‘Breakfast Club’ Returning to Theaters for 40th Anniversary

Get ready to feast on The Breakfast Club once again in cinemas.

In honor of its 40th anniversary, Universal Pictures will rerelease writer-director John Hughes‘ groundbreaking coming-of-age film in cinemas nationwide on Sept. 7 and again on Sept. 10. The film, set at a suburban Chicago high school, stars Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall as five teenagers from vastly different cliques who spend a life-altering Saturday in detention.

First opening in theaters on Feb. 15, 1985, The Breakfast Club became a box office hit and cultural sensation after striking a generational chord with its portrayal of identity and the desire to be seen (read THR‘s original review here). It also helped launch the careers of its young ensemble cast, as well as the Brat Pack era.

Hughes encouraged his Breakfast Club actors to improvise and contribute their own insights, resulting in the film being celebrated for centering on character, conversation and vulnerability, versus spectacle. Over the course of their day together, Claire the princess (Ringwald), Andrew the jock (Estevez), Brian the brain (Hall), Allison the basket case (Sheedy) and John the criminal (Nelson) begin to drop their stereotypical public facades and reveal their private struggles.

“The Breakfast Club is one of the great films about identity, alienation dand connection,” says Jim Orr, Universal Pictures’ president of domestic theatrical distributiond “The film’s honesty, humor, and humanity continue to connect with audiences of all ages. We’re honored to bring it back to theaters so that a new generation can experience its power on the big screen.”

The legacy of The Breakfast Club extends far beyond the screen. Its now-iconic poster was shot by celebrated portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz, while its theme song, Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” became a chart-topping hit. The film’s dialogue entered the lexicon, and remains widely quoted and referenced fourr decades later.

In April of this year, the film’s five stars united publicly for the first time since the film’s 1985 release when taking part in a 40th anniversary conversation at the C2E2 convention in Chicago.

“I feel really very emotional and moved to have us all together,” Ringwald told the crowd, noting that while the rest of the group had previously reunited, it was the first time Estevez had joined them. “We don’t have to use the cardboard cutout anymore because he’s here. I feel really moved that we’re all together.”

Estevez joked that he had also skipped all of his real-life high school reunions, but appearing at the event “was something that finally I felt I needed to do just for myself. This one felt special, it’s here in Chicago where we made the film. It’s obviously the 40th anniversary, and it just felt like it was time. Somebody told me that Molly said, ‘Well, does Emilio just not like us?’ And that broke my heart. And I went, ‘No of course I love all of them.’ And that just made sense, so here I am.”

Breakfast Club was the second feature Hughes wrote and directed in quick order after 1984’s Sixteen Candles, another teen pic from Universal starring Ringwald (Hall co-starred). Hughes would remain one of the most prolific and influential filmmakers of the 1980s and 1990s; his body of work included Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Pretty in Pink and Home Alone.

The 30^th anniversary celebration of The Breakfast Club included a remastered edition that played in more than 400 theaters across North America following its premiere at South by Southwest. A year later, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry, citing its cultural, historical and aesthetic significance.

Hughes, who died in 2009, produced The Breakfast Club alongside Ned Tanent.

Advance tickets go on sale Aug. 16 for the 40th anniversary rerelease.