Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy Sets 25th Anniversary Re-Release in Cinemas

The Mummy’s 25th anniversary is being celebrated this month as Brendan Fraser’s 1999 adventure movie returns to cinemas for one week only. Years after its original release, The Mummy, continues to be one of Fraser’s much-loved movies, and now a new generation will have the opportunity to watch it on the big screen.

The Mummy (1999)

Release Date

May 7, 1999

Runtime

2hr 4min

Studio

Universal Pictures, Alphaville Films

Tagline

The sands will rise. The heavens will part. The power will be unleashed.

Directed by Stephen Sommers and boasting an ensemble cast including Rachel Weisz, Kevin J. O’Connor, Arnold Vosloo, John Hannah, and Oded Fehr, The Mummy delivered an old school action-adventure to rival the likes of the Indiana Jones franchise, and it continues to be a go-to movie for many looking for some old-school thrills while attempts to reboot the franchise – yes, that Tom Cruise movie – have fallen by the wayside.

With a box office haul exceeding $415 million globally against an $80 million budget, The Mummy revitalized Universal’s monster film legacy, leading to two sequels and sparking a spin-off series centered around The Scorpion King, a character immortalized by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and some initially very ropey CGI. The franchise’s enduring popularity is helped along by audiences unwavering love for lead Brendan Fraser, and the actor is still asked whether there is a chance that he will return to the franchise again in the future now he is once again a hot property in Hollywood.

Tickets for the week-long event, which begins on April 26, are available across major theater chains, including AMC, Regal, and Marcus Theaters/Movie Tavern, but with limited screenings, those wanting to get their seats to relive the thrills of The Mummy will need to get in quick.

The Mummy is Still a Game-Changing Movie

The Mummy delivers one of the most memorable blockbuster movies of the late-1990s, with its almost “MCU-before-MCU” mix of action, humor, big set pieces, and a touch of the fantastical. The story of Evelyn Carnahan’s (Weisz) quest, alongside Rick O’Connell (Fraser) and her brother Jonathan (Hannah), to uncover ancient treasures while inadvertently awakening the cursed High Priest Imhotep, is one that has so much more than more recent attempts to reboot the franchise have delivered.

The appeal of the film is something that Universal have been trying to recapture for years, and the 2017 Tom Cruise movie was the one that they believed would do the job and be the first stepping stone of their shared “Dark Universe.” However, we all know where that story went, and now Universal have found reasonable success with their reimaginings of their classic movie monsters such as Dracula and The Invisible Man.

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However, while many of those movies have taken a much darker and more contemporary route, 1999’s The Mummy tapped into the kind of adventure movie that is not seen very often in modern cinema. Films such as Uncharted and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny have recently brought a little of that nostalgic adventure yarn back to cinemas, but for those who remember The Mummy the first time around, and those who don’t, this one of the few chances you will get to witness it as it was intended.