Snapshot: April 21-23, 1995
By Joel West
February 25, 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 maybe 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.
On one of the last weekends prior to the summer blockbuster season of 1995, three movie star hopefuls saw their first headlining films compete at the box office. The results launched a romcom Queen, stalled the career of a future-thrice Oscar nominated actor, and effectively ended the transition of TV actor's quest for film star success.
Spring of 1995 was a rather uneventful time at the movies. Forest Gump was still having an impact at the box office after being in theaters since summer of '94 (its Oscar sweep was no doubt responsible). Tommy Boy ($32 million), Billy Madison ($25 million) and Bad Boys ($65 million) introduced Chris Farley, Adam Sandler and Will Smith to the movie-going public after successful TV show runs, while Outbreak ($67 million) had been the season's biggest money maker. Disappointingly, Tank Girl ($4 million), Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh ($13 million), and The Quick and the Dead ($18 million) had all performed under expectations.
Outside of that, there weren't any really exciting stories to kick-off '95 at the movies.
While record-shattering numbers weren't expected, there was certainly some interesting hype leading up to the third weekend in April. David Caruso's Kiss of Death and Sandra Bullock's While You Were Sleeping both would be looking to knock two-week champ Bad Boys from the top spot. While Leonardo DiCaprio's first lead role in The Basketball Diaries wasn't expected to compete commercially with the weekend's top films, "good" critical word-of-mouth was its aspiration in order to push the film through the early days of summer.
Great expectations were behind Caruso, Bullock, and DiCaprio's first headlining efforts, as each possessed the charisma and acting chops to hopefully become A-list movie stars.
Despite never carrying a feature length film, the pressure was the greatest for Caruso. After a one year stint on the enormously popular and critically admired NYPD Blue, Caruso felt the TV show had served its purpose to launch him to superstardom. Fans, critics, and cast members were none to happy with Caruso's ego and prima donna behavior that eventually led to a bitter split from the show. No one would argue over Caruso's talents as an actor, but his premature exit from the show did not sit well with the 20-plus million that watched NYPD Blue on a weekly basis. This was not necessarily the karma the producers of his big screen debut, Kiss of Death, were hoping for when they signed him for $5 million. Outside of the bad buzz surrounding Caruso's involvement, Kiss of Death definitely possessed the makings of an intriguing crime noir. A remake of a 1947 classic, Kiss of Death also boasted a top notch cast of Nicolas Cage (back when he was an interesting actor — so pre-Leaving Las Vegas), Helen Hunt (right before Twister and As Good As It Gets), and Samuel L. Jackson (his first post-Pulp Fiction role). Director Barbet Schroeder had already balanced Oscar winning movies (Reversal of Fortune) with suspense filled dramas (Single White Female), so he clearly had the chops to bring the material together. Nonetheless, the movie didn't exactly scream blockbuster and none of the actors were considered box office pulls (not yet, Mr. Cage). For Kiss of Death to perform well, Caruso was going to have to impress the NYPD Blue fans who had felt jilted with glowing reviews.
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