Crazy People was peeping through the window at the top five from its sixth place finish and was the biggest of two new releases, which strangely both had "crazy" in their titles. The comedy starred Dudley Moore and Darryl Hannah and was likely intended to be more like Moore's Like Father Like Son from 1987 with its total of $34.4 million gross and less like Arthur 2: On the Rocks with a sad $14.7 million total. While he has the history of some box office success, Hannah was more relevant at the moment. She was coming off three rather high profile films (Roxanne, Wall Street, and Steel Magnolias), but she remained either the love interest or part of an ensemble. While her visibility was high in 1990, she was not remotely the draw for any of these and Crazy People didn't do her any box office clout favors with its debut of $3.6 million ($6.1 million adjusted) and would scratch out another $10 million to earn a total of $13.2 million ($22.5 million adjusted).

In the fine tradition of 1988's Iron Eagle II: The Battle Beyond the Flag, another sequel void of demand was released � The Gods Must Be Crazy II. The sequel was filmed in 1985 and collected dust for five years before showing up in theaters unexpectedly like a Coke bottle falling from the heavens into the African wilderness. Despite a tenth place finish and earning $1.2 million ($2 million adjusted) from 321 screens, the sequel had the best per-screen average in the top ten for any film not starring Eric Roberts' sister or reptilian martial artists. With tickets prices in 1990 at $4.22 on average, that means the original film had about 284,000 lining up for round two, which would end with $6.3 million ($10.7 mil adjusted). That gives the film a very good 5.25 multiplier, which is not too shabby for a film that was probably already written off Columbia's books a half a decade earlier.

With only one film opening close to wide (821 screens) on April 20th, any potential top five shakeups would have to wait a week. But this sole film would provide that box office rarity of one actor starring in two films in the top five � actually the number three and number four films for the weekend.





First, let's address the tug of war for the top two spots. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continued to rebuff Pretty Woman's advances but its margin of victory had eroded to about $1.5 million. Off another 30%, the comic-based film earned another $9.8 million ($16.7 million adjusted) to the pile of green it already had in the bank. After 24 days, it had made $89 million ($151 million adjusted) and still had some miles in it. Pretty Woman slipped 18% to $8.3 million ($14.1 million adjusted) and would continue its run as salutatorian to Splinter's star pupils.

Incidentally, when adjusted for inflation, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had an identical total after 24 days as last fall's Twilight, which we know was a great example of frontloading. As has been demonstrated again and again recently, like Mary Hart, films just don't have the legs they used to. You see, in the late '80s/early '90s, Mary Hart was the host of Entertainment Tonight and supposedly had her legs insured for a million dollars and...nevermind.

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