Snapshot: June 18-20, 1993
By Joel West
December 25, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com
It was hyped to be the heavyweight battle for the ages: Jurassic Park versus Last Action Hero. June 1993 would be their ring and each film would battle until the final bell. Unfortunately, the final bell dinged only moments after the opening bell.
Both films could not be any different in terms of story, but both vied for the same action-friendly audience. Jurassic Park was a sci-fi film about cloned dinosaurs running amuck in a theme park. The film's big (human) star was the one behind the camera. Director Steven Spielberg had made a (a very, very, very good) living out of taking what were essentially B-movie concepts and turning them into critical and commercial blockbusters. However, Spielberg had hit an artistic lull over the years. Sure he was only a few years removed from the hugely successful final installment of the Indian Jones trilogy (Yes, you read that right. There was never a fourth.), but his last three films that didn't include Indy, Empire of the Sun ($22 million), Always ($43 million) and Hook ($119 million), were not very well received by audiences and critics alike. Some critics felt his best days were behind him or that he was just a kid at heart who could never grow up (a sentiment widely used to describe the quality of Hook). When he did attempt more adult films, his mastery of story telling was just not as effective as his adventure films. The sci-fi Jurassic Park, already a best selling novel, seemed like the best vehicle for him to return to his Jaws glory.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was coming off the insanely popular and landmark Terminator sequel ($204 million). His resume hardly had a blemish and his last couple of films had elevated him to the A+ stratosphere. His follow-up to T2 would be highly anticipated and when word got out that he would be teaming up with his Predator director, John McTiernan, the buzz only built. Schwarzenegger's next would be Last Action Hero, an action-comedy about a young movie fan thrust into the film of his movie hero. The idea of the era's biggest action star coming to life provided the opportunity for all his action fans to see their dreams shown vicariously on the big screen, not to mention the unlimited Hollywood in-jokes and cameos, The film's biggest selling point was that Last Action Hero would be Schwarzenegger's first action film rated PG-13 since Conan the Destroyer nine years earlier. No one had considered the edge the Conan franchise lost when the film abandoned its R rating.
From January on up their respective release dates, both films were being heavily marketed. Each film's teaser trailers had sparked interest and talk among the trades. Jurassic Park's first trailer showed little footage other than the premise on how dinosaurs could be cloned. Last Action Hero instead opted to capitalize on rumors over its extensive shoot. A small screen showing what looked like a shoot-out in a major city's streets is interrupted with the film's star, Schwarzenegger, looking into the camera and saying "Sorry, not ready yet."
Unfortunately, that tag line would haunt the film up until the day it was released. From a troubled shoot to poor test screenings then back to re-shoots plus a ballooning budget (up to a then monstrous $85 million), trouble loomed heavily over Last Action Hero. The poor buzz even derailed the film's marketing train; a plan to advertise the film on a space-going rocket was ultimately scrapped. All that noise would hurt any film's box office chances, but another type of buzz was slowly building. Early word was that Spielberg had returned to form and Jurassic Park would be the film to beat. With Jurassic Park and Last Action Hero's release dates only a week apart, the prospects of Last Action Hero being competitive, let alone breaking even, were decreasing every day.
As the summer of 1993 kicked off, the advertising for the two films went into overdrive. There was, however, one very distinct difference. While Last Action Hero was showing all of its cards (the money shots, the cameos, the best lines), Jurassic Park was keeping its state of the art special effects (albeit showing some wussy dinosaurs) largely under wraps. Much in line with the way he kept his shark a secret in Jaws, Spielberg was creating massive hysteria over what his dinosaurs would look like. And as its release day approached, spectacular word-of-mouth put the film on everyone's must see list, thus rendering Last Action Hero as an afterthought.
Then Jurassic Park opened. Pulling in a historic $50.1 million (including sneak peaks) over its first weekend, Jurassic Park turned into a national phenomenon. Spielberg had truly returned to form, the special effects were out of this world, and the story was the perfect premise to bring it all together. Unless Jurassic Park's success would spark enough movie-going madness to spread to other films, Last Action Hero wouldn't stand a chance when it opened the next Friday.
And it didn't. While it did open to a respectable $15 million, comparably speaking this was not a good start. Last Action Hero was universally panned and was likely only seen by those who couldn't get into Jurassic Park. A common sentiment was that Schwarzenegger had sold out his R-rated edge and gone soft in order to appeal to a bigger mainstream audience. In turn, Schwarzenegger abandoned his core audience that had supported him up until this point. Unsurprisingly, he film did not have the box office legs T2 displayed and was soon out of theaters. Adding insult to injury, Last Action Hero's final domestic tally ($50.01 million) was less than Jurassic Park made after its first full three days.
Schwarzenegger's career was in a tailspin. His box office dominance had taken a severe hit and looked unlikely to recover to what it once was. Clearly he needed to reassess his career. So he decided his next effort would be an action...comedy...with a huge budget...helmed by the director of one of his previous hits. Yikes. Luckily, the director was James Cameron and the film was the R-rated True Lies. Schwarzenegger would not be down for long (True Lies made $146 million), but he definitely learned to tone down the hype machine and (try to) not abandon his core audience. Ironically enough, there was only one other time Schwarzenegger headlined a PG-13 action film. The result was 2000's The Sixth Day ($34 million - his lowest grossing action film since he had become a star). Further proof for Schwarzenegger that PG-13 is a bad idea: he played the lead villain in Batman and Robin, which is widely considered one of the worst movies ever and the lowest grossing of the Batman franchise.
Spielberg continued his Jurassic (couldn't help it) success throughout 1993 with his artistic milestone Schindler's List ($96 million for a three hour black and white film documenting one of humanity's darkest hours). The film was universally hailed as one the best films ever made and garnered Spielberg his first Oscar. Spielberg had finally grown up and matured as our generation's "all around" greatest story teller, but he never forgot the blockbuster films that made his name. He has continued to successfully balance prestige films with blockbusters the way normal people walk and chew gum Witness for example: 1997's The Lost World ($229 million) and Amistad (four Oscar nominations), 2002's Minority Report ($132 million) and Catch Me if You Can (two Oscar nominations), and 2005's War of the Worlds ($234 million) and Munich (five Oscar nominations). Or just look at 1998's Saving Private Ryan by itself ($216 million and 11 Oscar nominations).
The Verdict: Obviously both films had a perfect storm of buzz surrounding them and in both instances they acted accordingly. Spielberg rediscovered his prowess by going back to what him great, whereas Schwarzenegger alienated his fan base in order to appeal to a bigger audience. The result: Jurassic Park became a worldwide sensation, while Last Action Hero bombed historically. The old adage "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" clearly applies.