John Travolta’s two top-grossing films, Saturday Night Fever and Grease, came out eight months apart in the late ‘70s, leaving big shoes to fill for subsequent decades of cinema. 28-year-old Timothée Chalamet has become the first actor since John to break the record thanks to his roles in the recently released movies Wonka and Dune: Part 2.
Being a supportive trailblazer, John Travolta took to social media and congratulated Chalamet for his success. “Congratulations Timothée! It’s great to have someone to share my box office record with. Sincerely, JT,” he wrote to the 28-year-old, alongside a screenshot of an article highlighting the news of his box-office record.
John Travolta’s box office success
Travolta was only 23 when he played Tony Manero in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. The movie arguably put Travolta in the limelight, and he once described it as “the blueprint for everything that has happened to me.”
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“It put me on the map. It was my first Academy Award nomination. It earned critical acclaim and awards for the performance,” he said, adding that his role “solidified my abilities as an actor to the masses and to the press and to my own peers.”
So far, Saturday Night Fever has made over $237 million at the box office, nearly 68 times its original budget of $3.5 million. The movie earned the Bees Gees band a Grammy for Album Of The Year in 1979 and received many more recognitions, including four Golden Globe nominations and multiple BAFTA nods. “It was really an evolution of sorts; it started to become a social phenomenon. It was getting rave critical notices all over.” Travolta said in retrospect.
The actor looked forward to playing ‘Grease’s’ Zuko
Months after Saturday Night Fever was released, Travolta played Danny Zuko in Grease, featuring the late Olivia Newton-John. Its soundtrack album came second to Saturday Night Fever as the best-selling album of the year in the United States, with the track “Hopelessly Devoted to You” receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. There have been multiple revivals of Grease, including a 1982 sequel starring Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer and a 2023 prequel TV by Paramount + series Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies. A prequel film titled Summer Lovin’ is reportedly in production as well.
Travolta has previously admitted that landing the role of Zuko was “a dream come true” as he had practiced long before turning up on set. “I knew that character like the back of my hand. I knew what worked, and I knew what didn’t work. I knew what was cool looking in moves. I knew how to comb my hair, how to pose, and how to be cool because all I could do as the other character, Doody, was watch the coolest character — which was Danny, for over a year.”
