Even eight years after his passing, Prince remains a singular presence in pop culture. There are truly only a handful of people who, worldwide, can be recognized by one name (with Oprah and Cher also landing on that coveted list). Prince will always be remembered best as one of the most popular recording artists of all time, with chart-topping hits such as “I Wanna Be Your Love” and “Batdance” from the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s “Batman,” just to name a couple. For all of his many accomplishments, Prince’s defining moment came 40 years ago, in 1984, when his hit film “Purple Rain” topped the box office, rocketing him to new heights of stardom.
For as much as the film was a hit, it was downright dwarfed by its accompanying soundtrack. With two number one songs in “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy,” the music permeated the greater cultural landscape well beyond the big screen. At the same time, the buzz from the movie itself helped fuel the success of that album. It was arguably one of the most impressive one-two punches in the history of entertainment, looking back. That’s precisely what we’re going to do in honor of the 40th anniversary of “Purple Rain,” which first hit theaters on July 27, 1984.
Directed and co-written by Albert Magnoli, the film is largely autobiographical and centers on a young musician named The Kid (Prince) who struggles with his own inner demons and his family. But that struggle fuels a sound that transforms him into a star.
Released by Warner Bros. right in the heart of the summer of ’84, “Purple Rain” became a smash hit, pulling in $70 million at the box office against a mere $7 million budget. It won an Oscar for its score and has been widely regarded as one of the greatest musical films ever made. “Purple Rain” was added to the National Film Registry in 2019, deemed worthy of preservation in the Library of Congress.
Purple Rain was a big movie – but the soundtrack was much bigger
“Purple Rain” was actually the film that knocked “Ghostbusters” out of the number one spot during its legendary run at the box office that year. (The classic horror-comedy has been sitting there for seven weeks prior.) Though, in a testament to the power of “Ghostbusters,” it reclaimed the top spot the following weekend. In any event, Prince’s film made a massive impact right out of the gate and went on to have a huge run in theaters for weeks to come.
Anyone will tell you that a film that makes 10 times its budget at the box office is a smash hit. It’s rare air and, anytime something like that does happen, it’s very likely to be the biggest thing anyone associated with it will ever be involved in. Not Prince though. Case in point, even if we ignore the rest of his remarkably prolific career that followed, the “Purple Rain” soundtrack, by every conceivable metric, outdid the movie by leaps and bounds.
The “Purple Rain” soundtrack is one of the 50 highest-selling albums of all time, with 25 million copies (and counting) sold worldwide in the 40 years since it was released, making it by far Prince’s most popular album. It went 13X platinum in the U.S. alone and won three Grammys. Even in the streaming era, the songs remain wildly popular. As of this writing, the album’s title track has more than 481 million streams on Spotify, with “When Doves Cry” sitting at over 253 million, followed by “Let’s Go Crazy” at more than 120 million.
Spotify famously pays terrible rates per-stream to artists but with numbers like that, it adds up. Let us not forget that Prince also had the benefit of people buying the album on multiple formats, including cassette and CD, as well as the MP3 era. Imagine how many times “When Doves Cry” was purchased on iTunes?
Purple Rain made Prince a pop culture superstar
Even if we very conservatively estimate the purchase price per album sold at $5 a pop, those 25 million copies brought in more revenue than the movie did by a country mile. This is to say nothing of the mass revenue brought in by radio play over the years, not to mention tickets to concerts Prince sold on the back of that soundtrack’s popularity. “Purple Rain” the movie made tens of millions. “Purple Rain” the soundtrack easily generated hundreds of millions.
The only thing that even comes close to mirroring this was the success of Eminem’s “8 Mile,” which gave him the number one song, movie, and album in the country at the same time. Even in that case, one imagines Eminem would tip his cap to Prince here because what he did in 1984 paved the way for other musicians to venture into Hollywood in the years that followed. It’s the kind of seismic moment that only a singular star like Prince could be at the center of. The only thing that even sort of compares in recent memory is Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” movie, which was one of the biggest box office surprises of 2023. But even that doesn’t quite measure up to “Purple Rain.”
The summer of ’84 belonged to Prince and, on the back of that fateful summer, he built a legendary career. 100 million records sold worldwide. 19 top 10 Billboard hits. One of the greatest Super Bowl halftime shows ever. And, perhaps most important of all, an appearance on “Muppets Tonight.” In all seriousness, 40 years removed, this is a moment in pop culture history worth remembering. Seriously, how many people can ever say having a huge hit movie is the second-best thing to happen to them at a given moment? Prince may have been popular before “Purple Rain” but this is very much the dividing line between when he went from pop star to immortal icon.
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