Heaven Can Wait (1978)
81%RT Audience Score: 68%
Awards & Nominations: Won 1 Oscar
9 wins & 14 nominations total
A throwback to the high-gloss screwball comedies of the 1940s, Heaven Can Wait beguiles with seamless production values and great comic relief from Charles Grodin and Dianne Cannon
Heaven Can Wait is a movie that’s so light and fluffy, it’s like a cloud made of cotton candy. Warren Beatty plays a football player who dies and comes back to life, and while that might sound like a heavy premise, the movie is anything but. It’s a delightful romp through the afterlife, with plenty of laughs and a sweet romance to boot. Sure, it’s not the most profound movie you’ll ever see, but sometimes you just want to sit back, relax, and enjoy a movie that’s as charming as it is silly. Heaven Can Wait fits the bill perfectly.
Production Company(ies)
Amigo Media,
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Filoli Estate – 86 Cañada Road, Woodside, California, USA
MPAA / Certificate
PG
Year of Release
1978
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Mono
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 41m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Jun 28, 1978 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 27, 1999
Genre(s)
Comedy/Fantasy
Keyword(s)
starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Jack Warden, James Mason, Dyan Cannon, Charles Grodin, Buck Henry, directed by Warren Beatty, Buck Henry, written by Harry Segall, Elaine May, Warren Beatty, Robert Towne, comedy, fantasy, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Nicholas Wapshott, Judith Martin, Frank Rich, Variety Staff, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Geoff Brown, PG rating, Paramount Pictures, produced by Warren Beatty, Joe Pendleton, Betty Logan, Max Corkle, Mr Jordan, Julia Farnsworth, Tony Abbott, seamless production values, comic relief, guardian angel, afterlife, environmental activist, football player, multimillionaire industrialist, Super Bowl game, romantic comedy, light summer reading, likable, sweet, big laughs, populist politics, billowy sequences set in heaven, murder plot, supporting cast, touching romance, crafty commercial entertainment, intelligence, Julie Christie’s presence
Worldwide gross: $81,640,278
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $399,917,565
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 387
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 43,611,512
US/Canada gross: $81,640,278
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $399,917,565
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 119
US/Canada opening weekend: $3,652,486
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $17,891,822
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 712
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Julie Christie – Betty Logan
Jack Warden – Max Corkle
James Mason – Mr. Jordan
Dyan Cannon – Julia Farnsworth
Charles Grodin – Tony Abbott
Directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry
Produced by Warren Beatty
Written by Harry Segall, Elaine May, Warren Beatty, Robert Towne
Director(s)
Warren Beatty, Buck Henry
Writer(s)
Harry Segall, Elaine May, Warren Beatty, Robert Towne
Producer(s)
Warren Beatty
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Won 1 Oscar
9 wins & 14 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Best Achievement in Art Direction Winners, Oscar Nominees, Oscar Winners
All Critics (47) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (6)
Beatty can carry off this sort of whimsy by playing it straight and keeping the ludicrous premise credible. But the film is dogged by the nagging vision of what might have been.
July 13, 2020
Nicholas Wapshott
Times (UK)
TOP CRITIC
This is a very sweet movie to watch, the pleasant cinematic equivalent of light summer reading.
August 30, 2016
Judith Martin
Washington Post
TOP CRITIC
[The film] has everything going for it: big laughs, populist politics, billowy sequences set in heaven, a murder plot, a climactic Super Bowl game, a supporting cast of choice comic actors, and best of all, a touching (but PG) romance.
January 24, 2014
Frank Rich
TIME Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Heaven Can Wait is an outstanding film.
March 26, 2009
Variety Staff
Variety
TOP CRITIC
It’s certainly likable enough and was a big hit when it came out, but one could hardly call it an auspicious artistic debut — a crafty commercial entertainment with a certain amount of intelligence is more like it.
March 21, 2007
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
The film drags its feet uncertainly from beginning to end.
February 9, 2006
Geoff Brown
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
Warren Beatty starred in, co-directed and co-wrote this fluffy, light-as-air romantic comedy about a football player who comes back from the dead as a sort of a proto-Forrest Gump.
June 27, 2022 | Rating: 3/5
Christopher Lloyd
The Film Yap
Beatty’s determined yet charming Joe is formidable, naïve, and optimistic all at the same time
December 29, 2021 | Rating: 4/5
Allison Rose
FlickDirect
A wonderful piece of entertainment that’s as funny as it is fanciful.
December 4, 2021 | Rating: 4/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
Not much meat here, but there are generous helpings of what we say we want: laughs, lovely ladies and cute men and a trouble or two made all better by any number of decent folks before the final frame.
November 5, 2021
Ginger Varney
L.A. Weekly
Beatty reached his commercial and creative zenith with this movie. Having May, Henry and Towne picking up some of the slack behind the camera certainly helped but it’s clear he had the final word on every creative aspect of this unforgettable classic.
October 24, 2021 | Rating: 5/5
Michael Clark
Epoch Times
Despite its superficialities and plot confusions, Heaven Can Wait is an interesting movie to watch, mainly because of the presence of Julie Christie.
May 12, 2021
Marina Hirsch
Berkeley Barb…
Plot
Joe Pendleton is a football quarterback preparing to lead his team to the Superbowl when he is almost killed in an accident. An overanxious angel plucks him to heaven only to discover that he was not ready to die, and that his body has been cremated. Another body must be found without his death being discovered, and that of a recently murdered millionaire is chosen. His wife and accountant, the murderers, are confused by this development, as he buys the Los Angeles Rams in order to once again quarterback them into the Superbowl. At the same time, he falls in love with an English environmental activist who disapproves of his policies and actions.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Charles Grodin provides great comic relief in Heaven Can Wait.
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