Snapshot: July 1-4, 1994
By Joel West
February 12, 2009
The box office performance of a film these days is almost as important as the film's quality itself. As unfortunate as that may be, the facts are the facts. So while your movie may be as good as It's a Wonderful Life, Citizen Kane, or even The Shawshank Redemption (all box office disappointments in their own right), if the marketing, release date, and apparent quality don't resonate with audiences, its commercial success could suffer. As with everything in history, time produces clarity. This column will take a look back at a specific time at the movies and try and determine the factors that led to a movie's success or failure.
Over the 4th of July weekend in 1994, studios were compelled to throw as many as five films at moviegoers to see which one would stick. The Shadow, Blown Away, I Love Trouble, Baby's Day Out, and Little Big League collectively covered just about every genre possible with at least one hoping to break from the pack. Unfortunately, this particular weekend was wedged between the openings of two of the decade's biggest box office behemoths.
The summer of ‘94's box office already had its peaks and valleys; however, there were no films that looked to pull in the business the previous summer's Jurassic Park ($357 million) did. Maverick ($101 million), The Flintstones ($130 million), and Speed ($121 million) were all solid hits, yet none were going to get even half the business of last year's champ. However, there seemed to be hope on the horizon as the weekend prior to the July holiday saw The Lion King open to $40.8 million (a then record for an animated feature). Disney's previous animated blockbuster Aladdin had displayed some of the best legs ever for a movie (Aladdin opened in 1992 to $19.2 million on its way to $217 million) let alone a kid's flick, so Simba and the gang looked to gobble down at least $250 million. While the Disney blockbuster potentially spelled trouble for the kid oriented Little Big League and Baby's Day Out, the other three films were vying for the adult audiences.
The film with the biggest breakout potential was The Shadow. Based on a 1930s radio show of the same name, The Shadow now closely resembled Tim Burton's hugely successful Batman franchise. While Batman was currently undergoing the transition from the Burton era to the Schumacher debacle, The Shadow hoped to corner the fan-boy demographic salivating for the adventures of a billionaire superhero. Alec Baldwin donned the cape of the conflicted protagonist, while John Lone (villain), Tim Curry (henchman), Penelope Ann Miller (damsel), and Jonathan Winters (um...Alfred) filled out the rest of the cast. While all great character actors in their own right, this was not exactly screaming blockbuster. Alec Baldwin was also a great character actor (Glengarry Glen Ross, Malice) and a tabloid favorite (his still ongoing exploits with then-wife Kim Basinger), but his appeal had yet to cross over to A-list stardom. Coupled with a then expensive price tag of $40 million and a rather generic director at the helm (Russell Mulcahy – the Highlander films, Ricochet, The Real McCoy), The Shadow's marketing instead relied heavily on the blatant similarities to the Cape Crusader (not to mention the catchphrase – Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?). Unfortunately, curiosity over a '30s radio show hero wasn't able to vault 1990's Dick Tracy into Batman numbers and that film was populated with screen legends. On the other hand, The Shadow would be very content to settle with Dick Tracy's final gross ($103 million).
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