The flop 1988 movie that “nobody saw” but will always be one of Kevin Bacon’s proudest moments
Kevin Bacon says *She’s Having a Baby*, the 1988 John Hughes film, remains one of the projects he is proudest of, despite its poor box office reception. The film mattered to Bacon as an attempt to build a leading-man career on his own terms, rather than repeat the crowd-pleasing image he gained from *Footloose*.
Hughes drew on his own experience of family life to tell the story of newlyweds facing pressure to have children. Paramount released *Planes, Trains, and Automobiles*, which Bacon also appeared in, in November 1987; it became a hit, while *She’s Having a Baby* arrived in February 1988 to little attention and low ticket sales. Bacon later called it funny and heartfelt, and said he thought it was Hughes’s best film.
- Bacon remains proud of *She’s Having a Baby*.
- The 1988 film received little attention and sold few tickets.
- He believed it was John Hughes’s best film.
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In the 1980s, Kevin Bacon became widely known through Footloose, a hit film that helped define his public image. She’s Having a Baby was a later John Hughes comedy-drama about newlyweds Jake and Kristy Briggs, played by Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern, as they adjust to marriage and face pressure to start a family.
Hughes drew on his own experience of family life, and the film took a more personal approach than a straightforward crowd-pleasing comedy. It arrived soon after Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, another Hughes film featuring Bacon that had been a box-office success, but received little attention and sold few tickets.