Reception
The film grossed approximately $8,500,000 after being released in 862 theaters throughout North America. However, despite the film's moderate success, it was not well received by a majority of critics. On Rotten Tomatoes The Five Heartbeats accumulated an average of 38%, although only 16 reviews were counted (6 of which were positive, the remaining 10 negative).
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times commented that "...at feature length, Townsend shows a real talent, and, not surprisingly, an ability to avoid most cliches, to go for the human truth in his characters...by the end we really care about these guys..."
Due to the nature of the film, music montages were often used to progress the plot; critics considered this a major flaw. Ebert states in his review that numerous scenes in the film serve no purpose other than to represent the racism encountered by African-American musical acts during the early 1960s.
The numerous musical performances in the film were highly acclaimed. All Music complimented the Dells' lead singer Marvin Junior (who provided the singing voice for fictional character Eddie Kane, Jr.) stating that he was "one of the most underrated voices in pop music." Tressa Thomas' performance of "We Haven't Finished Yet," in particular, was given favorable attention by critics. The film received an ASCAP award for Most Performed Songs in a Motion Picture for the song "Nights Like This."
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