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Marquee HistoryEarly January - 2016By Max BradenJanuary 18, 2016
Two If By Sea This romantic comedy starred Sandra Bullock and Denis Leary in a plot surrounding art theft. Not only were reviews poor, but the box office was the worst of Bullock’s career (which had its jump-start with Speed two years earlier) for nearly two decades. Two if by Sea opened at #10 with $4.6 million from 1,712 theaters and only grossed $10.6 million overall. Dunston Checks In 1996 was still in that era of Hollywood films that were fascinated with orangutans. Child actor Eric Lloyd starred as a boy who saves an orangutan from his human controller, a thief played by Rupert Everett. Jason Alexander and Faye Dunaway co-starred. Reviews were bad except for the consideration of pre-teen audiences. Dunston Checks In opened at #13 with $3 million from 1,290 theaters and checked out with $9.8 million. Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace When the first Lawnmower Man (an adaptation of a Stephen King story in name only) was released in 1992, it was sort of a new TRON in the pre-browser days of the internet. This sequel featuring a plot about controlling the world through cyberspace arrived in a time where internet usage maturity was becoming widespread. It failed to excite anyone and opened at #17 with $1.4 million from 1,589 theaters - a paltry sub-$900 per-site average. Total gross $2.4 million. From Dusk Till Dawn This horror-crime-comedy was written by Quentin Tarantino and directed Robert Rodriguez, and starred George Clooney in his first lead theatrical role. Clooney had recently received an Emmy nomination for his role on the television series E.R., while Tarantino was riding high on the success of Pulp Fiction. Tarantino and Rodriguez had worked together previously on Desperado. This film follows two brothers on the run after robbing a bank, and turns into a horror film when they hole up in a brothel inhabited by vampires. Salma Hayek, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, and Danny Trejo co-starred. From Dusk Till Dawn opened on January 19th at #1 with $10.2 million from 2,004 theaters and went on to gross $25.8 million. It spawned two direct-to-video sequels, neither of which starred Clooney or Tarantino. 25 years ago - January 11 & 18, 1991 The early January box office in 1991 continued to be dominated by Home Alone. It had opened at #1 in mid November and not only held that position through December but also for each weekend in January and the first weekend in February. By mid-January it was nearing a box office tally of $200 million, and was the only movie playing at over 2,000 theaters during the month. Awakenings, Kindergarten Cop, and Dances With Wolves continued to do well, while The Godfather Part III fell quickly. Lionheart Jean-Claude Van Damme starred in this martial arts film as a French Foreign Legion paratrooper who comes to Los Angeles and competes in illegal fights to earn money for his brother’s family. Despite weak reviews, this film was Van Damme’s best performer of his career to date and achieved appreciation from fans. Lionheart opened on January 11th at #3 with $7.0 million from 1,462 theaters, eventually earning $24.04 million in the U.S. Not Without My Daughter Sally Field starred in this drama based on the book by Betty Mahmoody as a mother who travels to Iran with her husband but is not allowed to leave, prompting her to escape her husband’s abuses back to America with her daughter. The film was blasted by critics for its depictions of Iranians and Muslims, and Field received a Razzie nomination for her performance. Not Without My Daughter opened on January 11th at #7 with $3.8 million from 1,137 theaters but did manage to gross $14.7 million overall. Flight of the Intruder This Vietnam War drama, adapted from the novel by Stephen Coonts, was released just days after the bombing campaign of Operation Desert Storm began in Iraq and Kuwait. Brad Johnson, Danny Glover, and Willem Dafoe starred as A-6 pilots who flew bombing runs and launched an unauthorized attack over Hanoi. Rosanna Arquette, Tom Sizemore, and Ving Rhames appeared in supporting roles. Facing negative reviews, Flight of the Intruder opened at #5 on January 18th behind 1990’s holdovers with $5.7 million from 1,489 theaters. It eventually earned $14.5 million in the U.S., far short of its $35 million budget.
White Fang This family-friendly live action Disney adaptation of Jack London’s novel starred Ethan Hawke (two years after he became noticed in Dead Poets Society) as the young man who rescues a dog-wolf mix from an abuser in the Yukon. White Fang opened at #6 with $5.6 million from 1,108 theaters and went on to earn a profitable $34.7 million. Eve of Destruction This action thriller starred Gregory Hines as a military colonel who must stop a robot-gone-haywire, played by Renee Soutendijk in her first and most notable U.S. film role. Reviews were very poor, and it was a box office bomb. Eve of Destruction opened at #13 with $2.1 million from 985 theaters, and eventually earned only $4.7 million. 30 years ago - January 10 & 17, 1986 Early January moviegoers largely went to see carryover movies from December 1985: Out of Africa, Rocky IV, The Jewel of the Nile, Spies Like Us, and The Color Purple all led the box office for the first two weeks of the year. Black Moon Rising In one of Tommy Lee Jones’s less impressive projects, he starred in this action thriller as a former criminal hired by the government to steal a computer disk for an investigation. The cool factor of the movie was a prototype car called the Black Moon, capable of driving 325mph using water as fuel. Linda Hamilton and Robert Vaughn co-starred. Former football star Bubba Smith, of the Police Academy series, played a supporting role. Black Moon Rising opened at #7 on January 10th with $2.7 million for the weekend at 907 theaters. The film eventually earned $6.4 million and disappeared from memory as fast as the car. Iron Eagle Here’s a bit of trivia you can use to trip up some friends: name the jet fighter action movie that was a knockoff of Top Gun. Well, it wasn’t Iron Eagle, because this movie was in theaters four months before Top Gun was released. It starred Jason Gedrick as a young Air Force pilot who goes to rescue his father, held hostage in a Middle Eastern country, with the help of a veteran pilot played by Louis Gosset Jr. This was the first major lead role for Gedrick. Gossett had won an Oscar for his supporting role in An Officer and a Gentleman four years earlier. Iron Eagle won the weekend of the 17th with $6.1 million from 1,080 theaters. It went on to earn $23 million, which was enough to spawn three sequels featuring Gossett’s character Col. Chappy Sinclair. Of course, the entire franchise income didn’t come near to the $179 million that Top Gun earned in the U.S. alone, but it was a big year for air combat in the movies.
Troll This PG-13 horror movie tells the story of a troll who terrorizes a San Francisco family in their apartment. The film starred Noah Hathaway (Atreu in The Neverending Story) as a boy named Harry Potter (how about that?), Michael Moriarty (years before Law & Order), and Shelley Hack (of Charlie’s Angels). Sonny Bono plays a supporting role as a neighbor in their apartment building. Troll opened at #9 with $2.5 million from 959 theaters and eventually earned $4.5 million. The Clan of the Cave Bear This imagining of prehistoric times (based on the novel by Jean M. Auel) starred Daryl Hannah as a tall, blonde Cro-Magnon who is adopted by a group of less advanced Neanderthals. Hannah had had her breakthrough two years earlier with Splash. Not many audiences saw this during its run - it opened in one theater on January 17th and peaked at 106 during its run, eventually earning $1.9 million. That made it a box office bomb, especially since reviews from critics and audiences have been overwhelmingly negative. Still, the movie did earn an Oscar nomination for Makeup. Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!
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Saturday, April 27, 2024
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