Will the Runaways Movie Be a Hit or a "Cherry Bomb"?

The long anticipated movie based on the 1970's all-girl rock band, The Runaways, opened in limited release this past weekend, but it had a weak start. According to The Huffington PostThe Runaways, which stars Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart, grossed only slightly over $800,000 during its limited release in 244 theaters. But does that mean the movie will be a total bomb? The Runaways will be released nationwide on April 9, 2010.

In case you were born after 1975, The Runaways were an all-girl band started by teenagers Sandy West and Joan Jett. While the band had a few incarnations over the few years they were together, West and Jett were later joined by singer Cherie Currie, guitarist Lita Ford and bassist Jackie Fox (at one point, former Bangle's member Micki Steel was in The Runaways). The band's biggest his were "Cherry Bomb" and "Queens of Noise " and the girls were known for wearing lingerie and fishnets on stage. Most people know Joan Jett went on to bigger and better things, but what about the rest of the band?

I was actually a little too young to really know who The Runaways were in their heyday, although I remember Cherie Currie in the 1980 Jodie Foster movie, Foxes. This was back when cable TV was new in our town, and Foxes aired over and over again on the Philadelphia cable channel, Prism. I must have seen it 100 times. Currie played a doped out teen in the movie. I had no idea when I was watching it that she was the lead singer of the girl band, The Runaways.

A few years later, Joan Jett made it big with her band The Blackhearts. "I Love Rock and Roll" was number one on the Billboard charts for 7 weeks in 1982, putting Jett on the mainstream map. This was back when MTV was new, so Jett's single was in heavy rotation on the music video network. I thought she was cool, with her black eyeliner and black leather jacket, and I heard the buzz that she was a former member of The Runaways, but I still didn't know their music.

Then in 1988, rocker Lita Ford had a big hit with her solo album. Lita, which featured a duet with Ozzy Osbourne, "Close My Eyes Forever". Again, I was hearing all about The Runways, Ford's former band. If only we had had the Internet back then, I could have pulled up some YouTube videos and seen just who this Runways band was.

Of course today you can see all of The Runaways videos online, check out websites devoted to the band and see the bandmate's individual websites. Cherie Currie, who was married to actor Robert Hays in the 1990's, is now a professional chainsaw woodcarver and of course Jett still rock and rolls.

So will The Runways bleak limited release numbers indicative of what the movie's nationwide opening will be? With stars Dakota Fanning as Currie and Twilight's Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, young fans may just clamor to see what all the buzz is about the "old fashioned" music their parents used to listen to.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/21/alice-wins-as-jude-the-ru_n_507507.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Runaways

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Rock_'n'_Roll

http://www.chainsawchick.com/