The 1984 "Breakin'" Movies

The movie Dirty Dancing was released in 1987. Three years earlier, in 1984, two movies called Breakin' were released.

1) Breakin' was released on May 4, 1984.

2) Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo was released on December 21, 1984.

The TCM cable television channel recently showed both movies. I recorded, watched and enjoyed them.

Both movies featured the same characters and actors and portrayed the same situation. A rich White girl studying jazz dance gets involved with a bunch of poor Hispanic and Black guys who do breakdancing.

Here are the movies' trailers.

Both movies were quite profitable. The first was made for $1.2 million and earned $38.7 million at the box office. The second was made for a similar cost (the cost is not available, but the two movies appear to have similar costs) and earned $15.1 million at the box office.

The movie Dirty Dancing was made for $6 million and earned $214 at the box office, so it was far more profitable.

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As I watched the two Breakin' movies, I thought about why they did not become as popular as Dirty Dancing. My opinions follow:

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The Breakin' movies had rather poor cinematography, sound, sets, editing and other technical qualities.

The Dirty Dancing producers could hire a much better filming crew, with much better equipment, and could hire better film editors.

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The Breakin' movies did not have attractive star actors. Lucinda Dickey, the actress who played the rich White girl in both movies, acted and danced well, but she had not been and would not become a movie star. Even more so, the movies' male actors lacked star qualities.

Dirty Dancing featured, most importantly, Patrick Swayze. He was a movie star. He already had a fan base. He was extraordinarily attractive and talented. 

The actresses Jennifer Grey and Cynthia Rhodes were not superstars, but they had played important roles in previous movies. Both actresses were well cast for Dirty Dancing.

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The Breakin' plots were trite. In the first movies, one group of breakdancers is informally competing with a second group of breakdancers. In the second movie, the group of breakdancers is putting on a show in order to raise money for neighborhood improvements. The stories are largely about only dancing.

The Dirty Dancing plot portrays the abortion issue, family dynamics, employer-employee relationships and other social issues in a richer manner. Dancing is only one part of a large story.

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The Breakin' movies spend far too much time on dancing scenes. There are many such scenes, and they are long. (This was a problem also with the movie Staying Alive, which I recently reviewed.) Although many people are happy to watch a movie comprising many long dance scenes, much of any movie audience becomes impatient to watch more of a story.

The dance scenes in Dirty Dancing are relatively short. One sequence is rather long -- Wipeout and Hungry Eyes -- but it is divided into short, varied scenes.

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Breakdancing is fun to watch, but few people can imagine themselves doing it. Breakdancing is extraordinarily athletic and even dangerous.

The movie Dirty Dancing is mostly about ballroom dancing. Baby Houseman, an every-girl, learns to do dances that ordinary movie-viewers likewise could learn to do.

Many wedding couples perform the "Time of My Life" dance at their wedding receptions. Practically no wedding couples do a breakdance.

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The Breakin' movies include a couple of inter-ethnic aspects that White movie-goers generally do not want to watch.

* The White girl comes from a rich family. The Hispanic and Black breakdancers are poor. So, there are various embarrassments and resentments along ethnic lines. There is some of this in Dirty Dancing, but far less.

* There is one White girl dancing with a lot of Hispanic and Black guys. White guys generally will not buy movie tickets to watch that unless they are very interested in watching breakdancing itself. White people are becoming more comfortable with interracial dancing, but keep in mind that these two movies were released 34 years ago.

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The Breakin' movies lack romance. The rich White girl seems to be somewhat attracted to one poor Hispanic guy, but a romantic relationship does not develop.

Keep in mind that the Breakin' movies targeted mainly young Hispanic and Black audiences. Well, Hispanic and Black young women do not want to watch a movie about Hispanic and Black guys falling in love with a White girl.

White guys do not like to watch a movie about a White girl falling in love with a Hispanic or Black guy. Likewise, Hispanic and Black girls do not like to watch a movie about a Hispanic or Black guy falling in love with a White girl. Those two dislikes cause the lack of a romantic relationship in the Breakin' movies.

In Dirty Dancing, there is a romantic relationship between Baby and Johnny. Furthermore, there are several other romantic relationships -- between Baby and Neil, between Lisa and Robbie and even between Penny and Neil. No relationship is inhibited or complicated by racial considerations. (Perhaps there is a Jewish-Gentile complication, but it is not considered or even noticed by most of the movie audience.)

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Here are a couple more videoclips from the Breakin' movies.