# Rules Don't Apply
**Rules Don't Apply** is a 2016 American romantic comedy-drama written, directed, produced by, and starring [Warren Beatty](https://www.edgepedia.org/warren-beatty) as the billionaire [Howard Hughes](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-hughes), released by 20th Century Fox on November 23, 2016.[1](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/rules-dont-apply) • [2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply) Set in Hollywood in 1958, it follows Marla Mabrey ([Lily Collins](https://www.edgepedia.org/lily-collins)), a devout Baptist beauty queen under contract to Hughes, and Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich), her driver, whose mutual attraction defies Hughes's rule that no employee may have any relationship with a contract actress.[2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply) Beatty had developed the project since the early 1970s, and it was his first film as a director since *Bulworth* (1998) and his first acting role since *Town & Country* (2001).[3](https://time.com/4406022/rules-dont-apply-trailer-warren-beatty/) • [4](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-rules-dont-apply-trailer-20160714-snap-story.html) Despite a production budget of $26.7 million, it earned $3,871,448 worldwide.[2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | November 23, 2016 (wide, United States), 20th Century Fox; PG-13; 127 minutes[2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply) |
| Filmmaker | Written, directed, and produced by Warren Beatty, who also stars as Howard Hughes[1](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/rules-dont-apply) |
| Principal cast | Warren Beatty, Lily Collins, Alden Ehrenreich, Annette Bening, Matthew Broderick[1](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/rules-dont-apply) |
| Box office | $3,652,206 domestic; $3,871,448 worldwide, against a $26,700,000 production budget[2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply) |
| Critical reception | Metascore 60 (mixed or average), from 40 critic reviews[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/rules-dont-apply/critic-reviews/) |
| Recognition | Lily Collins nominated for a 2017 Golden Globe[6](https://www.tvweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/OFFICIAL-2017-Golden-Globe-Nominations-Press-Release.pdf) |
| Development | Beatty had considered a Hughes project since the early 1970s, roughly four decades before release[3](https://time.com/4406022/rules-dont-apply-trailer-warren-beatty/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and characters
The story is set in 1958 Hollywood. Marla Mabrey, a small-town beauty queen and devout Baptist, arrives in Los Angeles under contract to Howard Hughes's stable of aspiring actresses. At the airport she meets Frank Forbes, her assigned driver, a deeply religious Methodist engaged to his seventh-grade sweetheart. Their attraction tests their religious convictions and violates Hughes's rule that no employee may have any relationship whatsoever with a contract actress. Hughes's behavior intersects with each of them separately, and as they are drawn into his world their values are challenged.[2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply)
Hughes keeps a stable of 26 aspiring actresses, housed in apartments and given acting lessons, while he remains largely unseen; Frank is eventually promoted into his circle of aides, catering to whims such as ordering 350 gallons of the discontinued banana nut ice cream flavor.[7](https://www.filmcomment.com/deep-focus-rules-dont-apply/) • [8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/warren-beatty-returns-to-the-screen-in-rules-dont-apply/2016/11/22/bf725dac-afef-11e6-be1c-8cec35b1ad25_story.html) [Annette Bening](https://www.edgepedia.org/annette-bening) plays Marla's mother Lucy, Matthew Broderick plays Hughes aide Levar Mathis, and [Alec Baldwin](https://www.edgepedia.org/alec-baldwin) plays Robert Maheu.[1](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/rules-dont-apply) • [9](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/rules-dont-apply/umc.cmc.3049ztk247u9uiem0lxhsyxlh)
Beatty repeatedly insisted the film is not a biopic of Hughes, calling it instead a fictional love story about two young people in his employ; it opens with a quote attributed to Hughes, "Never check an interesting fact."[10](https://time.com/4578745/howard-hughes-rules-dont-apply-warren-beatty/) Critics noted that the film is less about Hughes than about Marla and Frank, though Hughes dominates the story's attention.[10](https://time.com/4578745/howard-hughes-rules-dont-apply-warren-beatty/) • [11](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-rules-dont-apply-review-20161119-story.html)
## Development and production
Beatty first encountered Hughes in the early 1970s and mulled over a Hughes project for decades before the film took shape.[3](https://time.com/4406022/rules-dont-apply-trailer-warren-beatty/) The film premiered on November 10, 2016 as the opening night gala of AFI Fest.[12](https://hollywoodglee.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/afi-fest-2016-conversations-and-presentations-final.pdf) Financing came through New Regency with co-financiers including RatPac Entertainment, Steve Bing's Shangri-La Entertainment, Demarest Films, Windsor Media, Robson Orr Entertainment, and Worldview Entertainment.[2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply) • [13](https://www.boxofficeflops.com/yearly-breakdowns/2016-2/rules-dont-apply/) The shoot took place in late 2014, and actor [Alden Ehrenreich](https://www.edgepedia.org/alden-ehrenreich) said the finished film turned out more comical than the cast had expected during filming.[14](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/warren-beatty-howard-hughes-passion-194607108.html)
## Release and box office
The film opened wide in the United States on November 23, 2016, the [Thanksgiving](https://www.edgepedia.org/thanksgiving) corridor, in 2,382 theaters.[2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply) Its opening weekend gross was $1,589,625, a $667 per-theater average, placing 12th for the weekend; Box Office Flops recorded it as the fifth-worst first weekend on record for a first-run feature playing in over 2,000 theaters.[2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply) • [13](https://www.boxofficeflops.com/yearly-breakdowns/2016-2/rules-dont-apply/) Domestic receipts totaled $3,652,206, with international releases in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, and Spain in April 2017 adding $219,242, for a worldwide total of $3,871,448, about 0.1 times the production budget.[2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply) Fox Home Entertainment released it on video on February 14, 2017.[2](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply)
## Reception
Critical response was mixed. The film holds a Metascore of 60, based on 20 positive, 18 mixed, and 2 negative reviews out of 40 counted.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/rules-dont-apply/critic-reviews/) Rotten Tomatoes recorded 56 percent from 178 reviews.[15](https://www.flicks.co.uk/movie/rules-dont-apply/) Reviewers frequently praised Beatty's performance as Hughes while faulting the structure. Stephen Holden of The New York Times, giving 90, wrote that the film is "so good-humored" and that "fools and idiots abound, but demonic, systemic evil does not."[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/rules-dont-apply/critic-reviews/) Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal called it "somewhat unshapely, though not shapeless; often repetitive; gleefully reckless with facts," while enjoying all of its 126 minutes.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/rules-dont-apply/critic-reviews/) Mick LaSalle of the [San Francisco Chronicle](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-francisco-chronicle) found it unbalanced with "a big sag in the middle," but worthwhile for its good parts.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/rules-dont-apply/critic-reviews/) Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the Hughes story and the romance "do not seem to be from the same film."[11](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-rules-dont-apply-review-20161119-story.html) Time's reviewer called Beatty's Hughes the best thing in the picture, "delusional, batty, charming in a hypermanipulative fashion."[16](https://time.com/4577005/rules-dont-apply-review-warren-beatty/)
Lily Collins received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy for the 2017 ceremony.[6](https://www.tvweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/OFFICIAL-2017-Golden-Globe-Nominations-Press-Release.pdf) The film appeared on the Academy's reminder list of eligible releases for the 89th Oscars.[17](https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/89th_reminder_list.pdf)
## Comparison with other Hughes films
Reviewers repeatedly measured the film against Martin Scorsese's 2004 biopic *The Aviator*, which covers similar ground and, in Time's account, picks up roughly where *Rules Don't Apply* begins its story.[18](https://www.timeout.com/movies/rules-dont-apply) • [10](https://time.com/4578745/howard-hughes-rules-dont-apply-warren-beatty/) Film Comment placed the film in a lineage with [Jonathan Demme](https://www.edgepedia.org/jonathan-demme)'s *Melvin and Howard*, which also pairs an elderly, reclusive Hughes with a much younger person of modest means, and noted that Beatty's Hughes dips in and out of the other characters' lives "like a haywire deus ex machina."[7](https://www.filmcomment.com/deep-focus-rules-dont-apply/) The film also scrambles together incidents from across Hughes's life, including the flight of the Hercules H-4 ("the Spruce Goose") and his fight to retain ownership of [Trans World Airlines](https://www.edgepedia.org/trans-world-airlines), though it moves his near-fatal 1940s airplane crash forward by a decade.[7](https://www.filmcomment.com/deep-focus-rules-dont-apply/) • [10](https://time.com/4578745/howard-hughes-rules-dont-apply-warren-beatty/)
## References
1. [Rules Don't Apply, 20th Century Studios](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/rules-dont-apply)
2. [Rules Don't Apply (2016), The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Rules-Dont-Apply)
3. [Watch Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich as Star-Crossed Lovers in Rules Don't Apply Trailer, Time](https://time.com/4406022/rules-dont-apply-trailer-warren-beatty/)
4. [First trailer and poster for Warren Beatty's Rules Don't Apply, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-rules-dont-apply-trailer-20160714-snap-story.html)
5. [Rules Don't Apply critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/rules-dont-apply/critic-reviews/)
6. [Official 2017 Golden Globe Nominations Press Release](https://www.tvweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/OFFICIAL-2017-Golden-Globe-Nominations-Press-Release.pdf)
7. [Deep Focus: Rules Don't Apply, Film Comment](https://www.filmcomment.com/deep-focus-rules-dont-apply/)
8. [Warren Beatty returns to the screen in Rules Don't Apply, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/warren-beatty-returns-to-the-screen-in-rules-dont-apply/2016/11/22/bf725dac-afef-11e6-be1c-8cec35b1ad25_story.html)
9. [Rules Don't Apply, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/rules-dont-apply/umc.cmc.3049ztk247u9uiem0lxhsyxlh)
10. [Howard Hughes and the True Story Behind Rules Don't Apply, Time](https://time.com/4578745/howard-hughes-rules-dont-apply-warren-beatty/)
11. [Review: Warren Beatty's long-awaited Howard Hughes picture Rules Don't Apply never takes off, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-rules-dont-apply-review-20161119-story.html)
12. [AFI FEST 2016 Conversations and Presentations](https://hollywoodglee.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/afi-fest-2016-conversations-and-presentations-final.pdf)
13. [Rules Don't Apply (2016), Box Office Flops](https://www.boxofficeflops.com/yearly-breakdowns/2016-2/rules-dont-apply/)
14. [Warren Beatty On His Howard Hughes Passion Project Rules Don't Apply, Yahoo Entertainment](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/warren-beatty-howard-hughes-passion-194607108.html)
15. [Rules Don't Apply, Flicks](https://www.flicks.co.uk/movie/rules-dont-apply/)
16. [Review: Rules Don't Apply Rambles, But Beatty as Howard Hughes Is Still Something to See, Time](https://time.com/4577005/rules-dont-apply-review-warren-beatty/)
17. [89th Oscars Reminder List of Eligible Releases](https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/89th_reminder_list.pdf)
18. [Rules Don't Apply 2016, directed by Warren Beatty, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/rules-dont-apply)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2015 to 2016 › Titles K to Z*
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