Glitter | |
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Directed by | Vondie Curtis-Hall |
Screenplay by | Jess Mariano |
Story by | Cheryl West |
Produced by | Laurence Mark |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Geoffrey Simpson |
Edited by | Jeff Freeman |
Music by |
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Production companies | |
Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 104 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $22 million[2] |
Box office | $5.3 million[2] |
Glitter is a 2001 American romantic musical drama film starring Mariah Carey, Terrence Howard and Max Beesley, written by Kate Lanier, and directed by Vondie Curtis Hall. Carey plays Billie Frank, an aspiring singer who, along with her friends Louise (rapper Da Brat) and Roxanne (Tia Texada), is a club dancer. Timothy Walker (Terrence Howard) offers them a contract as backup singers/dancers to another singer. At the premiere of the song they record, Billie meets Julian "Dice" Black (Max Beesley), a nightclub DJ, who helps her in her solo career. In the process, Billie and Dice fall in love.
Carey began working on a film and soundtrack project titled All That Glitters in 1997. However, during that period, her label Columbia Records pressured her to release a compilation album in time for the holiday season in November 1998. Consequently, Carey put All That Glitters on hold. Following this, she aimed to complete the film and album project for the summer of 2001. Shooting began in Toronto and New York at the end of September 2000. Carey used the time to work on the soundtrack of the film, along with Eric Benét and Da Brat, who also appeared in the film. Before its release, Carey was suddenly hospitalized, citing "extreme exhaustion" and a "physical and emotional breakdown". Due to this, the film and soundtrack release were both postponed for three weeks. The film was released on September 21, 2001, ten days after the release of the accompanying soundtrack on September 11, 2001.
Glitter was heavily panned by critics and audiences and was a box-office bomb. Reviewers were highly disappointed with the film, and Carey's performance as an actress was widely panned, earning her a Golden Raspberry Award for worst actress. This also caused the film to receive negative commentary on social media sites, with Carey herself later admitting that she regretted being part of the film. Some went on to call it one of the worst films ever made. Glitter opened in 1,996 American theaters, and grossed $2.5 million in its first week, with a worldwide total of $5.3 million. The soundtrack of the film achieved moderate commercial success and went on to sell over two million copies worldwide, considerably less than Carey's previous releases.