27/07/2026
On this day National Lampoon's European Vacation premiered . American comedy film directed by Amy Heckerling and written by Robert Klane based on characters created by John Hughes. The second installment in National Lampoon's Vacation film series, it stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Dana Hill, Jason Lively, Victor Lanoux, and Eric Idle with special appearances by John Astin, Paul Bartel, Maureen Lipman, W***y Millowitsch, Mel Smith, and Moon Zappa. It tells the story of the Griswold family when they win an all-expense-paid trip to Europe as chaos of all sorts occur. National Lampoon's European Vacation was released by Warner Bros. on July 26, 1985. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but was a financial success, grossing $49.3 million against a $17 million budget.
John Hughes received nominal credit for writing and story, due to the use of characters and ideas from the first Vacation film, but was not directly involved with European Vacation. Hughes would later state that Warner Bros. had begged him for a sequel to Vacation but he declined at the time. He would eventually agree to return to the franchise by adapting one of his other National Lampoon stories, "Christmas '59," into National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation in 1989.
Producer Matty Simmons initially told Dana Barron she would be returning to the role of Audrey. But after Anthony Michael Hall declined to reprise his role and was opting to star in Weird Science, Heckerling requested both children be recast
