Grease 2, the sequel to the 1978 blockbuster was released on this day, June 11, back in 1982. The opening of this film however took a back seat to another film released on the same day. A little film that you might have head about that was directed by Steven Spielberg called E.T.

E.T. went on to become the highest-grossing film of the decade and knocked off Star Wars as the all-time box office champ. Grease 2 made a small profit with 15 million at the box office against a 12 million dollar budget. The film also opened to mostly bad reviews.

Grease 2 found a bigger audience on pay cable stations like HBO, Showtime, and The Movie Channel. The film also found a Gen X audience who many were too young to really appreciate the first film when it came out in 1978. Another big impact on Gen X can be summed up in two words: Michelle Pfeiffer.

Many a young Gen Xer fell in love with Pfeiffer who was playing a female version of the John Travolta role in the first film. Her co-star Matthew Caulfield played the clean-cut cousin of Olivia Newton John’s Sandy. Pfeiffer had been in a few movies before Grease 2, but this was her first starring role. She made a bigger splash the following year with her role as Al Pachino’s girlfriend in Scarface. By the end of the decade, she was one of the most in-demand leading ladies in film.

Were you a fan of the movie? Did you have a favorite song or musical sequence from the film?