Revenge, Kevin Costner' first film of 1990, which was clearly the red-headed stepchild of Dances with Wolves, opened to $6.1 million ($10.2 million adjusted) but was able to beat out Madhouse, a comedy that tested the combined box office power of Night Court's Dan Fielding and Cheers' Rebecca Howell. Let's take a Tenderfoot Timeout (you're welcome, Night Court fans) and consider if Emmy recognition and solid Nielsen ratings could translate to box office. By 1990, John Larroquette was a four-time Emmy winner on Night Court and Kirstie Alley had been nominated twice for an Emmy on Cheers. Alley already had Look Who's Talking with its $130 million gross so far on her resume, but was she the draw? Other than his above the title role with Bronson Pinchot in the abomination that was 1989's Second Sight and the supporting credit as the tormentor of Bruce Willis in Blind Date, Larroquette was a box office question mark. Well, with a fourth place debut of $5.2 million ($8.7 million adjusted), Madhouse was pretty much a mediocre performer but its final tally of $21 million ($35.2 million adjusted) showed that there was at least some appeal for Larroquette and Alley at the theaters. Born on the Fourth of July was up 36% but had to settle for the number five spot with $4.1 million ($6.9 million adjusted), due to the decent performances of two new films.

The only other film opening this Presidents' Day weekend was Clive Barker's Nightbreed, starring David Cronenberg, among other people. It started with $3.7 million ($6.2 million adjusted) and then performed in typical horror film fashion by shedding 50% of its audience in weekend two. Ultimately, its debut weekend gross would be almost 42% of its final take.

The final weekend of this lackluster month would have the top of the box office heap consist of the same five films with only a ranking switch between Madhouse and Revenge, which posted the highest decrease in the top five with 53%. Driving Miss Daisy continued to post solid totals and took home another $6.1 million ($10.2 million adjusted). Steven Seagal kept his grip on number two with $5.4 million ($9.1 million adjusted) for Hard to Kill, which approached $30 million after three weekends. Madhouse was down only 35%, which was the best hold in the top five, and earned $3.4 million ($5.7 million adjusted). Costner's Revenge was not so sweet with the aforementioned 53% drop to $2.9 million ($4.9 million adjusted). Oliver Stone and Tom Cruise continued to cling to the top five for another weekend with $2.5 million ($4.2 million adjusted). Inconsequentially debuting with $2 million ($3.4 million adjusted) at number six was Jessica Lange's French drama remake, Men Don't Leave, on its way to final tally of $6.1 million.

While not at the summit of the box office for February 23rd to 25th, My Left Foot and its multiple nods, arguably driven by Daniel Day-Lewis' performance, got the push from Miramax in the form of additional 200 screens. This support helped it leap from number 23 to number 13 with a just under $1 million for the weekend.

Unfortunately, February is the shortest month of the year and in 1990, it came up short. With a total monthly gross of $294.5 million ($494.1 mil adjusted), this February was down nearly 10% from the same month in 1989.

The answer to the previous column's concluding question about whether any movie could topple Jessica Tandy's film is a fairly clear. "Not for more than a single weekend." Could another muscle-bound, martial arts-trained action star give it another whack in March or maybe it just takes a romantic comedy featuring a superstar-in-waiting? We shall see.

Source for 1990 box office totals: Variety.

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