Jerry Maguire

Cameron Crowe ties the whole professional story to one contract. Jerry is fired over his memo early on and left with one client, and everything after hangs on Rod Tidwell’s new deal. The lines people remember are negotiating positions, not declarations of love. Show me the money was not invented for the film. Crowe was researching alongside the agent Leigh Steinberg at the 1993 league meetings in Palm Springs when Steinberg’s client, the safety Tim McDonald, said it to him. Filming took place at the Arizona Cardinals facility in Tempe, where the famous locker room help scene was shot; the end zone touchdown was shot at Sun Devil Stadium during halftime of the Cardinals and Cowboys game at Christmas 1995. Tidwell’s number 85 comes from the team’s real receiver Rob Moore. The fifty million dollar production took 154 million in North America, 274 million worldwide. The Academy nominated it for best picture, actor, supporting actor, screenplay and film editing; its only win was Cuba Gooding Jr.’s for supporting actor. A good fit if you want one player’s contract to be the knot in both the business plot and the love story. Not for viewers expecting a sports film; there is little football, and the games settle a negotiation, not a result.