Cinema Blend
Bette Midler And Hocus Pocus Just Won The Straight Outta Compton Meme Game
BY GREGORY WAKEMAN
August 11, 2015
To promote Straight Outta Compton the film’s producers created a rather ingenious meme that allows people to put a picture of themselves behind the film’s title, with Compton replaced by said individual’s hometown. It’s a harmless, quick, fun gimmick. But everyone needs to stop doing it now because Better Midler just won. And her victory is even more emphatic because no-one actually knew it was a competition. Check out her game, set and match Straight Outta Compton meme below:
Classic Middler. She’s always flying the Hocus Pocus flag as high as she can. As you probably already guessed, Better Midler’s meme is in reference to her turn as the witch Winnie Sanderson in Hocus Pocus, a role that saw her star opposite Kath Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker, who completed the trifecta of witches from Salem, Massachusetts.
Released in 1993, Hocus Pocus actually received terrible reviews when it hit cinemas. Sometimes these negative reviews still result in a bountiful box office return. But that wasn’t the case with Hocus Pocus, either, which grossed the relatively paltry sum of $39.5 million from a $28 million budget.
Despite these issues though, Hocus Pocus has since garnered a cult following amongst movie fans. This was mainly because of strong DVD sales and the fact that it has been repeatedly aired on or around Halloween for around two decades now.
In fact, its cult popularity has become so fervent that rumors surrounding a possible sequel to Hocus Pocus have started to manifest over the last few years. Back in 2014, after Disney announced that Tina Fey was working on a supernatural-themed film about witches for the studio, fans instantly assumed that it was a follow-up. These were later debunked.
However, a couple of months ago, Better Midler insisted that she was simply waiting in the wings to return for a Hocus Pocus 2, while she also insisted that Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy were just as interested . Nothing has been mentioned since. This is probably why Midler decided to take to Twitter to suggest the most unlikely cinematic crossover in the history of celluloid. Ice Cube + Better Middler + rap + witches = I’m sold.
On a more serious note, Straight Outta Compton is out this Friday. Fingers crossed it makes enough money for Straight Outta Salem: Cube vs Midler to be greenlit soon after.
