Murphy's ex-con Reggie Hammond reteamed with Nick Nolte's Jack Cates and moviegoers came along for the ride. Another 48 Hrs. brought $19.8 million ($33.7 million adjusted) home to Paramount. This debut was in line with Murphy's two previous films, Harlem Nights ($16.1 million debut) and Coming to America ($21.4 million debut).

For the rest of the top five, there was nowhere to go but down and down one spot they all shifted. Schwarzenegger's Martian epic performed like star-driven, front-loaded films often do and dropped 41% to second place with $15.1 million ($25.7 million adjusted). Maybe the word of mouth about the bare-chested, three-boobed mutant hadn't quite reached its target demographic yet. Back to the Future Part III, Michael J. Fox's last turn as Marty McFly, stopped at third place with $7.7 million ($13.1 million adjusted) and Bird on a Wire took fourth with $4.8 million ($8.2 million adjusted).

Despite still logging small declines, the summer was in full swing with new films opening on top every week. That means this was the last weekend that Pretty Woman would be in the top five with $4.5 million ($7.7 million adjusted). You shouldn't shed any tears for Vivian, though, because the film spent 80 days in the top five and of course, had already taken home more than $133 million at this point. This type of longevity was as much a rarity in 1990, as it is today.

Next on deck was a product of the Disney hype machine, Dick Tracy, a PG-rated film adaptation of the comic strip hero. With an apparent sentimentality toward the source material, Warren Beatty acquired the film rights to the comic strip character and ended up starring and directing the film. This seemed a bit of an odd follow-up directorial effort to his Oscar-winning Reds but Beatty attempted to stay true to the comic and he convincingly captured its two-dimensional look and bright colored settings.

As I recall, my 15-year-old self saw ad after ad after ad for the film. Dick Tracy was the clear beneficiary of Disney's marketing push in summer 1990. While it had a reported budget of $47 million, the advertising costs at least doubled that figure. Predictably, Dick Tracy won the weekend with $22.5 million ($38.3 million adjusted). Interestingly, the Variety box office chart for this weekend included a footnote that supported the omnipresent advertising. As Variety states, this $22.5 million amount includes "an estimated $1.25 to $1.5 million in T-shirt sales." This brilliant marketing scheme equated to selling special T-shirts that served as the ticket to midnight showings. I say they were brilliant because not only did they get the revenue from shirt sales, but they created between 250,000 to 300,000 walking billboards out of patrons (at $5 a pop per shirt).

Incidentally, I encourage you to go back and re-watch Al Pacino's scenes here as Big Boy Caprice and you will be witnessing the first stage of his devolution into a caricature. It was 100% appropriate here but should be turned off for other roles. Folks, it didn't start with Scent of a Woman.

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