On what date did the 1993 film Groundhog Day open in U.S. theaters?

The 1993 film Groundhog Day opened in U.S. theaters on February 12, 1993.

Directed by Harold Ramis and written by Ramis and Danny Rubin, the film stars Bill Murray as Phil Connors, a cynical television weather reporter trapped in a repeating February 2. Andie MacDowell plays Rita Hanson, while Chris Elliott plays cameraman Larry.

The date in the question is the film’s wide North American theatrical release, not its premiere. Groundhog Day premiered at the Fox Village Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles, on February 4, 1993, before opening more broadly eight days later. It debuted across 1,640 theaters and benefited from the four-day Presidents’ Day weekend.

The film earned more than $105 million and became one of 1993’s major box-office successes. Its fictional assignment centers on Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, although most filming took place in Woodstock, Illinois. That Illinois town supplied much of the movie’s recognizable downtown setting, which is why film locations and the story’s Pennsylvania setting are sometimes confused.