50 Fun Facts About Coming to America

Who directed Coming to America, reuniting with Eddie Murphy five years after their first film together?

John Landis directed it, five years after their first film together; the two fell out badly on set, yet reunited for Beverly Hills Cop III in 1994.

Prince Akeem decides to find his own bride on which birthday?

The trigger is meeting Imani, the arranged bride who has been trained since birth to obey his every word.

How many days does King Jaffe give Akeem to see the world before marrying?

King Jaffe grants 40 days; Akeem has just made Imani, the chosen bride, bark like a dog and hop on one foot to prove she has no will of her own.

In which New York borough do Akeem and Semmi go looking for a queen?

Queens is the borough: Akeem reasons that a land called Queens must hold a queen, so he and Semmi rent a run-down tenement flat there.

Lisa's boyfriend Darryl Jenks is heir to which hair-care fortune?

Soul Glo, the Jenks family's hair-care product, leaves a grease stain on every sofa Darryl sits on, and its glossy TV jingle is one of the film's running jokes.

Eddie Murphy's soul singer Randy Watson fronts which band at the neighbourhood rally?

Sexual Chocolate, fronted by the ageing soul man Randy Watson, performs 'The Greatest Love of All' at the Black Awareness Rally to a mostly silent room.

Besides Semmi, which of these characters is played by Arsenio Hall?

Reverend Brown, the sweating preacher who hosts the Black Awareness Rally, is Arsenio Hall under prosthetics; he also plays Morris the barber and the Extremely Ugly Girl, while Clarence and Saul are Eddie Murphy.

Who plays King Jaffe Joffer?

James Earl Jones plays the king and returned for the 2021 sequel; he died in September 2024 at 93.

Which actress plays Queen Aoleon, and would later voice Sarabi in The Lion King?

Madge Sinclair, the Jamaican-born actress who won a 1991 Emmy for Gabriel's Fire, plays Queen Aoleon; she died in 1995, a year after voicing Sarabi.

Who plays Cleo McDowell, Lisa's father and Akeem's boss?

John Amos, who played patriarch James Evans on Good Times, is Cleo McDowell; he returned for the 2021 sequel, in which McDowell's has a Zamunda franchise.

Who plays Lisa McDowell?

Shari Headley plays Lisa McDowell; the other three are also in the film, as the arranged bride Imani, Lisa's sister Patrice and one of the royal rose bearers.

Which future ER star plays Lisa's obnoxious boyfriend Darryl?

Eriq La Salle plays Darryl; he went on to play Dr. Peter Benton on ER for eight seasons from 1994.

According to Arsenio Hall, why did Louie Anderson end up playing McDowell's employee Maurice?

Paramount insisted on a white actor, Hall said in 2020: the studio supplied a list of three white performers, and he and Murphy picked Louie Anderson because they knew and liked him.

Which future star plays the McDowell's robber stopped by Akeem's mop handle?

Samuel L. Jackson, then a little-known stage and TV actor, plays the shotgun-wielding robber whom Akeem disarms with a mop handle, six years before Pulp Fiction.

Which future Oscar winner made his film debut as a boy getting a haircut in the barbershop?

Cuba Gooding Jr., later an Oscar winner for Jerry Maguire, is credited as 'Boy Getting Haircut' in his first film role; Ruben Santiago-Hudson also debuted, as a street hustler.

The homeless men Akeem hands cash to are Mortimer and Randolph Duke, from which film?

Trading Places (1983) introduced the Duke brothers; Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy reprise them as the bankrupt pair who, handed Akeem's cash, exclaim 'Mortimer, we're back!'

Which South African choir sings 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' over the opening sequence?

Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Zulu isicathamiya group that had just appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland, performs 'Mbube', better known as 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight', over the opening.

Eddie Murphy's personal salary for the film was reportedly how much, plus 15% of rentals?

Eddie Murphy's deal was $8 million up front plus 15 percent of the film's rentals; co-star Arsenio Hall, then a stand-up comic, earned a fraction of that.

The director's trademark in-joke 'See You Next Wednesday' appears in the film as what?

A subway poster for a sci-fi movie carries the director's in-joke, glimpsed in a station scene late in the film.

Coming to America received two Academy Award nominations, one for costume design and one for what?

Rick Baker's makeup turned Murphy and Hall into a Jewish pensioner, a soul singer, a barber and a woman nobody wanted to dance with.

Which humourist sued Paramount in 1990, saying the film came from his 1982 treatment about an African potentate?

He won the breach-of-contract case, and Buchwald v. Paramount became the textbook example of Hollywood 'net profit' accounting.

Akeem tells Lisa's family that he comes from a family of what?

Akeem claims to be from a family of poor goat herders; the lie holds until the king and queen and their entourage descend on the McDowell house.

Where does Akeem finally catch up with Lisa to explain himself and propose?

On a subway car, Akeem confesses he is a prince and asks Lisa to marry him; she turns him down, and he returns to Zamunda heartbroken.

The film opened in the US on which date in 1988?

Coming to America opened on Wednesday, June 29, 1988, debuted at number one and finished as the year's third-highest-grossing film in America, behind Rain Man and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Roughly what was the film's production budget?

The budget was about $36 million, and the film earned it back many times over, finishing as one of 1988's biggest hits.

The unsold 1989 sitcom pilot based on the film starred which In Living Color comedian as Prince Tariq?

Tommy Davidson played Prince Tariq in the pilot, which CBS burned off in its Summer Playhouse anthology on July 4, 1989, with Paul Bates back as the servant Oha.

Which group performed the film's promotional title song 'Coming to America'?

The System, the synth-funk duo of Mic Murphy and David Frank, recorded the title song 'Coming to America', released as a single in 1988.

In 2022 Paramount took legal action against a company for doing what?

The pop-ups had operated in Springfield, Virginia and Cherry Hill, New Jersey; the case went to the new Copyright Claims Board.

Siskel and Ebert gave the film 'two thumbs down'. What did Murphy say about that in 2016?

He noted the same pair later called it 'the classic Coming to America' in a retrospective.

Which grade did audiences polled by CinemaScore give the film?

Critics were far cooler: Metacritic's score is 47, and the New York Times said the script had escaped before it was ready.

Which anonymous gift from Akeem does Darryl let Lisa believe came from him?

Earrings: Akeem leaves a pair of expensive earrings for Lisa as an anonymous gift, and Darryl lets her believe they came from him, which helps him propose at the McDowell party.

Who directed Coming 2 America (2021)?

Craig Brewer, the Memphis-based director of Hustle & Flow, directed the sequel, his second film in a row with Eddie Murphy.

The sequel was meant for cinemas but ended up premiering on which streaming service in March 2021?

Prime Video premiered it in March 2021, after Paramount sold the distribution rights to Amazon during the pandemic rather than hold the film for cinemas.

Who plays General Izzi, the sabre-rattling dictator of neighbouring Nexdoria, in the sequel?

Wesley Snipes plays General Izzi, the brother of Imani, the bride Akeem rejected in the first film, and the son of Colonel Izzi.

Akeem's long-lost son Lavelle is found hustling tickets outside which venue?

Madison Square Garden is where Akeem and Semmi find Lavelle, played by Jermaine Fowler, scalping tickets; they bring him and his mother back to Zamunda.

Who plays Lavelle's mother Mary in Coming 2 America?

Leslie Jones plays Mary Junson, who turns out to have drugged and seduced Akeem on his 1988 visit; Tracy Morgan plays her brother Reem.

At the end of the sequel, Akeem changes the law of succession in favour of whom?

Lavelle is made ambassador to the United States instead, and Nexdoria opens up for trade.

Principal photography on the sequel took place mainly in which city?

Atlanta hosted the shoot, largely at Tyler Perry Studios, with rapper Rick Ross's mansion in nearby Fayetteville, Georgia, standing in for the Zamundan palace.

Which of these acts appears as themselves at King Jaffe's pre-funeral in the sequel?

Salt-N-Pepa perform at the king's 'pre-funeral', a send-off he insists on attending alive; En Vogue and Gladys Knight sing too, while Morgan Freeman delivers the narration.

Like the original, Coming 2 America earned an Oscar nomination in which category?

Makeup and hairstyling was the category, recognised at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, 33 years after the original's nominations.

My Dear Marthandan, a remake of Coming to America, was made in which Indian language?

My Dear Marthandan (1990) is a Tamil film, starring Prabhu as the prince; a Hong Kong comedy, The Fun, the Luck & the Tycoon, borrowed the same story the same year.

Which organisation named Coming to America Outstanding Motion Picture and Arsenio Hall Outstanding Supporting Actor?

The film had cancelled its press screenings after a hostile first showing in New York.

Which Chic co-founder composed the film's score and its hair-care commercial jingle?

Nile Rodgers, who scored the whole film, wrote the jingle for Darryl's family hair product; singer Christopher Max performed its vocals.

Roughly how much did Coming to America gross worldwide?

About $289 million worldwide: roughly $128 million in North America plus $161 million overseas; it opened at number one and was Paramount's top earner of 1988.

Which Snoop Dogg song sampled the melody from Prince Akeem's royal bath scene?

A remix with Nas even includes the royal bather's line about the royal penis being clean; a supergroup named itself after Randy Watson.

Which Mel and Kim song from the soundtrack was a UK top-ten hit before the film even opened?

'That's the Way It Is', produced by Stock Aitken Waterman, reached number 10 in the UK in early 1988, months before the film opened.

How much did John Landis reportedly earn for directing, before his 10% of gross receipts?

Murphy later said he hired Landis as a favour after the Twilight Zone trial and felt betrayed, yet they reunited for Beverly Hills Cop III.

How much did Amazon Studios pay Paramount for the distribution rights to Coming 2 America?

$125 million was the reported price, agreed in late 2020 when Paramount, unable to release the sequel in cinemas, sold it to Amazon Studios.

Which Netflix film had the sequel's director made with Eddie Murphy before Coming 2 America?

Dolemite Is My Name (2019) cast Murphy as the blaxploitation showman Rudy Ray Moore; its director and Murphy went straight from it into the sequel.

Which two artists released 'I'm a King', the lead single from the Coming 2 America soundtrack?

Bobby Sessions and Megan Thee Stallion's 'I'm a King' led the Def Jam soundtrack album, released in March 2021 to accompany the film.