Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Renée Zellweger. It was written, co-produced, and directed by

Cameron Crowe. The film was inspired by sports agent Leigh Steinberg, who acted as Technical

Consultant on the crew. It was released in North American theaters on December 13, 1996,

distributed by Gracie Films and TriStar Pictures. The film received very positive reviews, praising

the performances of Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Renee Zellweger and the screenplay.

The film was a financial success, bringing in more than $270 million worldwide, against

its $50 million budget. It was the ninth top-grossing film of 1996.

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for

Tom Cruise, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

The film was also nominated for three Golden Globes, with Tom Cruise winning for Best Actor,

and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. winning Best Supporting

Actor.

Plot Jerry Maguire is a glossy 35-year-old sports

agent working for Sports Management International. He writes a mission statement about perceived

dishonesty in the sports management business which prompts Management to send Bob Sugar,

Jerry's protégé, to fire him. Jerry and Sugar call all of Jerry's clients to try convincing

them not to hire the services of the other. Sugar secures most of Jerry's previous clients.

Jerry speaks to Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell, one of his clients who is disgruntled

with his contract. Rod tests Jerry's resolve through a very long telephone conversation

while Sugar is able to convince the rest of Jerry's clients to stick with SMI instead.

Leaving the office, Jerry announces that he will start his own agency and asks if anyone

is willing to join him, to which only 26-year-old single mother Dorothy Boyd agrees. Meanwhile,

Frank "Cush" Cushman, a superstar quarterback prospect expects to be the number one pick

in the NFL Draft, also stays with Jerry after he makes a visit to the Cushman home. However,

Sugar is able to convince Cushman at the last minute to sign with SMI.

After an argument, Jerry breaks up with his disgruntled fiancée. He then turns to Dorothy,

becoming closer to her young son, Ray, and eventually starts a relationship with her.

However, Dorothy contemplates moving to San Diego as she has a secure job offer there.

Jerry concentrates all his efforts on Rod, now his only client, who turns out to be very

difficult to satisfy. Over the next several months, the two direct harsh criticism towards

each other with Rod claiming that Jerry is not trying hard enough to get him a contract

while Jerry claims that Rod is not proving himself worthy of the money for which he asks.

Jerry marries Dorothy to help them both stay afloat financially and to keep her from moving

away. He is emotionally and physically distant during the marriage but is clearly invested

in becoming a father to Ray. Although Dorothy loves Jerry, she breaks up with him because

she believes that he does not love her. Before the start of a Monday Night Football

game between the Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys, Rod plays well but appears to receive

a serious injury when catching a touchdown. He recovers, however, and dances for the wildly

cheering crowd. Afterwards, Jerry and Rod embrace in front of other athletes and sports

agents and show how their relationship has progressed from a strictly business one to

a close personal one, which was one of the points Jerry made in his mission statement.

Jerry then flies back home to meet Dorothy. He then speaks for several minutes, telling

her that he loves her and wants her in his life, which she accepts. Rod later appears

on Roy Firestone's sports show. Unbeknownst to him, Jerry has secured him an $11.2 million

contract with the Cardinals allowing him to finish his pro football career in Arizona.

The visibly emotional Rod proceeds to thank everyone and extends warm gratitude to Jerry.

Jerry speaks with several other pro athletes, some of whom have read his earlier mission

statement and respect his work with Rod. The movie ends with Ray throwing a baseball

up in the air surprising Jerry. Jerry then discusses Dorothy about Ray's future possible

career in the sports industry. Cast

Janet Jackson auditioned and was initially accepted for the role of Marcee Tidwell, though

it later went to Regina King, who previously co-starred in Jackson's debut film Poetic

Justice. Jackson is referenced twice in the film, with a Janet poster seen hanging in

Teepee's room and Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character Rod Tidwell asking "What Have You Done for

Me Lately?", paying homage to Jackson's hit of the same name.

Cameos Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, ESPN

draft guru Mel Kiper Jr., former NFL quarterbacks Drew Bledsoe, Troy Aikman, and Warren Moon,

German ice skater Katarina Witt, then-current Dallas Cowboys head coach Barry Switzer, and

former Detroit Lions coach Wayne Fontes play themselves in the film.

Other NFL players that make cameos as themselves are Tim McDonald, Johnnie Morton, Rick Mirer,

Rob Moore, Ki-Jana Carter, Herman Moore, Art Monk, Kerry Collins, and Dean Biasucci.

Sportscasters Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Roy Firestone, Mike Tirico, and Dan Dierdorf

also make cameos. Former NBA basketball player Brent Barry is

featured in the film as an athlete who refuses to sign an autograph for a young boy.

Actresses portraying ex-girlfriends of Maguire include Lucy Liu, Ivana Miličević, Alison

Armitage, Emily Procter and Stacey Williams. Reagan Gomez-Preston also had a minor role

in the film as part of the Tidwell family. Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell makes

a brief appearance in the film as a copier store clerk.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay makes a cameo as Jerry Maguire's boss.

Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner is seen briefly as an SMI CEO as Maguire departs the

company. Artie Lange filmed a scene for the film, but

it was cut from the final version of the movie. Product placement

Tristar received merchandise and marketing services of over $1.5 million from Reebok

in exchange for incorporating a commercial into the film and depicting the Reebok brand

within certain agreed-upon standards; when the film was theatrically released, the commercial

had been left out and a tirade including "broadsides against Reebok" was included. When the film

aired on television, the Reebok commercial had been embedded into the film as originally

agreed upon. Release

Box office The film debuted at number one. It earned

$17,084,296 its opening weekend, and eventually grossed $153,952,592 in North American box

office and approximately $119.6 million overseas for a $273,552,592 worldwide total, on a budget

of $50 million. It is the ninth top grossing film of 1996 and the fourth highest-grossing

romantic drama film of all time. Critical response

The film received critical acclaim, with an 85% positive reviews on the film-critics aggregate

Rotten Tomatoes. Its critical consensus states: "Anchored by dazzling performances from Tom

Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Renée Zellweger, as well as Cameron Crowe's tender direction,

Jerry Maguire meshes romance and sports with panache." Cuba Gooding, Jr. won an Academy

Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Rod Tidwell, the Arizona Cardinals football

player who sticks with Maguire. Cruise was also nominated for Best Actor in a Leading

Role and the movie marked Renée Zellweger's breakout role. The film itself was nominated

for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and crew members on the film were nominated for

Best Screenplay and Best Film Editing awards. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave

the film 3/4 stars, writing that there "are so many subplots that Jerry Maguire seems

too full" and also commented that the film "starts out looking cynical and quickly becomes

a heartwarmer." Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote "An exceptionally tasty contempo comedic romance,

Jerry Maguire runs an unusual pattern on its way to scoring an unexpected number of emotional,

social and entertaining points. Smartly written and boasting a sensational cast, Cameron Crowe's

shrewdly observed third feature also gives Tom Cruise one of his very best roles..."

In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Jerry Maguire one of the 100 Greatest Characters

of the Last 20 Years. Accolades

Home media Jerry Maguire was first released on VHS and

Laserdisc on May 29, 1997. It is the best-selling non-Disney VHS tape of all time, with over

3 million copies sold on the first day and another 1 million on the second day and sold

1 million copies each day, including Blockbuster Video, Hollywood Video, Wal-Mart, Target,

Best Buy and many other rental stores/retail chains. The previews shown before the movie

were: My Best Friend's Wedding, Men in Black and Starship Troopers. it was re-released

on VHS around late 1999, without any of the aforementioned previews.

The film was first released onto DVD on June 24, 1997 and around 2002 respectively in both

a standard edition and a two-disc "Special Edition". While the standard edition contains

no special features, the two-disc edition primarily includes deleted scenes, commentary

tracks, featurettes, and a music video for Bruce Springsteen's "Secret Garden." The film

was later released onto Blu-ray on September 9, 2008, with the same special features found

on the second disc of the DVD "Special Edition." Legacy

Jerry Maguire spawned several popular quotations, including "Show me the money!", "You complete

me," "Help me help you," "The key to this business is personal relationships" and "You

had me at 'hello'", and "Kwan," a word used by Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s Tidwell meaning love,

respect, community, and money to illustrate the difference between himself and other football

players: "Other football players may have the coin, but they won't have the 'Kwan'."

These lines are largely attributed to Cameron Crowe, director and screenwriter of the film.

Zellweger said of filming the famous "hello" line, "Cameron had me say it a few different

ways. It's so funny, because when I read it, I didn't get it — I thought it was a typo

somehow. I kept looking at it. It was the one thing in the script that I was looking

at going, 'Is that right? Can that be right? How is that right?' I thought, 'Is there a

better way to say that? Am I not getting it? I just don't know how to do it.'"

A video blog "Everything is Terrible!" is running a campaign to salvage remaining VHS

copies of the movie. In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten Top Ten"—the

best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from

the creative community. Jerry Maguire was acknowledged as the tenth best film in the

sports genre. It was also voted by AFI as #100 on its list of 100 Passions. The quotes

"Show me the money!" and "You had me at 'hello'" were also ranked by AFI on its list of 100

Movie Quotes, ranked #25 and #52 respectively. American Film Institute Lists

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – Nominated

AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – #100 AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:

Secret Garden – Nominated

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: "Show me the money!" – #25

"You had me at "hello."" – #52 "You complete me." – Nominated

AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – Nominated AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated

AFI's 10 Top 10 – #10 Sports Film Soundtrack

The motion picture soundtrack CD includes: Music not on the soundtrack

Includes: AC/DC – "For Those About to Rock"

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass – "The Lonely Bull"

The Durutti Column – "Requiem Again" Nirvana – "Something in the Way"

Tom Petty – "Free Fallin'" The Replacements – "I'll Be You"

The Rolling Stones – "Bitch" Merrilee Rush – "Angel of the Morning"

a clip of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Charles Mingus performing

"Secret Garden", originally a Springsteen track from 1995, was re-released in 1997 after

its exposure in the film and on the soundtrack, and peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot

100. The film was scored by director Crowe's then-wife,

Nancy Wilson, who was a member of the rock band Heart.

References

External links Jerry Maguire at the Internet Movie Database

Jerry Maguire at Metacritic The Jerry Maguire Journal, a log kept by Crowe

during the film's production and published in Rolling Stone in December 1996.

"Things we think and do not say", the memo that led Maguire to establish his own agency.

Archived from the original on November 9, 2012.

Jerry Maguire, film script Leigh Steinberg talks about Cameron Crowe

and the film