, and they only had one more Top 10 hit after 1980.
** The only people whose career wasn't killed/nearly killed/affected whatsoever were Creator/SteveMartin,[[note]]He was making his film debut in ''Pepper'' and was so popular at the time as a standup comedian, that even the poor reception of the movie couldn't kill his film career before it started. The fact that he made ''Film/TheJerk'' a year later didn't hurt, either.[[/note]] Music/EarthWindAndFire,[[note]]Whose cover of "Got to Get You Into My Life" was the biggest hit on the soundtrack, and they kept on having having hits afterward with no slump.[[/note]] and Robert Stigwood.[[note]]The creative force behind the movie and the Bee Gees' manager, Stigwood could have very easily ruined his career from the failure of ''Sgt. Pepper''. Lucky for him, he was also the producer of ''Film/{{Grease}}'', released later in 1978, which was such a blockbuster that it completely erased any losses he or his RSO company had from ''Pepper''.[[/note]]
** Creator/GeorgeBurns and Creator/DonaldPleasence also managed to get off relatively lightly, mostly because they had other big hits at the same time (''Film/OhGod'' and ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'' respectively).
** Sadly played straight for Music/{{Aerosmith}}, who should have been one of the least embarrassed parties that were involved with the film. Their "Come Together" cover was a hit, but it would be their last Top 40 entry for ''nine years'' (Music/RunDMC's "Walk This Way" notwithstanding). Around this time, The band was falling apart due to drugs and personality clashes. Needless to say, appearing a historic flop of a movie did not help the band's morale or waning popularity. [[CareerResurrection It got better for them]], but it took nearly a decade for them to return to where they were before they made the film.
** This wound up being Sandy Farina's first and only role in a film, and her ensuing attempt at a singing career wasn't helped by the film's underperformance. Aside from an appearance on ''Series/StarSearch'' and performing the songs "The Pride is Back" and "Body Talk" for the films ''Light of Day'' and ''Film/TheToxicAvenger'', she would make no further forays into film before her death in November 2023.
* WagTheDirector: The shooting script called for Music/PeterFrampton's character to kill Steven Tyler's, but when it came time to film this scene, Music/{{Aerosmith}} threatened to walk out. "There's no fucking way that Steven is gonna get directly offed by Frampton," commented Joe Perry. "It's gotta be an accident, the way it was in the original script we fucking agreed to." They finally agreed to a compromise, with Tyler's character being accidentally pushed to his death by Sandy Farina.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Supposedly ''Music/{{KISS}}'' was approached to play Future Villain Band, but they turned it down. Given the then-recent flop of their own movie, ''KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park'', it's not surprising. (Considering that KISS has become the living embodiment of MoneyDearBoy, in hindsight it would have been oddly appropriate.)
** Music/OliviaNewtonJohn turned down the role of Strawberry Fields.
** Music/DonnaSummer turned down the role of Lucy.
** Music/EltonJohn, Music/BarryManilow and Creator/BobHope were considered for Mr. Kite.
** Creator/OliverReed was considered for the part of Mr. Mustard. But he turned it down because of a falling out with producer Robert Stigwood after making ''Film/{{Tommy}}''.
** Creator/RockHudson and Creator/DorisDay were supposed to play Mr and Mrs Fields.
** Creator/JohnTravolta was asked by Robert Stigwood to appear during the "Our Guests at Heartland" sequence at the end. He declined as he was busy doing a press tour for ''Film/{{Grease}}''.
----
