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20 years ago - November 10, 1995

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
Jim Carrey returns as the eccentric private detective in the sequel to his 1994 breakout comedy. Carrey was enjoying explosive success at this time, having also starred in The Mask and Dumb and Dumber in 1994, and co-starring as The Riddler in Batman Forever during the summer of 1995. Reviews of this sequel were weaker than the first movie, but that didn’t stop audiences this weekend. When Nature Calls opened at #1 with $37.8 million at 2,652 theaters, taking the November opening weekend record from Interview With the Vampire set the previous year. This was also the second biggest opening weekend of 1995, after Batman Forever’s $52 million, and Carrey’s biggest solo debut to date. When Nature Calls eventually grossed $108 million, a bit short of the $119 million for The Mask. An animated TV series based on the character (with a different voice actor) premiered in December and a direct-to-video sequel about Ventura’s son (without Carrey) followed in 2009.

Carrington
Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce star as painter Dora Carrington and writer Lytton Strachey in this drama of their unusual romance in the 1920s. Carrington opened at 12 theaters this weekend and later increased to 127 theaters for a total gross of $3.2 million. Pryce was later nominated for a BAFTA award for his performance.

25 years ago - November 9, 1990

Child’s Play 2
“Hi, I’m Chucky, wanna play?” 1988’s horror movie about a boy’s doll that is possessed by a serial killer was well-received and profitable, spawning the Chucky series. Young actor Alex Vincent returns as Andy, the boy who the resurrected doll Chucky wants to possess. John Lafia, who wrote the first movie, replaces Tom Holland as director for this sequel. Child’s Play 2 didn’t get quite the good reviews of the first movie but audiences still made it #1 for the weekend with $10.7 million (over twice the amount of #2, last week’s Jacob Ladder) at 1,996 theaters. It earned a total of $25 million in the U.S., falling short of the first movie’s take, but its profitability helped generate another sequel in 1991 and three more from 1998 to 2013.

The Krays
A U.K. crime drama based on a real life gangster family in the 1960s, starring Gary Kemp and Martin Kemp. The Krays opened at #15 with a moderate screen average at 392 theaters and went on to earn $2 million in the U.S.

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