The second weekend of February finally brought the only person that could knock an old lady off the number one perch – Steven Seagal. Just to clarify, I'm not saying that Steven Seagal goes around bullying the elderly. Rather, this is a statement of fact that more of the North American moviegoing public chose mindless, implausible Seagal action over an eventual Oscar winner. Boy, were we stupid. I guess the cinematic ignorance of America was around long before the string of heinous "epic/date/superhero/disaster movies" of this century.

The Seagal film in question was Hard to Kill, a revenge-fueled (aren't they all?) martial arts and action flick, that costarred Seagal's wife (at the time) Kelly LeBrock. It's too bad she didn't just keep hanging out with Gary and Wyatt instead of this guy. Love must truly be blind. Securing the top spot with $9.2 million ($15.4 million adjusted), Hard to Kill solidified the perception that Seagal was a bankable action star in the early 1990s. Jessica Tandy and friends added 400 screens and increased 8%, but had to settle for second place with $6.5 million ($10.9 million adjusted). Stella took third with $3.7 million ($6.2 million adjusted) after also adding a couple hundred screens but dropping 15%. The everlasting Born on the Fourth of July slipped to the number four spot with $3 million ($5 million adjusted) after 54 days in release. The fifth slot was claimed by another debut, Loose Cannons. The Dan Aykroyd/Gene Hackman buddy cop "comedy" grossed $2.2 million ($3.7 million adjusted). Other than allowing Aykroyd to appear in two top five movies over the same weekend, Loose Cannons served no purpose in this world as evidenced by its second weekend plummet to number 14. The team of Popeye Doyle and Ray Stanz eked out number five from the final new film, the sixth place Stanley & Iris, which earned $2.1 million ($3.5 million adjusted) on 300 fewer screens.

The next weekend, February 16th to 19th, benefited from a pair of calendar recurrences - the Presidents' Day holiday and the Oscar nominations announcement. In those days, the Academy Award ceremony was still held in late March and the campaign season lasted about five weeks, which the marketing geniuses at Miramax would masterfully take full advantage of throughout the '90s to push their prestige films. The most egregious example is Shakespeare in Love trumping Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture, but that's fodder for another column altogether.

On Valentine's Day in 1990, the Oscar nominations were unveiled and of the films still in theaters, Driving Miss Daisy got nine nominations, Born on the Fourth of July was nominated for eight awards and My Left Foot and Glory got five nods apiece. This recognition, along with the four-day weekend, helped all four post increases in screen count and more importantly, revenue. My Left Foot jumped 333% to $677,000 on fewer than 100 screens but still was at number 23. Glory rose 233% to $2.7 million ($4.5 million adjusted) and bounced from number 16 the previous weekend to number eight. But lest we forget the focus of Hindsight, order was restored to the top five with Driving Miss Daisy up 51% to $9.8 million ($16.4 million adjusted). Hard to Kill was surprisingly resilient and only slid 9% to $8.4 million ($14.1 million adjusted). A pair of new films claimed the numbers three and four spots.

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