Hindsight: April 1990

By Daron Aldridge

March 24, 2009

Say no more. I've heard the rumors.

For the third new release of the weekend, Lawrence Kasdan assembled notable cast for the crime/comedy, I Love You to Death. The ensemble cast included some high profile players at the time, including Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves. In 1990, Kevin Kline was only two years removed from his Best Supporting Actor Oscar win for A Fish Called Wanda and Tracey Ullman was coming off the run of her Fox sketch television series that birthed one of the greatest television series ever created - The Simpsons, of course. Phoenix had just portrayed the younger Indiana Jones and Reeves was unleashed on the world a year earlier as Ted "Theodore" Logan. The strong cast that had delivered before, especially in comedy, was there but the audience apparently was not, as I Love You to Death could only eke out a sixth place finish with $4 million ($6.8 million adjusted) and ultimately, it would only live a short life at theaters before coming to a final resting place of $16.2 million ($27.6 million adjusted).

The last new movie of the weekend was John Waters' Cry-Baby, starring Johnny Depp. Mr. Waters' second attempt at a mainstream film (following 1988's Hairspray) plopped into seventh place with only $3 million ($5.1 million adjusted) on more than 1,200 screens. The positive was that Cry-Baby had already earned half of Hairspray's complete box office haul. Unfortunately, the film carried an estimated $11 million budget and would never do more than languish in the basement of the top ten for a final tally of $8.3 million ($14.1 million adjusted).

One final note about this weekend's result was that after $86.9 million and counting, as well as the big daddy of Oscars � Best Picture � Driving Miss Daisy would finally leave the top five and not return. The little old lady still had some gas in the tank as it would earn another $20 million other the next few weeks to end with $106.6 million ($181.4 mil adjusted). This total is even more impressive considering its budget of only $7.5 million. Bravo, Ms. Tandy for being an 81-year-old box office powerhouse, bravo!




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The second weekend of April looked a whole lot like the first with the same five films in the top five, but with Sean Connery's 45-day old submarine drama jumping up a couple notches. Once again, the heroes in a half-shell sat on top of the heap with $14.1 million ($24 million adjusted) but that was a decline of another 25% from the previous week. Despite remaining number one, Leonardo and company were not holding as well as Julia Roberts' Pretty Woman, which remained number two with a slight drop of another 10% to $10.1 million ($17.2 mil adjusted). Ms. Roberts' box office coming out party was starting to warm up.

The Hunt for Red October sailed back up to the number three spot thanks to a small 15% dip and 31% and 33% declines for Ernest Goes to Jail and The First Power, respectively. The Jack Ryan film added another $4.3 million ($7.3 million adjusted) to its take, Jim Varney's film earned another $4.2 million ($7.1 million adjusted) and Lou Diamond Phillip's flick made another $3.8 million ($6.5 million adjusted).


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