Snapshot: August 1-3, 1997
By Joel West
March 27, 2009
Ford was largely expected to reclaim the top spot at the box office, but the hordes of Spawn and RomCom fans were going to give him a run for his millions.
When the weekend came to a close, Ford had indeed reclaimed his throne with a reported $25 million. Following much closer than expected was Spawn with $21 million (midnight screenings included). Way back in fifth (!) place was Picture Perfect with a very disappointing $7.8 million (the three-week old George of the Jungle and five-week old Men in Black each made $8 million). Air Bud did okay with $4.8 million and 187 was DOA with $2 million. In very limited release, In the Company of Men did well making $100,000.
Ford's Air Force One was clearly a box office behemoth grossing $172 million over its run. Prior to its release, Ford had actually fallen on hard times at the box office. Attempting to stretch from the reluctant hero roles, Ford had himself tried a RomCom (1995's Sabrina - $53 million) and a political drama (1997's The Devil's Own - $42 million) to less than stellar results. However, the novelty of seeing Indiana Jones/Han Solo as an ass-kicking president was a no-brainer to restore his box office clout.
The die-hards ignored the critical drubbings and showed up in force for Spawn's opening weekend. Despite the big opening, Spawn unfortunately helped solidify the norm of a cult favorite being nothing more than a one weekend wonder by dropping off the face of the Earth after its first three days. While a total gross of $54 million was nothing to frown about, the overall crappy quality of the film halted any chances of a sequel. Plans of the ever popular reboot have been tossed around for years and rightfully so. In today's anti-hero climate, Spawn should have no trouble translating perfectly to the big screen...in the right hands of course (i.e. spend some money on talent). *Tangent Alert - When adapting a cult icon, don't alienate the fan base in order to appeal to the mainstream for a potential franchise. Say what one will about the quality of the current Watchmen, no one could argue whether director Zach Snyder was making his epic for fans or everyone else. Sure it is front-loaded both commercially ($55 million opening to maybe a $110 final gross) and anatomy-wise, but at least it had teeth. And come on haters, be thankful it wasn't the quality of Spawn!***
Aniston's transition to big screen success was stalled by the poor performance of Picture Perfect ($31 million). As happens with most TV-to-film conversions, audiences would rather watch the actor/actress for free rather than drop money to see arguably the same character on the big screen. Why not give paying audiences a performance they wouldn't see otherwise every Thursday at 7:00? Aniston for the most part floundered at the box office until she started pairing with popular funny men (Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty - $242 million, Ben Stiller in Along Came Polly - $88 million, and Vince Vaughn in The Break-Up - $118 million). While it remains unlikely Aniston will ever give an un-Rachel like performance, she has obviously found a successful niche that eluded her other Friends.
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