Empire Records is a 1995 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Allan Moyle, written by Carol Heikkinen, and starring an ensemble cast including Anthony LaPaglia, Maxwell Caulfield, Debi Mazar, Rory Cochrane, Johnny Whitworth, Robin Tunney, Renée Zellweger, and Liv Tyler.

Empire Records was theatrically released in the United States on September 22, 1995, by Warner Bros. to generally negative reviews and major box office losses.

While counting the day's receipts in Joe's office, he discovers the store is about to be sold and converted into a branch of Music Town, a large national chain.

Determined to keep the store independent, Lucas hatches a plan, taking the day's cash receipts of approximately $9,000 to a casino in Atlantic City to quadruple it playing craps.

Joe arrives and quickly receives frantic phone calls about the missing deposit from both the bank and the store's owner, Mitchell Beck.

The shoplifter "Warren" returns with a gun (ultimately loaded with blanks), and Lucas defuses the situation by revealing that he himself was a troubled youth until he was taken in and saved by Joe.

Suddenly inspired, Mark runs in front of the news crew covering Warren's holdup, announcing on live TV a late-night benefit party at the store to "Save the Empire".

[2] They brought the script to Michael Nathanson, president of Regency Pictures, and director Allan Moyle, known for Pump Up the Volume became attached.

[14] Two days after Regency Enterprises executive Michael Nathanson gave approval to proceed with making Empire Records, he was approached with the script for Clueless.

[17][2] Exteriors in the Wilmington, North Carolina area also include Riverfront Park; Caffe Phoenix at 9 South Front Street; Cape Fear Memorial Bridge; Wrightsville Beach.

[2]The film was a severe flop,[25][2] making only $150,800 in its opening weekend, and by the end of its run in North America it earned a total of $303,841 against its $10 million budget.

The site's consensus is: "Despite a terrific soundtrack and a strong early performance from Renee Zellweger, Empire Records is mostly a silly and predictable teen dramedy.

[27] Variety wrote "Nice look, great sound and indefinable youth luster will make Records play OK on vid, especially at parties where frenetic aimlessness is not a negative", calling Empire Records a "soundtrack in search of a movie", describing the film as "one teen-music effort that never finds a groove" before adding that "as far as chart action goes, it could use a bullet -- to put it out of its B.O.

misery" [28] TV Guide gave the film 2 stars out of 5, calling it a "lame comedy" that appeared to be little more than "an elaborate excuse to package and peddle a soundtrack CD.

Caroline Westbrook of Empire magazine, gave it 3 out of 5, saying "For all its faults, the good-natured, quirky humour that this for the most part offers ultimately makes it very hard to dislike.

However, the soundtrack album was given to A&M Records in order to obtain the participation of A&M artists the Gin Blossoms,[35] whose track "Til I Hear It from You" was issued as the lead single.

Besides the Gin Blossoms, four other A&M acts had new tracks released on the soundtrack album: Ape Hangers, Drill, Innocence Mission, and Lustre.

The album also introduced tracks by Better Than Ezra, Cracker, the Cranberries, Evan Dando (whose cover of Big Star's "The Ballad of El Goodo" featured Empire Records female lead Liv Tyler on background vocals), and Toad The Wet Sprocket, and by unsigned acts the Martinis, Please, and Coyote Shivers.

Two other tracks from the album had a single release: Edwyn Collins' "A Girl Like You", which charted at #32, and the Ape Hangers' "I Don't Want to Live Today".

[37] "I think we did end up selling 2 million records, which is fucking unbelievable for a movie that did $147,000 at the box office"[7] — Mitchell Leib, a music supervisor for the filmAllMusic.com rated the soundtrack 4 out of 5.

[2] In 2010, Gin Blossoms frontman Robin Wilson said of Empire Records, "[It's] a classic film that only a handful of people really saw, but it definitely made an impact on that generation.

GIFs commemorating the event show Embry's character bounding down the stairs from the store's loft, declaring "Not on Rex Manning Day!!

[44][45] The announcement stated that the show would be produced by Bill Weiner; would have music and lyrics by Zoe Sarnak and its book written by Carol Heikkinen, but was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[citation needed] On December 7, 2021, it was announced that a table reading of the musical would be held at Roundabout Studios in New York City, directed by Trip Cullman with a cast featuring Kathryn Gallagher, Drew Gehling and Rebecca Naomi Jones, among others.

[46][47] On March 7, 2024, it was announced that the musical would have its world premiere at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey, set to run from September 6 - October 6.