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25 years ago - April 26, 1991

Oscar
While comic actors tend to switch things up with dramatic roles, tough guys seem to try out comedy: Arnold Schwarzenegger had Twins and Kindergarten Cop the late 1980s, and this comedy was Sylvester Stallone’s turn. Stallone plays 1930s gangster Snaps Provolone, whose plans to go legit are complicated by his daughter’s romantic entanglements. Marisa Tomei co-stars, along with Vincent Spano, Tim Curry, and Chazz Palminteri. Critics were not "on board" with the John Landis’s screwball comedy approach, and eventually he and Stallone and Tomei each received Razzie Award nominations. Audience interest was strong enough to keep the movie at the top of the box office for two weeks. Oscar opened at #1 - taking down Steven Seagal’s Out For Justice in its third weekend - with $5 million from 1,388 theaters. It went on to earn $23.5 million in total. Stallone stuck with comedy again in 1992 with Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot before returning to his more successful action roles.

A Kiss Before Dying
This murder-suspense film was a remake of the 1956 adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel. Sean Young plays the twin sister of an apparent suicide victim, who was actually murdered by Matt Dillon’s character. James Russo, Max von Sydow, and Diane Ladd co-star. Director James Dearden previously wrote the screenplay for the popular thriller Fatal Attraction. Dillon came to the project with acclaim from Drugstore Cowboy, and he was perhaps the only one to come out unscathed by critic reviews; Young was later nominated for two Razzie Awards - one for each role in this movie. A Kiss Before Dying opened at #2 with $4.3 million and eventually earned $15.4 million.

Toy Soldiers
Not to be confused with 1998’s Small Soldiers or the 1984 movie of the same name, this thriller has a plot mix of Die Hard and Taps. Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, and Keith Coogan play students at a boarding school that is taken over by Colombian terrorists. Together with the school dean, played by Louis Gossett, Jr., the teens subvert the terrorists from the inside while the FBI works from the outside. Jerry Orbach plays the mob boss father of Wheaton’s character. Daniel Petrie, Jr., who co-wrote the screenplay for Beverly Hills Cop, served as a first time director for this movie. Astin was probably still best known for The Goonies six years earlier, but had appeared in Memphis Belle in 1990. Similarly, Wheaton was known from Stand By Me in 1986 and also as Wesley Crusher for Star Trek: The Next Generation, already in its third season. Toy Soldiers opened at #3 with $4.1 million and eventually earned $15.0 million.

Also in limited release this weekend: Edward James Olmos and Lorraine Bracco in the baseball drama Talent for the Game.

30 years ago - April 18, 1986
Tom Cruise held the #1 spot with the carryover Legend this week, while The Money Pit moved back up to #2 in its fifth weekend. The Color Purple, in its 19th weekend, was still in the top ten and coming up on the $90 million mark.

The only significant presence for new films this weekend was the crime drama 8 Million Ways to Die, starring Jeff Bridges and Rosanna Arquette, with Andy Garcia in one of his early film roles. At 215 theaters it only had one-fifth the distribution of the week’s lead films, and only took in $1.3 million overall.

Also in very limited release: Crimewave from director Sam Raimi and the Coen brothers, and French comedy Three Men and a Cradle which would be remade into Three Men and a Baby the following year.


Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!

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