Marquee History
Week 33 - 2015
By Max Braden
August 14, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
This week's highlights are the 20th anniversary of The Usual Suspects and the 30th anniversary of Return of the Living Dead.
Here are the movies that premiered on theater marquees this week...
10 years ago - August 19, 2005
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Prior to the release of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Steve Carell had worked with writer/director Judd Apatow on the hit Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Carell had spent the last seven years on The Daily Show and starred in the first six-episode season of The Office in the spring of 2005. Despite the series' overall popularity with fans, its first season got off to a very bumpy start with the ratings and the critics. Carell had no trouble with this movie, though, getting great reviews and opening at #1 with $21 million. The movie easily covered its $26 million budget with a total domestic gross of $109 million.
Red Eye
Coming off her breakthrough success with The Notebook the previous summer and Wedding Crashers the previous month (#4 at the box office this weekend), Rachel McAdams stars in this airplane thriller from Wes Craven, with Cillian Murphy. Red Eye received good reviews and opened at #2 with $16 million. Its total domestic gross of $57 million was more than double its budget.
Valiant
This animated animal adventure from Vanguard (and Disney) was produced at Ealing Studios in London, only the second computer-animated film to be made in the U.K. It features the voice of Ewan McGregor and tells a WWII tale from the point of view of homing pigeons. First released in the U.K. in March, it premiered in the U.S. this weekend with $5.9 million at #8. It eventually earned $19 million in the U.S and $42 million abroad, sufficient to cover its relatively low $35 million budget.
Supercross
Steve Howey and Mike Vogel star in this 80-minute motorcycle sports film that also includes Cameron Richardson, Sophia Bush, Channing Tatum, Robert Carradine, Robert Patrick, and Aaron Carter in the cast. Supercross had a terrible opening at #15, pulling in $1.3 million at 1,621 theaters ($820 per site average).
15 years ago - August 18, 2000
The Cell
Jennifer Lopez stars in this thriller as a psychologist who uses virtual reality to go into the mind of of a serial killer. This was the year she was coming off the success of her first pop album, dating Puff Daddy, and wearing next to nothing in that green dress at the Grammys. The Cell was her first big lead role. Critics weren’t thrilled about the movie, but audiences went to see its visual splendor. The Cell opened at #1, toppling the holdover Space Cowboys, with $17 million. It eventually earned $61 million. The movie was later nominated for a Best Makeup award at the Oscars.
The Original Kings of Comedy
Directed by Spike Lee, this documentary was filmed at the end of the Kings of Comedy tour with Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Bernie Mac. Reviews were good and The Original Kings of Comedy opened at #2 with $11 million on just 847 screens for a $13,050 site average. Earning $38 million in total, this was the best performing stand-up comedy film since Eddie Murphy Raw 13 years earlier and still holds that position 15 years later.
Godzilla 2000
Rebooting the series that had featured 23 films to that point, Godzilla 2000 was only the second Japanese-made Godzilla film to be released in the U.S. (Roland Emmerich’s 1998 Godzilla was made in the U.S.) Godzilla 2000 was a successful release in Japan before it opened at #11 in the U.S. with $4.4 million, eventually grossing $10 million here.
20 years ago - August 18, 1995
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat is a live action adaption of the video game starring Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, and Bridgette Wilson. Mortal Kombat took down Dangerous Minds for the #1 spot with $23 million and held the top spot at the box office for three weeks. It went on to gross $70 million, easily surpassing the $33 million gross of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Street Fighter, released nine months earlier. Director Paul W.S. Anderson would go on to be best known for directing and writing the Resident Evil movie series. The sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, under a different director, was released two years later but only grossed half that of the first movie.
The Baby-Sitters Club
Based on the novels, this movie stars Schuyler Fisk, Bre Blair, Trica Joe, Rachael Leigh Cook, Larisa Oleynik, Stacey Linn, and Zelda Harris. Reviews were positive but The Baby-Sitters Club opened at #9 with $3.4 million and went on to gross $9.6 million.
The Usual Suspects
One of the 1990s most iconic films had fairly humble beginnings. Chazz Palminteri was perhaps the best known of the cast at the time and serves in a supporting role. This was the first theatrical release for director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie. Made for $6 million, it first appeared out at Sundance and of competition at Cannes. Released independently, it debuted at only 42 theaters and received only a one-and-a-half star rating from the likes of Roger Ebert. But audiences knew what this was, giving it $15,365 per-site-average on its opening weekend and a total gross of $23 million after peaking on only 876 screens. The bait was the villain you never saw, Keyser Soze. The line, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist” would help earn Oscars for Kevin Spacey and Christopher McQuarrie. Twenty years later, when people talk about movie plot twists, they talk about The Usual Suspects.
25 years ago - August 17, 1990
The Exorcist III
Released 13 years after 1977’s box office failure Exorcist II, The Exorcist III ignores the sequel and acts as its own sequel to the 1971 hit horror thriller, with George C. Scott in the lead role. Reviews were mixed, but the movie opened at the #1 spot ahead of holdovers Ghost and Flatliners with $9.3 million. It opened with a larger box office than Exorcist II, thanks to a wider release and ticket prices, but fell short of the previous movie’s gross with $26 million overall. It would be another 14 years before the next movie in the series, Exorcist: The Beginning, was released.
My Blue Heaven
Steve Martin plays a mobster witness in this buddy comedy with Rick Moranis. Moranis had a huge hit with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids the year before, and both had worked together on Parenthood in 1989. Incidentally, My Blue Heaven was based on the life of Henry Hill, who was given a more biopic treatment by Martin Scorsese with Goodfellas, released a month after this movie; My Blue Heaven’s screenwriter, Nora Ephron, was the wife of Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote the book upon which Goodfellas was based. My Blue Heaven opened at #4 with $6.2 million at 1,859 theaters, the widest release of the new movies. It eventually grossed $23 million.
Taking Care of Business
Jim Belushi stars as an identity thief in this comedy, with Charles Grodin. A movie with a similar plot, Opportunity Knocks starring Dana Carvey, bombed in the spring of 1990. Taking Care of Business received negative reviews and opened at #7 with $3.6 million, but eventually managed to gross $20 million.
Wild at Heart
Director David Lynch was famous again in 1990 after the first season of Twin Peaks had aired in the spring. Lynch wrote the crime thriller Wild at Heart based on the 1989 novel by Barry Gifford. The movie won the Palme d’Or at Cannes at the beginning of the summer, but reviews were mixed for its theatrical release. Wild at Heart opened at #10 with $2.9 million from 532 theaters, and managed to gross $14 million while staying in moderate release. Diane Ladd later earned an Oscar nomination, and cinematographer Frederick Elmes won an Independent Spirit award.
30 years ago - August 16, 1985
Volunteers
One week after he starred in the release of Summer Rental, John Candy costarred with Tom Hanks in this comedy adventure about two college roommates who join the Peace Corps. Hanks and Candy had also worked together in Splash the previous year. Volunteers opened at #2 behind Back the the Future, earning $5.1 million at 1,560 theaters and grossed $19 million. Summer Rental dropped to the #6 position in its second week but eventually outgrossed Volunteers with $24 million.
Return of the Living Dead
This dark horror comedy was written and directed by Dan O’Bannon, who worked with the original author of the novel that had inspired George Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead. Return of the Living Dead opened at #4 with $4.4 million. Both critics and audiences were positive about the movie, which eventually grossed $14 million domestically. Its commercial success lead to sequels in 1988 and 1993, but they failed to repeat the box office numbers of the first.
Year of the Dragon
Mickey Rourke stars in this crime thriller based on the novel by Robert Daley, from director Michael Cimino and writer Oliver Stone. Cimino’s last project was the epic bomb Heaven’s Gate (in which Rourke had also played a small role). Year of the Dragon opened with $4 million at 982 theaters (a $4,168 per-site-average, the best of the new movies) for the weekend, coming in at #5. It pulled in $18 million domestically. Critics responded fairly well. The movie was nominated for Worst Picture, Director, and Actress (Ariane Koizumi) at the Razzie Awards but also nominated for a Cesar Award in France.
The Bride
Coming off of the peak success of The Police, Sting had also released his first solo album this summer. He’d appeared in supporting movie roles before, but this was one of his first leads. He stars as Frankenstein, trying to create a bride (Jennifer Beals, who became famous in 1983 with Flashdance) for his monster. Reviews were poor. Stick to your music career, Sting! Beals was nominated for a Razzie Award. The Bride opened with $1.7 million at 955 theaters, eventually grossing $3.5 million.
American Flyers
Kevin Costner stars in this bicycle racing movie from screenwriter Steve Tesich, who had won the 1979 Best Original Screenplay Oscar for the bicycle racing movie Breaking Away. American Flyers opened in five theaters with a $15,669 per-site-average and managed to gross $1.4 million without any expansion.
Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!