Snapshot: May 22-25, 1992
By Joel West
March 12, 2009
The weekend's other potential blockbuster was the Ron Howard directed epic Far and Away. The $60 million film starred then box office behemoth Tom Cruise and "then" wife Nicole Kidman as Irish immigrants seeking the American dream. Anyone who saw an ad for that film knew this had Oscar bait written all over it. Then why it was being released in the summer as opposed to the Oscar season (November to December time frame)? Certainly Howard had box office success exactly a year earlier with Backdraft ($77 million), but that film's content (and special effects) was more in line with the summer blockbusters when compared to Far and Away.
On the other hand, Far and Away did have Tom Cruise's name above the title and that had certainly been enough to make even the crappiest of films profitable. How else do you explain Cocktail ($78 million) and Days of Thunder ($82 million) making some coin? Far and Away certainly had higher aspirations than those two sugar-candy throw-aways and Cruise was looking to cross the once sacred $100 million mark for the first time in almost four years. At that early point in his career, Cruise had already steered an action film (1986's Top Gun) and an Oscar winner (1988's Rain Man) to $170+ million; and Far and Away was hoping to be a little bit of both. The only question was if Cruise and Kidman could generate any heat to make the romance angle (and in turn the backbone) of the film work. While the aforementioned Days of Thunder turned a tidy profit, many felt the Cruise-Kidman part of the story was weak and in turn hindered the film's overall success.
The third (and unlikeliest choice to challenge for the top spot) film opening Memorial Day weekend was Pauly Shore's Encino Man. Well, the plot makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and I really can't remember if Shore was even funny in it. But the film did introduce the world to Brendan Fraser and kept Sean Astin busy between The Goonies and The Lord of the Rings (1993's Rudy helped pass time as well). Shore had been an MTV staple for a couple years and his hippie lifestyle and "hey buuuuddy" catch phrase had developed him a sort of fanbase. No one really expected the fanbase to be strong enough to make Encino Man a hit, especially with all the other high profile choices available. However, Wayne's World had already "captivated" the same demographic to the tune of $121 million, so anything was possible.
When the holiday weekend came to a conclusion, the top four films pushed the overall box office to a new Memorial Day record (top 12 films brought in over $88 million). Leading the pack was Lethal Weapon 3 with a monstrous second weekend take of $27 million. Riggs and Murtaugh would hold on to the top spot for one more weekend and finish with $144 million (just behind the *vastly superior* Lethal Weapon 2 - $147 million). Six years later, the gang would rejoin one more time (hopefully) for the downright pedestrian Lethal Weapon 4 ($130 million). Coming in a close second was Alien 3 with a very respectful $23 million for the four day frame. Far behind in third and fourth place were Far and Away ($12 million) and Encino Man ($9 million).
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