Hook
1991 · 144 min
Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by J. M. Barrie, James V. Hart, Malia Scotch Marmo. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins.
The boy who wasn't supposed to grow up—Peter Pan—does just that, becoming a soulless corporate lawyer whose workaholism could cost him his wife and kids. During his trip to see Granny Wendy in London, the vengeful Capt. Hook kidnaps Peter's kids and forces Peter to return to Neverland.
Critics 37% · audiences 76% · streaming on Paramount+, Philo, YouTube (free) · $120 million in the US and Canada on its first run · about 28 million tickets sold, 11% of the country · 4 Oscar nominations
How it got made
The genesis of the film started when Spielberg's mother Leah often read him Peter and Wendy as a bedtime story. He explained in 1985, "When I was 11 years old, I actually directed the story during a school production. I have always felt like Peter Pan. I still feel like Peter Pan. It has been very hard for me to grow up, I'm a victim of the Peter Pan syndrome".
In the early 1980s, Spielberg began to develop a film with Walt Disney Pictures that would have closely followed the storyline of the 1924 silent film and 1953 animated film. He also considered directing it as a musical with Michael Jackson in the lead. Jackson expressed interest in the part, but was not interested in Spielberg's vision of an adult Peter Pan, who had forgotten about his past.
The project was taken to Paramount Pictures, where James V. Hart wrote the first script, with Dustin Hoffman already cast as Captain James Hook. It entered pre-production in 1985, with filming to begin at sound stages in England. Elliot Scott had been hired as production designer. With the birth of his first son, Max, in 1985, Spielberg decided to drop out. "I decided not to make Peter Pan when I had my first child," Spielberg commented. "I didn't want to go to London and have seven kids on wires in front of blue screens. I wanted to be home as a dad." Around this time, he considered directing Big, which carried with it similar motifs and themes. In 1987, he "permanently abandoned" it, feeling he expressed his childhood and adult themes in Empire of the Sun.
At the box office
Spielberg, Williams and Hoffman did not take salaries for Hook. Their deal called for them to split 40% of TriStar Pictures' gross revenues. They were to receive $20 million from the first $50 million in gross theatrical film rentals, with TriStar keeping the next $70 million in rentals before the three resumed receiving their percentage.
Hook was released in North America December 11, 1991, earning $13.5 million in its opening weekend. It went on to gross $119.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $181.2 million in foreign countries, accumulating a worldwide total of $300.9 million. It is the sixth-highest-grossing pirate-themed film, behind all five films in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. In the United States and Canada, it was the sixth-highest-grossing film in 1991, and fourth-highest-grossing worldwide. It was the second-highest-grossing film in Japan, with theatrical rentals of $22.4 million. It ended up making a profit of $50 million for the studio, yet it was still declared a financial disappointment, having been overshadowed by the release of Disney's Beauty and the Beast and a decline in box-office receipts compared to the previous years.