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20 years ago - December 22, 1995
This weekend saw seven new wide release movies come to theaters. How did the theater marquees manage to list them all??

Waiting to Exhale
This romance stars Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Lela Rochon, and Loretta Devine as friends seeking long-term relationships with men. This was Forest Whitaker’s first time as a director. Reviews were only moderately good, but the film became a big hit with audiences. In addition to the film, the soundtrack, with songs performed solely by African-American women, also became a huge hit. Within a year, the soundtrack album had sold 7 million copies and had held the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart for five straight weeks. The album earned 11 Grammy nominations and a win for Best R&B Song (“Exhale (Shoop Shoop)”). Waiting to Exhale was the movie to knock off Toy Story from the top, opening at #1 with $14.1 million from 1,253 theaters. Running through February it took in a total of $67 million.

Grumpier Old Men
This comedy sequel comes two years after the first. With Ann-Margret having married Jack Lemmon in the first movie, Walter Matthau now gets a flame to focus on in the form of Sophia Loren. Daryl Hannah and Kevin Pollak co-star, along with Burgess Meredith in his final film role. Reviews were not as kind as for the first movie, but the box office managed to keep pace just the same. Grumpier Old Men opened at #4 with $7.7 million from 1,995 theaters and grossed $71 million.

Sudden Death
Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in this action thriller as a firefighter who discovers an imminent terrorist attack during the Stanley Cup NHL Championship final game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks. Powers Boothe plays an antagonist. One of Van Damme’s few films to deal with terrorism, this one was released the same year as Die Hard 3. Reviews were fair. Sudden Death opened at #8 with $4.7 million from 1,681 theaters. Its final gross of $20.3 million wasn’t quite at the level of his hits like Hard Target and Universal Soldier a few years prior, but it did benefit from more than double that box office from foreign markets, for a worldwide total of $64 million.

Tom and Huck
This family-friendly adventure stars Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro in an adaptation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Reviews were poor. Tom and Huck opened at #9 with $3.2 million from 1,609 theaters, and earned a healthy $23.9 million overall.

Dracula: Dead and Loving It
Following his successes as Detective Frank Drebin in the Naked Gun movies, Leslie Nielsen took on some other spoof roles, such as this one from director Mel Brooks (his last directorial effort so far). Nielsen plays Dracula, Brooks plays Dr. Van Helsing, and Peter MacNicol and Steven Weber co-star. Reviews were lousy. Dead and Loving It opened at #10 with $2.7 million from 1,425 theaters and grossed $10.7 million overall.

Cutthroat Island
Renny Harlin directs his wife, Geena Davis, in this 17th century pirate adventure. Matthew Modine and Frank Langella co-star. Reviews were mostly negative, and Harlin received a Razzie award nomination for Worst Director. Cutthroat Island opened at #11 with $2.3 million from 1,619 theaters and went on to gross $10 million. The difference between box office gross and the film’s budget (over $100 million) was so large that for a time it was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the film with the largest financial loss. Harlin again directed Davis the following year in The Long Kiss Goodnight, which did better at the box office but effectively marked the end of her run as a lead movie star.

Nixon
Anthony Hopkins portrays President Richard Nixon in Oliver Stone’s three-and-a-half-hour biopic. A large cast includes Joan Allen, James Woods, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, and Bob Hoskins. Reviews were mixed, but the film earned Oscar nominations for Best Actor (Hopkins), Supporting Actress (Allen), Music, and Screenplay. Nixon opened at #13 with $2.2 million from 517 theaters this weekend and expanded to a peak of 977 theaters in January, earning a total of $13.6 million. This was significantly less than Stone’s previous presidential pic earned; JFK had a total gross of $70 million after its Christmas 1991 release.

Balto
This animated adventure from Universal Pictures tells the story of the lead sled dog who helped save Nome, Alaska from a diphtheria outbreak in 1925. Kevin Bacon provides the main voice, with Bob Hoskins, Bridget Fonda, and Phil Collins providing some of the other animal voices. The film received decent reviews as a recommendation for family viewing. Balto opened at #15 with $1.5 million from 1,427 theaters and earned $11.3 million overall. Two direct-to-video sequels followed in 2002 and 2004.

Four Rooms
This comedy takes place in a hotel but uses four different directors to tell four different stories. Most attention was given to the involvement of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, as well as actors Tim Roth and Antonio Banderas. The film received poor reviews and Madonna won the Razzie award for Worst Supporting Actress. Four Rooms opened at 280 theaters this weekend and eventually earned $4.2 million in limited release.

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