“Happy Rex Manning Day!”: The unlikely cult-classic status of the ’90s movie ‘Empire Records’
In one of the beginning scenes of the 1995 film Empire Records, directed by Allan Moyle, one of our protagonists, Corey, played by Liv Tyler, skips out of her home, balancing her combat boots, backpack and a box of cupcakes in her arms.
“Happy Rex Manning Day!” she gleefully sings, jumping into her friend, played by Renée Zellweger, Gina’s car.
While Empire Records’ official release date was September 22nd, 1995, the film is often remembered biannually: today, April 8th, marks the unofficial holiday of Rex Manning Day, named after the character played by Maxwell Caulfield, shown in Empire Records to be a comical satire of any given washed-up male pop star. In Rex Manning’s case, he was a one-time 1980s pop idol with a singular hit in the hilarious (and admittedly catchy) ‘Say No More, Mon Amour’, but having now fallen out of popularity, he deigns to sign his latest record, Back with More, at the humble Empire Records in Delaware.
The resentment is mutual: with the exception of Corey, who harbours her adolescent crush on the pop star to the point where, in a moment that has not aged particularly well, she attempts to seduce him, to no avail, the Empire Records staff mock Rex Manning, his looks and his nerve to enter their rock ‘n’ roll temple of a record store. “Freakin’ Rex Manning Day…” the store’s owner, Joe, played by Anthony LaPaglia, grumbles at opening.
The central plot of Empire Records transpires after gathering from his boss’s paperwork that the record store is in danger of being bought out by the Music Town corporation, the record store’s night manager, Lucas, played by Rory Cochran, impulsively takes the $9,000 deposit and attempts to double it by gambling in Atlantic City. Instead, he loses it all, forcing the employees to come together to save their store from being bought out. Still, as one Empire employee, Ethan Embry’s Mark declares…
“We mustn’t dwell… No, not today… We can’t. Not on Rex Manning Day!”
As the film continues over the course of a chaotic Rex Manning Day, the young staff fight through personal turmoil, tackle unrequited love and, most crucial to the story, relentlessly pursue the salvation of their beloved store from the threat of corporate overlords, intrinsically rooted in the decade’s alternative music culture.
Curated by Mitchell Leib, one of the film’s music supervisors, Empire Records’ soundtrack includes music from the Gin Blossoms, Better Than Ezra, The Cranberries, Evan Dando (featuring background vocals from Liv Tyler) and more alternative anthems from the decade. A memorable dance sequence closes the film, soundtracked to The The’s 1980s classic, ‘This Is The Day’, while, in my personal favourite scene in the entire film, Mark eats a pot brownie as he watches the monstrous metal band Gwar perform on TV, soon hallucinating himself being eaten by them onstage.
Music culture also defines the very Rex Manning Day we commemorate today, as April 8th, 1994, marks the day that Kurt Cobain was found deceased in his Seattle home, and thus, in the film, April 8th is chosen as the day that Rex Manning visits Empire Records, a solemn nod to one of the ’90s most formidable figures. The date is never directly referenced in the film; rather, in the Remix: Special Fan Edition DVD version released in 2003, we see a poster advertising Rex Manning’s visit, listing April 8th.
“We shot that the same year they found him,” Embry told The Wrap in 2015, “So it represents the death of a rock star”.
We see a nod to Cobain in Johnny Whitworth’s AJ’s outfit as well, which is a baggy cardigan layered with a checkered button-up jumper and denim jeans, reminiscent of the frontman’s outfit worn for Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance. Now, 31 years later, Rex Manning Day continues to be celebrated with a resounding shout of the film’s slogan, “Damn the man! Save the Empire!”, with cinemas like the Prince Charles hosting screenings annually, while members of the cast commemorate the day on socials.
Considering how adored Empire Records is by both loyal fans who can recall going to the cinema to see it and newer fans rediscovering the film for themselves, it is hard to fathom that, at the time, the film was considered a flop. Its studio, Warner Bros, was unhappy with the final version of the film and therefore, opted not to promote it in any way. Thus, against a budget of $10million, Empire Records only made $150,800 on opening weekend, staying in just 87 cinemas for two weeks before earning a total of $303,841. Where the film was celebrated for its soundtrack, it was heavily criticised for its plot, with Variety calling it “a soundtrack in search of a movie”, while TV Guide rated the film two out of five stars, calling it “an elaborate excuse to package and peddle a soundtrack CD”.
In a way, the critics predicted the soundtrack’s success: featuring just 16 songs out of the 50 featured in the film, the soundtrack reached number 63 on the Billboard 100 chart and made hits out of the Gin Blossoms’ ‘Til I Hear It From You’ and Edwyn Collins’ ‘A Girl Like You’, (peaking at numbers five and seven, respectively). The album sold over two million copies, as cited by Leib, taking on a life of its own against Empire Records’ unfortunate fate.
The film proved to be a slow burn of a success story, as while it took nearly two decades to circle back to the cast, the movie remained a cult classic in the hearts of loyal fans who championed the teen comedy as a capsule of its era. As nostalgia for the ’90s seems to never cease, Empire Records’ depiction of its fashion, music and overall lovable slacker attitude proves to remain one of the best.
In 2013, when an outdoor screening of Empire Records was held in Los Angeles, Embry recalled to Vanity Fair in 2015 that he and a handful of his costars decided, “Let’s just go and watch it and make fun of ourselves”. A photo commemorating the night went viral on X/Twitter and prompted various cast reunions in the coming years.
The literal Empire Records mirrors any given record store of the mid-’90s, a bygone gem of an establishment that, if you’re lucky, still exists for you to peruse and enjoy. The film emphasises this experience of sifting through vinyl, CDs and cassettes, searching for the perfect soundtrack, and rather than drawing straws, the crew draw peanut M&Ms to determine who gets first pick for playing music on the store’s speakers (Mark wins, choosing ‘Seems’ by Queen Sarah Saturday). Customers cycle through the listening booths to cry and dance along to their favourite songs, wear headphones as they perform ballet routines in the aisles and mosh in the centre of the store, completely remiss of the other patrons. In Empire Records, a record store is the centre of the universe, a place where this unruly cast of teenagers reside over the culture that defines them.
As the film continues, we see the employees of the store come together to save their treasured sanctuary and each other. After his visit turns catastrophic, Rex Manning is kicked out of the store by Joe, and “Rex Manning Day” transitions from a celebration of a false pop idol into the day that their store is saved. As the employees openly discuss their addictions, mental health and hidden insecurities, they bond closer than ever before and band together in the common goal of ensuring that Empire Records remains. For all of the film’s humorous and, at times, dated moments, there is a warmth to it that makes its happy ending impactful, all these years later.
