Following in the footsteps of the summer's previous faltering wannabe action flick, Fire Birds, Orion Pictures offered up Navy SEALs, starring Michael Biehn and Charlie Sheen. Biehn had been unsuccessful outside of a James Cameron movie and Navy SEALs would not be the hit he must have been aching for. The military actioner took the number four spot in its $6.5 million ($11.1 million adjusted) debut. In fifth place, The Jungle Book was down 21% to $6.1 million ($10.4 million adjusted). To recap, Navy SEALs barely edged out a 23-year-old cartoon.

As July winds down, a bankable, international star, Mr. Harrison Ford, makes a departure from his big budget, sci-fi and adventure films to explore the more dramatic side of acting in Presumed Innocent. Just one year after chasing after the Holy Grail with Sean Connery, in what many thought was and should have been the last Indiana Jones film; Ford headlines a thriller that is void of fedoras and blasters. For a role more akin to his part in Witness or The Mosquito Coast, Ford opened Presumed Innocent to $11.7 million ($19.9 million adjusted) in first place. While the debut might seem meager for a star of Ford's caliber, this film earned this amount from less than 1,400 screens. Presumed Innocent would end up with a healthy $86.3 million ($146.8 million adjusted) for Warner Bros.

Swayze and Moore missed back-to-back first place finishes by $600,000. Paramount continued its aggressive expansion by tacking on another 300 screens for Ghost. As a result, the film only dipped 11% to $11.1 million ($18.9 million adjusted).
Another weekend and another sitcom star tests the waters of box office bankability. In third place, John Ritter opened Problem Child to $10 million ($17 mil adjusted). In what is essentially a comedic take on The Omen or The Bad Seed without the looming apocalypse or high body count, Problem Child provided a heaping helping of mischief directed at Jack Tripper. Surprisingly, the film found an audience who pushed it to a cumulative total of $53.5 million ($91 million adjusted). So obviously Universal would crank out a sequel by the next year, but the bloom was already off the rose as the follow-up brought home less than half of the original.

Fourth place belonged to Arachnophobia. Thanks to the addition of approximately 350 screens, Arachnophobia actually saw a slight increase of about 1.5% to $8.2 million ($14 million adjusted). The movie that opened the month at number one had to settle for closing it in fifth place. Thanks to a drop of over 40%, Die Hard 2 grossed $6 million ($10.2 million adjusted) and would have a place at the top five table for the last time. Die Hard 2 was already sitting nicely with $87.7 million after 26 days and still had another $30 million waiting for it. At the end of its run, McClane's second worst day ever helped solidify Bruce Willis' status with a final tally of $117.3 million ($199.6 million adjusted).

July definitely brought some heat to the box office but the biggest release of the month was more a slow burn and would be a staple on the chart for months. As summer enters its last month, more challengers are waiting to battle Ghost for the top spot but will the temporary victories like with Presumed Innocent occur more often than not? Only a look at August 1990 will be able to answer that question.

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Source for 1990 box office totals: Variety.

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