Richie Rich (film)

Richie Rich (stylized as Ri¢hie Ri¢h) is a 1994 American children's adventure comedy film directed by Donald Petrie. The film is loosely based on the comic character of the same name created by Alfred Harvey and Warren Kremer. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. under their Family Entertainment label. The film stars Macaulay Culkin (in his final film as a child actor; he began work as an adult in 2003), John Larroquette, Edward Herrmann, Jonathan Hyde, and Christine Ebersole, while Reggie Jackson, Claudia Schiffer, and Ben Stein appear in cameo roles. Culkin's younger brother, Rory Culkin, played the part of Young Richie Rich. In theaters, the film was shown with a Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon called Chariots of Fur, and was followed by the 1998 direct-to-video stand-alone sequel Richie Rich's Christmas Wish.

Richie Rich
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Donald Petrie
Screenplay by	Tom S. Parker Jim Jennewein
Story by	Neil Tolkin
Based on	Richie Rich by Alfred Harvey Warren Kremer
Produced by	Joel Silver John Davis
Starring	Macaulay Culkin John Larroquette Edward Herrmann Jonathan Hyde Christine Ebersole
Cinematography	Don Burgess
Edited by	Malcolm Campbell
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Production companies	Silver Pictures Davis Entertainment The Harvey Entertainment Company
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	December 21, 1994 (1994-12-21)
Running time	94 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Box office	$76 million

Plot

Richie Rich, "the world's richest boy", lives in Chicago with his billionaire parents Richard Sr. and Regina. Under the care of butler Herbert Cadbury, scientist Professor Keenbean, and Dollar the Dog, Richie enjoys a luxurious but lonely life. At Richard's reopening of a United Tool factory, Richie sees union rep Diane Koscinski's daughter Gloria and her friends playing sandlot ball, and tries to befriend them.

Lawrence Van Dough, the CFO of Rich Industries, plots with head of security Ferguson to kill the Riches and steal their fortune, believed to be stored in a secret vault. Ferguson plants a bomb among the Riches' gifts for Elizabeth II's birthday as they prepare to leave Chicago to visit her. Cadbury convinces Regina to let Richie stay home instead and arranges for a day with the sandlot, accompanied by Diane. Though initially bribed by Cadbury to come and play, the kids decline the money after genuinely having fun with Richie.

Flying the plane themselves, Richard and Regina discover the bomb just before it explodes, crashing the plane into the ocean. Stranded on a life raft, Richie's parents are presumed dead, and Van Dough takes control of Rich Industries. He attempts to close the factory, prompting Richie to assume company leadership, with Cadbury as his legal guardian and business proxy. Determined to seize the Riches' fortune, Van Dough has Cadbury framed for the bomb, arrested, and petitions to take over as Richie's legal guardian. He then regains control of Rich Industries, removing Richie as the company's leader, evicting the remaining family servants, and installing his security team at Rich Manor to keep Richie prisoner.

Overhearing Van Dough's plan to have Cadbury killed in jail, Keenbean warns Richie, who sneaks out and rescues Cadbury. They enlist the help of Gloria and Diane. Meanwhile, Van Dough and Ferguson threaten Keenbean into revealing that the family vault requires a voice-activated code from Richard and Regina. At sea, Richard eventually repairs his "Dadlink", a device allowing Richie to track him anywhere in the world. Richie finds the Dadlink's signal using Gloria's computer, but Ferguson intercepts the coordinates and kidnaps Richard and Regina.

Richie and Gloria rally the sandlot kids to help break into Rich Manor with Cadbury and Diane, using Keenbean's inventions against Van Dough's men. However, one of Van Dough's men, Nash, eventually captures the group. Van Dough forces Richard and Regina to take him to the vault, while Ferguson and Nash force Richie, Cadbury, Diane, Gloria, Tony, Omar, and Pee Wee into a molecular reorganizer. Ferguson and Nash's plan to turn them into bedpans is thwarted by Keenbean, who gets Nash stuck to his invention of Cementia and knocks a blinded Ferguson out with help from his invention Robobee. Richie takes a bag of Keenbean's inventions to save Richard and Regina.

Holding Richard and Regina at gunpoint, Van Dough is led to the vault hidden within "Mount Richmore", their gigantic mountainside family portrait that is in the process of being 3-D laser-carved into the rock. Once through the voice-activated doors, however, Van Dough discovers that none of the family's financial assets are inside the vault, but what the Riches value most: treasured family mementos and heirlooms. Richie confronts Van Dough, who shoots him, but the bullets prove harmless thanks to Keenbean's bulletproof spray. Van Dough pursues the Riches down the side of the mountain. The Riches come under attack from carving-laser blasts shot by Ferguson. Cadbury follows Ferguson and they fight; Cadbury eventually wins by bashing Ferguson over the head with a concrete picture of Regina, saving the Riches. Cadbury fires the laser at Van Dough, who ends up hanging upside down for dear life. Despite not liking to fire staff, Richard allows Richie to fire Van Dough, and Regina punches him in the face.

Days later, Richie plays baseball with Gloria and his new friends for the United Tool team in Rich Manor's yard, coached by Cadbury, who kisses Diane. Van Dough and Ferguson serve as the manor's gardeners as part of their work release.

Cast

• Macaulay Culkin as Richie Rich
  • Rory Culkin as Young Richie Rich
  • Peter Lampley as Baby Richie Rich
• John Larroquette as Laurence Van Dough - the greedy CFO of Rich Enterprises, who plots to steal the Rich family fortune.
• Edward Herrmann as Richard Rich - the father of Richie.
• Jonathan Hyde as Herbert Arthur Runcible Cadbury - the Rich family's trustworthy butler.
• Christine Ebersole as Regina Rich - the mother of Richie.
• Stephi Lineburg as Gloria Koscinski - Richie's friend.
• Michael McShane as Professor Keenbean - a RoboBee brilliant inventor who works for Rich Industries.
• Mariangela Pino as Diane Koscinski - Gloria's mother and a love interest for Cadbury.
• Chelcie Ross as Ferguson - the Rich family's rude and tough security chief, who plots with Van Dough to usurp the Rich empire.
• Michael Maccarone as Tony - the second friend of Richie.
• Joel Robinson as Omar - the third friend of Richie.
• Jonathan Hilario as Pee Wee - the fourth friend of Richie.
• Reggie Jackson as Himself - Richie's private baseball coach.
• Matt DeCaro as Dave Walter - the plant manager for United Tool.
• Claudia Schiffer as Herself - Richie's private aerobics instructor.
• Ben Stein as Economics Teacher
• Sean A. Tate as Reynolds
• Joel Ellegant as Ellsworth
• Justin Zaremby as Reginald
• Eddie Bo Smith as Ambler

Production

Harvey Comics had been attempting to develop a film adaptation of Richie Rich since the early 1980s when Ricky Schroder was eyed as a potential candidate for the lead role before financial problems at Harvey saw the project shelved.^[2] Fred Savage was in talks to star in Richie Rich as a potential project during hiatus from The Wonder Years until stalled development saw the actor aged out of consideration for the role.^[2][3] By 1991, Savage was replaced with Macaulay Culkin.^[4] In September 1993, it was reported Culkin's father/business manager, Kit Culkin, abused his director-approval privilege rejecting both John G. Avildsen and Joe Johnston and refusing to even attend meetings with director candidates David Mickey Evans, Peter Hewitt and Bryan Spicer.^[5][6] Warner Bros. executives became frustrated to the point they ended negotiations with Culkin in search of a new actor.^[5] A week later, it was reported that attempts were being made to repair the rift between Culkin and Warner Bros.^[6] The draft when Avildsen was attached would've taken inspiration from The Prince and the Pauper and featured Culkin in a Dual role.^[7] The following month, when asked about the possibility of Culkin coming back to the film Joel Silver said, "it's over as far as I'm concerned".^[8] By December of that year, it was reported that Macaulay Culkin was reattached to Richie Rich with a guaranteed $8 million and $10 million option if a sequel were made on the condition that Kit Culkin relinquish his director-approval privilege.^[9]

Biltmore Estate, where many of the scenes were filmed.

Though set in Chicago, the house and grounds at which most of Richie Rich is filmed are those of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Some scenes, however, are filmed in Chicago, including a fencing scene filmed at DePaul University's Cortelyou Commons & the Ravenswood Manor neighborhood including the Francisco stop on the CTA Brown line. The roller coaster in the backyard is the former stand-up roller coaster Iron Wolf at Six Flags Great America. In contrast to the famous publication and animated series, a few characters are eliminated to accommodate the film: among them are Irona the robot maid.

Data East was one of few regular pinball companies that manufactured custom pinball games e.g. for the film Richie Rich. This pinball machine was based on The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard machine.^[10]

Reception

The film has been met with mixed-to-negative reception. A Los Angeles Times reviewer praised the actors' portrayal of characters in the film.^[11] Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars saying he was surprised how much he enjoyed it and said that though it was not the greatest film, he liked that it had style and did not go for cheap payoffs.^[12] Richie Rich earned a Razzie Award nomination for Macaulay Culkin as Worst Actor for his performance in the film (also for Getting Even with Dad and The Pagemaster) but lost the award to Kevin Costner for Wyatt Earp.^[13]

Richie Rich received a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 4.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "With Macaulay Culkin barely registering any emotion, Richie Rich feels disjointed and free of a sense of fun and wonderment."^[14] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[15] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.^[16]

The film grossed $38 million at the box office in the United States and Canada^[17] and the same internationally^[18] for a worldwide total of $76 million on a $40 million budget.^[19][20] It was an even bigger home video success, with $125 million in VHS rentals^[21] and, as of April 1997, $44.2 million in retail sales, the studio receiving 75%.^[22]

Year-end lists

• Fifth worst – Sean P. Means, The Salt Lake Tribune^[23]

Sequel

Richie Rich's Christmas Wish is a 1998 direct-to-video sequel starring David Gallagher in the titular role.