Marquee History
Week 43 - 2015
By Max Braden
October 23, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
This week's highlights are the 20th anniversary of Oscar wins for Mira Sorvino and Nicolas Cage. Plus, it’s Back to the Future week!
Here are the movies that premiered on theater marquees this week...
10 years ago - October 28, 2005
Saw II
Slasher horror films, of course, had been around for decades, but there was something about 2004’s Saw that caught on with audiences and launched a major horror series. This sequel was in theaters 12 months after the first movie’s release, and brings back Shawnee Smith, Adam Stanheight, Zep Hindle, Dina Meyer, and of course the killer mastermind Jigsaw, adding Donnie Wahlberg as a detective. Darren Lynn Bousman replaced James Wan as director. Whereas the first Saw was mostly a psychological horror film, the sequel helped usher in the era of “torture porn,” which didn’t sit well with critics but was a hit with audiences. Saw II opened at #1 with $31.7 million on 2,949 screens, the fifth best October opening to that time. It went on to earn $87 million, the highest grossing movie of the series, which continued annually at Halloween until 2010. And all that on just a $4 million budget.
The Legend of Zorro
Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones return for the sequel to 1998’s The Mask of Zorro. Rufus Sewell co-stars as the villain. Since her breakthrough role in the first Zorro, Catherine Zeta-Jones had since starred in Entrapment, Traffic, America’s Sweethearts, Chicago, and Ocean’s Twelve. Perhaps she was now too big a star to be Zorro’s co-star. Critics called the movie an uninspired, by-the-numbers sequel. Audiences put it at #2 for the weekend, with $16.3 million on 3,520 screens, the widest release of the weekend. Ultimately The Legend of Zorro’s $46 million gross fell well short of its budget and the previous movie’s $94 million take.
Prime
Prime is a romantic comedy starring Uma Thurman as a divorcee who becomes involved with a younger man (Bryan Greenberg in his first starring role), who happens to be the son of her therapist (Meryl Streep). Reviews were mixed, but perhaps Uma Thurman’s success with Be Cool and Kill Bill Vol. 2 the year before drew audience attention. Prime opened at #3 ahead of Dreamer with $6.2 million on 1,827 screens. It went on to earn $22.8 million.
The Weather Man
Nic Cage stars in this comedy-drama from Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski as a weatherman going through a series of personal crisis. Michael Caine, Hope Davis, and Nicholas Hoult (who had become widely known from About a Boy) co-star. Reviews were fair and so was the audience response. The Weather Man opened at #6 behind Wallace and Gromit on a moderate release of 1,510 screens for a weekend gross of $4.2 million. Its $12.4 million total was the lowest for a Nic Cage movie in over ten years.
15 years ago - October 27, 2000
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
1999’s Blair Witch Project was one of those movies that makes an impression on the movie industry through the force of its success. Highly rated, well received by audiences, that found-footage horror made on a tiny budget became one of the most successful independent movies of all time. Leave it to Hollywood to ruin a good thing. The sequel received a budget of $15 million, started with a traditional screenplay, starred actors not in the first movie, went through tinkering after filming, and both critics and audiences could see before the movie was released that this was not the material they had flocked to the year before. Book of Shadows ultimately received Razzie nominations for Worst Picture, Director, Screenplay, Screen Couple, and Worst Remake or Sequel (“winning” the last). Book of Shadows opened at #2 behind the fourth weekend of Meet the Parents with $13 million on 3,317 screens, the weekend’s widest release. Ultimately the sequel made $26 million in the U.S., a mere shadow of the first movie’s $140 million gross. In 2015 (this weekend, in fact), we will have the sixth installment of the found-footage Paranormal Activity movie series, while Blair Witch 3 is still in development.
The Little Vampire
This family-friendly comedy is based on the children’s books by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg. Jerry Maguire child actor Jonathan Lipnicki stars as a kid who befriends a young vampire in Scotland. Reviews were mixed and audience interest wasn’t strong. The Little Vampire opened at #6 behind last week’s Pay It Forward and Bedazzled with $5.7 million on 2,009 screens. Its $27 million total gross was significantly less than its $35 million budget.
Lucky Numbers
This was an unlucky year for John Travolta. In May his big budget sci-fi film Battlefield Earth flopped, and then Lucky Numbers was released with almost no chance of making back its $60+ million budget. This comedy from Late Night writer Adam Resnick and You’ve Got Mail director Nora Ephron stars Travolta and Friends star Lisa Kudrow in a plot to rig a state lottery. Reviews were poor, leading to his weakest wide release box office performer since Look Who’s Talking Now. Lucky Numbers opened at #7 with $4.5 million on 2,497 screens and only managed to gross $10 million in total. Travolta "won" this year’s Razzie Award for Worst Actor for both this and his performance in Battlefield Earth after going 15 years without a nomination.
20 years ago - October 27, 1995
Powder
Sean Patrick Flannery, who had starred in the 1993 TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, stars in his first major role in this fantasy about an albino teenager whose supernatural abilities further push him away from fitting in. Mary Steenburgen and Jeff Goldblum costar. Mixed reviews didn’t keep audiences away, as they put the movie at #2 behind last week’s hit Get Shorty with $7.1 million on 1,592 screens. It went on to earn a total of $30 million.
Vampire in Brooklyn
Eddie Murphy, of course, had become a huge star in the 1980s, starring on Saturday Night Live, doing outrageous stand-up comedy, and delivering box office hits in theaters. And up until 1992, with one early exception, all his movies grossed $50 million and up (up to $234 million for Beverly Hills Cop). But then there was Boomerang, his first movie to open not at #1 (it opened at #3); The Distinguished Gentleman (which I still think is funny) earning only $46 million; Beverly Hills Cop III earning $42 million; and then this movie. This was the last movie Murphy was required to do for his Paramount contract, and oddly, it paired him with serious horror director Wes Craven, of Nightmare on Elm Street fame. The result was an awkwardly violent, R-rated, not-so-funny modern vampire movie. Reviews were poor and once again an Eddie Murphy movie failed to capture the #1 or #2 spot. Vampire in Brooklyn opened at #3 with $7 million on 2,307 screens - the widest distribution of the weekend but the lowest per-site average of the top four movies - and ended up with a gross just under $20 million. It was this movie that prompted David Spade to quip, “Look children, a falling star.” during a Hollywood Minute 1995 recap on Saturday Night Live, and that led Murphy to famously snub the show and its reunions until he finally made an appearance on SNL’s 40th anniversary show in February 2015. Fortunately Murphy bounced right back at the box office with his next film, The Nutty Professor.
Copycat
Sigourney Weaver stars as an expert on serial killers who is brought in to help solve a series of murders that match the acts of famous modern serial killers, with detectives played by Holly Hunter and Dermot Mulroney. Harry Connick Jr. also appears as a dramatic antagonist. Reviews were good. Copycat opened at #4 ahead of last week’s Now and Then with $5.1 million on 1,390 screens. It had good legs and eventually earned $32 million.
Three Wishes
Seven weeks after co-starring in To Wong Foo… Patrick Swayze stars in this family fantasy as a drifter who develops a bond with a widower (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and her sons. Reviews were poor, and audience interest was low as well. Three Wishes opened at #7 with $2.6 million on 1,535 screens. It eventually earned $7.0 million in the U.S.
Mighty Aphrodite
By 1995, Woody Allen had already had a dozen films earn Oscar nominations since Annie Hall in 1977. Mighty Aphrodite is perhaps one of his more unexpected films to produce the next nomination. Allen and Helena Bonham Carter star as a couple who adopt a gifted boy who turns out to be the son of a prostitute, played by Mira Sorvino (to particular ditzy effect). Michael Rapaport and Peter Weller co-star, and the movie includes an ancient Greek chorus which provides narration. Critics singled out Sorvino as the highlight. Allen received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay, and Sorvino went on to win the Best Supporting Actress award. Mighty Aphrodite opened on 19 screens this weekend and expanded to a peak of 278 screens, earning $6.4 million overall.
Leaving Las Vegas
Also opening in very limited release was this drama from director Mike Figgis, based on the novel by John O’Brien. Sadly, O’Brien committed suicide during production. Nicolas Cage plays an alcoholic who goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death and befriends a prostitute played by Elisabeth Shue. Reviews were excellent and it later earned Oscar nominations for Screenplay, Director, Shue, and Cage, with Cage winning the Best Actor award. After 12 weeks in limited release, it was given a wide release on February 9, 1996 and went on to gross $32 million in the U.S.
25 years ago - October 26, 1990
Graveyard Shift
Based on a short story by Stephen King, this horror thriller takes place in a rat-infested old mill and stars David Andrews, Kelly Wolf, Stephen Macht, and Brad Dourif. Reviews were poor. Audiences made the movie #1 at the box office for the weekend with $5.0 million, the lowest gross for a top opening film this year. Its eventual total gross of $11.5 million was also the second lowest for a Stephen King-based film released to that time.
Sibling Rivalry
Kirstie Alley stars in this comedy of errors from director Carl Reiner as a neglected wife who goes out looking for a fling and ends up finding her husband’s brother. Scott Bakula plays her husband, and Jami Gertz, Bill Pullman, Ed O’Neill, Carrie Fisher, and Sam Elliott co-star. Alley was at the peak of her fame at this time, three years into Cheers plus a huge hit with Look Who’s Talking in 1989. Reviews were not great, and audiences showed moderate interest, putting Sibling Rivalry at #2 at the box office with $4 million on 1,448 screens. It went on to earn $17.8 million in the U.S., much lower than the $140 million for Look Who’s Talking. Less than two months later, she was starring in Look Who’s Talking Too, but that movie only scored a fraction of the original as well.
White Palace which had opened in limited release the previous weekend, expanded to 864 screens and moved into the #3 spot with $3.4 million.
Tune in Tomorrow
Based on the novel “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter” by Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa (who later won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010) this romantic comedy is set in 1950’s New Orleans. Peter Falk stars as a creative radio host who cribs dialogue by his student, played by Keanu Reeves. Reeves had a hit the previous year with Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but this movie only opened on seven screens and peaked on just over 200. Reviews were fair. It eventually earned $1.7 million.
30 years ago - October 25, 1985
Krush Groove
In 2015 we’ve seen the biopic Straight Outta Compton about the rise of N.W.A. in the late 1980s. But by 1985, the rap music industry was already established and rapidly growing enough spark a contemporary origin movie. Krush Groove is based on on the beginnings of Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin and Def Jam Records. Run-D.M.C., Sheila E., Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, and New Edition all appear as themselves. Blair Underwood appears in his first movie role as a fictionalized version of Russell Simmons, while Simmons appears as another fictional character. Reviews mentioned the musical performances (including Shelia E’s “A Love Bizarre”) as the highlight, but the original song “All You Can Eat” by The Fat Boys earned a Razzie nomination. Released on 519 screens, strong audience interest put the movie at #2 at the box office between the much wider distributed Jagged Edge and Commando, both in in their fourth weekend in theaters. Krush Groove took in $2.9 million for a per-site average of $5,597, the strongest over the weekend. It went on to earn $11 million.
On a special anniversary note, this week holds a special place in (fictional) movie history. In case you missed it, October 21, 2015 is the day Marty McFly jumps to at the opening of Back to the Future II (released in 1989). The action first began in the original Back to the Future on October 26, 1985. That’s the date displayed on Doc Brown’s DeLorean when Marty McFly triggers the Flux Capacitor and time travels back to November 5th, 1955. On this weekend in the real 1985, Back to the Future was still cruising strong at #4 at the box office with a total of almost $170 million in its 17th week after release. It remained in the top ten well into December and eventually left theaters in March with over $200 million, the top earner released that year. Chances are pretty good we’ll be seeing some Back to the Future costumes this Halloween.
Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!