Coming to America (1988)

An African prince travels to America to find a suitable woman to marry.

Director:

John Landis

Writers:

Eddie Murphy (story), David Sheffield (screenplay)

Stars:

Eddie Murphy, Paul Bates, Garcelle Beauvais

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Paul Bates	...	Oha
Eddie Murphy	...	Prince Akeem / Clarence / Saul / Randy Watson
Garcelle Beauvais	...	Rose Bearer
Feather	...	Rose Bearer
Stephanie Simon	...	Rose Bearer
Victoria Dillard	...	Bather / Dancer
Felicia Taylor	...	Bather
Midori	...	Bather (as Michele Watley)
James Earl Jones	...	King Jaffe Joffer
Madge Sinclair	...	Queen Aoleon
Sheila Johnson	...	Lady-in-Waiting
Arsenio Hall	...	Semmi / Morris / Extremely Ugly Girl / Reverend Brown
Raymond D. Turner	...	T-Shirt Hawker
Calvin Lockhart	...	Colonel Izzi
Billi Gordon	...	Large Woman

Storyline

It is the 21st birthday of Prince Akeem of Zamunda and he is to marry a woman he never saw before. Now the prince breaks with tradition and travels to America to look for the love of his life.

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Plot Keywords:

female nudity | reference to cassius clay | reference to joe louis | incognito royalty | looking for love | 

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Taglines:

The Four Funniest Men in America are Eddie Murphy

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 June 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Quest

Filming Locations:

392 S 5th Street, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$39,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$128,152,300

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$160,600,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Eddie Murphy Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

(At around five minutes) The instrumental song playing while Prince Akeem is having his royal penis cleaned was sampled into "That's That Sh!t" performed by Snoop Dogg featuring R. Kelly in 2006.

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Goofs

(at around 1h 29 mins) In a scene where Mr. McDowell is in his office, he picks up the company manual and it says "McDonald's." The restaurant is called McDowell's, a parody of McDonald's, but the manual actually says McDonald's on it. However, that is actually the joke - since McDowell's has deliberately copied every aspect of McDonald's (as evidenced by the guy taking pictures of the restaurant earlier in the film), it would not be surprising that Mr. McDowell would have a copy of the manual.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Rose Bearer: Good morning, Your Highness.
Rose Bearer: Good morning, Your Highness.
Rose Bearer: Good morning, Your Highness.
Oha: Happy birthday, Your Highness.
Prince Akeem: [thinks] Yes, it *is* my birthday.

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Crazy Credits

Eddie Murphy - as the old white man in the barber shop - says: "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait stop right there! Listen: Stop right there, man. A man goes into a restaurant. You listenin'? A man goes into a restaurant, and he sits down, he's having a bowl of soup and he says to the waiter, waiter come taste the soup. Waiter says: Is something wrong with the soup? He says: Taste the soup. He says: Is there something wrong with the soup? Is the soup too hot? He says: Will you taste the soup? What's wrong, is the soup too cold? Will you just taste the soup?! Allright, I'll taste the soup - where's the spoon?? Aha. Aha! ... Whadaya know from funny, you bastards?"

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Connections

Followed by Coming 2 America (2020)

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Soundtracks

I Got It
Written by Nile Rodgers and Nancy Huang
Performed by Eddie Murphy
Produced by Nile Rodgers

User Reviews

Royal Laughs

COMING TO AMERICA (1988) *** Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Madge Sinclair, Shari Headley, John Amos, Eriq La Salle, Louie Anderson. Murphy does a fine job as an African prince unhappy about his upcoming nuptials to a woman he has never met so he sets off to New York to find his true love (and queen) with some sweet moments as well as comic (thanks largely to his and Hall's neat hat trick of playing several different characters thanks to the miracle of Rick Baker's make up). Look sharply for Vondie Curtis Hall (of tv's "Chicago Hope") as an overly welcoming fellow native stateside; Cuba Gooding Jr. in a blink-and-you'll miss cameo (getting a haircut) and the clever inserting of Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy as the Randolph Brothers from Murphy's and director John Landis' previous joint effort "Trading Places". Best bit: Murphy becoming a real New Yorker and greeting a screaming abusive neighbor with "Yes! Yes! ... and F**K YOU TOO!!!"