Hindsight: February 1990
By Daron Aldridge
September 9, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com

The both of youse got jungle fever. The both of youse.

February brings to mind many things to many people, whether it's the association with that Hallmark holiday Valentine's Day, Black History Month, or the primary reason jewelers are able to sell amethyst jewelry but it's not necessarily a month known as a box office bonanza. Following a strong January opening for 1990, could February continue the trend? It does have the potential with Academy Award nomination announcements and a four-day holiday weekend. So, let's dive into the guts of February 1990 and see how things shook out.

For the first weekend of February 1990, a trio of films (a Bette Midler drama and two competing buddy comedy/action films) were introduced to audiences and didn't exactly set the box office ablaze or unseat Driving Miss Daisy from the pole position. The acclaimed Jessica Tandy film earned another $6.0 million ($10.1 million adjusted to 2008 dollars). The highest-ranking debut was Stella, a Midler-drama right in her Beaches melodrama wheelhouse. While Beaches went onto earn $57 million two years before in 1988, for Ms. Midler, this one couldn't duplicate the success of that weeper. Fortunately, though, its tepid reception of only $4.3 million ($7.2 million adjusted) was enough to grab the number two slot. Audiences continued to line up for Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July and Tango & Cash as both films only slipped 14% from the previous weekend to $4.0 million ($6.7 million adjusted) and $3.1 million ($5.2 million adjusted) for this weekend's third and fourth place. By doing the math, you have figured out that one of the debuts landed outside the top five. If you had to bet which one would at least be in the top five, would you put your money on a pre-Flatliners Kiefer Sutherland or a post-Glory Denzel Washington? Well, the smart money would go with the future Jack Bauer as he teamed with Dennis Hopper for Flashback, a hippie-FBI buddy film that rounded out the top five with $2.9 million ($4.9 million adjusted).

Despite riding a wave of praise for his performance in Glory, Denzel Washington joined forces with the usually underrated Bob Hoskins for Heart Condition, a comedy about a dead African-American lawyer and racist cop, which debuted at number nine with $2.1 million ($3.5 million adjusted). Apparently, 1990 was the year of the afterlife, as Heart Condition was the first of multiple movies dealing with people not willing or able to cross over to the other side. While it opened poorly and was similarly reviewed, Heart Condition would only have to wait until late June 1990 for the release of Ghost Dad to become at least the second worse ghost-centric movie of the year (more on that masterpiece in an upcoming column). Luckily for Washington, Heart Condition sunk like a stone in its second weekend to less than $800,000 and would be a memory by the time Oscar nominations came out or else this could have been the precedent to the Oscar-robbing Norbit for Eddie Murphy. Denzel has previously mentioned in interviews that he would love to do a comedy but maybe Heart Condition is still too fresh in the suits' minds.

The second weekend of February finally brought the only person that could knock an old lady off the number one perch – Steven Seagal. Just to clarify, I'm not saying that Steven Seagal goes around bullying the elderly. Rather, this is a statement of fact that more of the North American moviegoing public chose mindless, implausible Seagal action over an eventual Oscar winner. Boy, were we stupid. I guess the cinematic ignorance of America was around long before the string of heinous "epic/date/superhero/disaster movies" of this century.

The Seagal film in question was Hard to Kill, a revenge-fueled (aren't they all?) martial arts and action flick, that costarred Seagal's wife (at the time) Kelly LeBrock. It's too bad she didn't just keep hanging out with Gary and Wyatt instead of this guy. Love must truly be blind. Securing the top spot with $9.2 million ($15.4 million adjusted), Hard to Kill solidified the perception that Seagal was a bankable action star in the early 1990s. Jessica Tandy and friends added 400 screens and increased 8%, but had to settle for second place with $6.5 million ($10.9 million adjusted). Stella took third with $3.7 million ($6.2 million adjusted) after also adding a couple hundred screens but dropping 15%. The everlasting Born on the Fourth of July slipped to the number four spot with $3 million ($5 million adjusted) after 54 days in release. The fifth slot was claimed by another debut, Loose Cannons. The Dan Aykroyd/Gene Hackman buddy cop "comedy" grossed $2.2 million ($3.7 million adjusted). Other than allowing Aykroyd to appear in two top five movies over the same weekend, Loose Cannons served no purpose in this world as evidenced by its second weekend plummet to number 14. The team of Popeye Doyle and Ray Stanz eked out number five from the final new film, the sixth place Stanley & Iris, which earned $2.1 million ($3.5 million adjusted) on 300 fewer screens.

The next weekend, February 16th to 19th, benefited from a pair of calendar recurrences - the Presidents' Day holiday and the Oscar nominations announcement. In those days, the Academy Award ceremony was still held in late March and the campaign season lasted about five weeks, which the marketing geniuses at Miramax would masterfully take full advantage of throughout the '90s to push their prestige films. The most egregious example is Shakespeare in Love trumping Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture, but that's fodder for another column altogether.

On Valentine's Day in 1990, the Oscar nominations were unveiled and of the films still in theaters, Driving Miss Daisy got nine nominations, Born on the Fourth of July was nominated for eight awards and My Left Foot and Glory got five nods apiece. This recognition, along with the four-day weekend, helped all four post increases in screen count and more importantly, revenue. My Left Foot jumped 333% to $677,000 on fewer than 100 screens but still was at number 23. Glory rose 233% to $2.7 million ($4.5 million adjusted) and bounced from number 16 the previous weekend to number eight. But lest we forget the focus of Hindsight, order was restored to the top five with Driving Miss Daisy up 51% to $9.8 million ($16.4 million adjusted). Hard to Kill was surprisingly resilient and only slid 9% to $8.4 million ($14.1 million adjusted). A pair of new films claimed the numbers three and four spots.

Revenge, Kevin Costner' first film of 1990, which was clearly the red-headed stepchild of Dances with Wolves, opened to $6.1 million ($10.2 million adjusted) but was able to beat out Madhouse, a comedy that tested the combined box office power of Night Court's Dan Fielding and Cheers' Rebecca Howell. Let's take a Tenderfoot Timeout (you're welcome, Night Court fans) and consider if Emmy recognition and solid Nielsen ratings could translate to box office. By 1990, John Larroquette was a four-time Emmy winner on Night Court and Kirstie Alley had been nominated twice for an Emmy on Cheers. Alley already had Look Who's Talking with its $130 million gross so far on her resume, but was she the draw? Other than his above the title role with Bronson Pinchot in the abomination that was 1989's Second Sight and the supporting credit as the tormentor of Bruce Willis in Blind Date, Larroquette was a box office question mark. Well, with a fourth place debut of $5.2 million ($8.7 million adjusted), Madhouse was pretty much a mediocre performer but its final tally of $21 million ($35.2 million adjusted) showed that there was at least some appeal for Larroquette and Alley at the theaters. Born on the Fourth of July was up 36% but had to settle for the number five spot with $4.1 million ($6.9 million adjusted), due to the decent performances of two new films.

The only other film opening this Presidents' Day weekend was Clive Barker's Nightbreed, starring David Cronenberg, among other people. It started with $3.7 million ($6.2 million adjusted) and then performed in typical horror film fashion by shedding 50% of its audience in weekend two. Ultimately, its debut weekend gross would be almost 42% of its final take.

The final weekend of this lackluster month would have the top of the box office heap consist of the same five films with only a ranking switch between Madhouse and Revenge, which posted the highest decrease in the top five with 53%. Driving Miss Daisy continued to post solid totals and took home another $6.1 million ($10.2 million adjusted). Steven Seagal kept his grip on number two with $5.4 million ($9.1 million adjusted) for Hard to Kill, which approached $30 million after three weekends. Madhouse was down only 35%, which was the best hold in the top five, and earned $3.4 million ($5.7 million adjusted). Costner's Revenge was not so sweet with the aforementioned 53% drop to $2.9 million ($4.9 million adjusted). Oliver Stone and Tom Cruise continued to cling to the top five for another weekend with $2.5 million ($4.2 million adjusted). Inconsequentially debuting with $2 million ($3.4 million adjusted) at number six was Jessica Lange's French drama remake, Men Don't Leave, on its way to final tally of $6.1 million.

While not at the summit of the box office for February 23rd to 25th, My Left Foot and its multiple nods, arguably driven by Daniel Day-Lewis' performance, got the push from Miramax in the form of additional 200 screens. This support helped it leap from number 23 to number 13 with a just under $1 million for the weekend.

Unfortunately, February is the shortest month of the year and in 1990, it came up short. With a total monthly gross of $294.5 million ($494.1 mil adjusted), this February was down nearly 10% from the same month in 1989.

The answer to the previous column's concluding question about whether any movie could topple Jessica Tandy's film is a fairly clear. "Not for more than a single weekend." Could another muscle-bound, martial arts-trained action star give it another whack in March or maybe it just takes a romantic comedy featuring a superstar-in-waiting? We shall see.