FILM · 1988 · USA
Big Business
27 archived facts 2 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (27)
- #001
Before the cameras rolled on each of Rose Shelton's scenes, Lily Tomlin would spin in a circle several times until she was dizzy, in order to bring out her character's flighty qualities.
- #002
The film was originally written for Barbra Streisand (Bette Midler's role) and Goldie Hawn (Lily Tomlin's role).
- #003
The film's stereophonic sound does not kick in until the end of the prologue, which is set up for the transition to the present day. Up to that point the sound is mono.
- #004
Because the production company could not secure permission to shoot at the Plaza Hotel in New York, it recreated the hotel for the sound scenes. Disney built a sitcom around it to recoup the construction costs: The Nutt House (1989). It was an expensive flop.
- #005
Coincidentally, in 1988, the year this film was released, there were two sets of twin Boys in Colombia who lived through events very similar to the film's. All four boys were born in a hospital in Bogota, and at birth one twin from each pair was switched. One of the twins came from a wealthy family in Bogota, the other from a lower-income family living in a rural farming community. The two groups, each assumed to be twins, grew up thinking they were fraternal twins without realizing each had an identical twin. All four men learned of the switch and separation at birth in their twenties.
- #006
Mary Gross (Judy) and Michael Gross (Jay) are real-life brother and sister.
- #007
Sadie and Rose take their names from screenwriter Marc Reid Rubel's mother and her twin sister.
- #008
Jim Abrahams based one of the meeting-room scenes on an experience of his own, when many employees of a large agency tried to sign him at the same time.
- #009
In West Virginia, the birthplace of both sets of twins was called "Jupiter Hollow." The town the doctor directed them to, "Jane Lew," is a real town in West Virginia. "Jupiter Hollow" is a community in Weston, West Virginia, less than eight miles from "Jane Lew."
- #010
It is the second of two consecutive films by actress-comedian Bette Midler with a connection to William Shakespeare. Midler's previous film, Outrageous Fortune (1987), took its title from a passage in "Hamlet," while Midler's next film, Big Business (1988), had a plot loosely derived from "The Comedy of Errors."
- #011
This was Jim Abrahams's first solo directing effort after Airplane! (1980), Top Secret! (1984) and Ruthless People (1986), which he made with David Zucker and Jerry Zucker.
- #012
The "Dynasty" scene on Sadie's TV is taken from Season 3, Episode 21 (The Vote).
- #013
Although Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin each play two sets of twins, Tomlin is in fact six years older than Midler.
- #014
One scene takes place at FAO Schwarz, next to Central Park in New York City. Another hit film of 1988 also had a scene there; Big (1988) featured Tom Hanks's iconic dance with Robert Loggia on the giant floor piano.
- #015
Brazilian actor José Wilker was set to play Roone Dimmick but withdrew from the project. The role went to Fred Ward.
- #016
Lily Tomlin (Rose) and Michael Gross (Dr. Jay Marshall) later worked together on Grace and Frankie (2015), playing Frankie and Jeff respectively.
- #017
The exact birth order is as follows: (1) Sadie Shelton, (2) Rose Ratliff, (3) Rose Shelton, mistakenly placed with Sadie Shelton, (4) Sadie Ratliff, later placed with Rose Ratliff.
- #018
It was released just one week after the similarly titled Big (1988), starring Tom Hanks, opened in theaters. Box offices showing both films at once had to ask audiences to specify whether they wanted tickets for this film or the earlier one so they would not get confused. This film was a reasonable success, but Big was a far bigger hit both financially and critically, and while Big is now regarded as one of the greatest American comedy films, this film has been largely forgotten since its release.
- #019
Touchstone briefly flirted with the idea of calling the film "Double Trouble."
- #020
Michael Gross and Fred Ward would later work together on Tremors and Tremors 2.
- #021
Fred Ward appears in this film directed by Jim Abrahams. Ward was set to play the villain in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), which Jim Abrahams also executive produced.
- #022
This is the second and, as of August 2013, the last of the two films director Jim Abrahams made with actor-comedian Bette Midler. The first was Ruthless People (1986), shot a few years earlier and the first of the pair to be released.
- #023
The big corporation was a conglomerate called "Moramax." The name resembles that of the real film company "Miramax," which had been an independent group since 1979 at the time this film was made and remained so until The Walt Disney Company bought it in 1993. Ironically, Big Business (1988) was produced by Touchstone Pictures, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.
- #024
The credits included the line "Don't go, it's almost over."
- #025
Principal photography on this picture began in August 1987.
- #026
The location presented as JFK Airport in New York is plainly Los Angeles Airport.
- #027
The rural landscape where the cars pass through a town is located in Cumberland Gap, Tn. There are also several autumn mountain views from the Pinnacle above Cumberland Gap; one looks toward Kentucky and another toward the Virginia side.
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