Exactly 30 years ago today------On Thursday, May 17, 1990----- Zach Galligan appeared on "The Arsenio Hall Show" to promote the release of the long awaited sequel "Gremlins 2: The New Batch"
The film was ORIGINALLY scheduled to be released on on Friday, May 18, 1990, so obviously they scheduled him to come on May 17th specifically because the film was supposed to open the very next day.
But at the last minute, Warner Bros. decided to make a switch----after having test screenings of the film, where they were getting some of the highest test scores that they had ever got---the studio executives thought they had a huge hit on their hands (they actually DID, they were right about that, lol!)----and then got too overconfident. They started thinking that maybe they could possibly beat the most anticipated film of the summer of 1990 that everyone was looking forward to more than any other, “Dick Tracy”. Of all the many films coming out for the summer of 1990, I remember "Dick Tracy" was the #1 film people were looking forward to more than any other----so Warner Bros. decided then switch the release date to June 15, 1990...
BIG mistake----the film got truly CLOBBERED by Dick Tracy when it opened back-to-back with it, and then unfortunately got lost in the shuffle and was a huge box office disappointment.
If only Warner Bros had not been so greedy, I think the sequel would have been as big a hit as the original---and we would have got a "Gremlins 3" a long time ago!
Well anyways, even though they had already changed the release date, they obviously still decided to have Zach appear on the May 17th show, telling the audience it was "coming soon" rather than "starts tomorrow".
PLEASE NOTE: Absolutely no copyright infringement intended, I am NOT posting this for any type of monetary gain whatsoever, just thought people might enjoy seeing it. I actually even edited out the part of the interview where they showed a clip of the film, just to be on the safe side...