Hindsight: January 1990
By Daron Aldridge
August 4, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com
So let's fill that void in the spirit of BOPs prognosticator's stance each Friday and subsequent analysis on Saturday and Sunday for what really happened at the movies that weekend. Instead of projections, here's a look at the monthly box office landscape as it was seen by that handful of studio people.
January 1990 seems like the logical starting point. Before diving into what films dominated and fizzled at theaters in January, I would like put that timeframe into perspective. In 1990, television was graced with the very early seasons of The Simpsons and Law and Order, which are amazingly still producing new episodes. The box office draws of 1990 were notably different than today. Exhibit A: In 1990, Steven Seagal films together outgrossed all four movies headlined by Tom Hanks or Denzel Washington.
While researching 1990 films, it became obvious that this was also the year when about two dozen recognizable actors released at least two movies within the calendar year. Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis, Gene Hackman and Kirstie Alley were the overachievers of the bunch with three films each. Obviously, studios were mistakenly convinced that Kirstie Alley must be a bankable film actor because of the success of Cheers and Look Who's Talking.
Finally, Julia Roberts' biggest film credit prior to 1990 was Steel Magnolias and it seems that Matthew Modine was being primed for stardom by scoring the lead roles in Memphis Belle and Pacific Heights. These were truly different times indeed. But I digress. As we progress through the year, I will highlight notable films in more detail as 1990 was the year the aforementioned Ms. Roberts became a bankable movie star, Coppola returned to the franchise that put him on the map, and Arnold Schwarzenegger had a very good year. Let's begin.
January has typically served two purposes for studios: either as the month when Oscar contenders gain momentum from wide releases or as the dumping ground for movies that just weren't good enough to merit a plum spot on the calendar. January 1990 fits this definition perfectly.
The first weekend, January 5th to 7th, didn't have any film open wide and therefore, the box office's top five continued to be ruled by 1989 holdovers. Here's how the top five looked in order: $10.9 million for Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July with Tom Cruise ($18.3 million inflation adjusted to 2008 dollars); $6.9 million for The War of the Roses with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner ($11.6 million adjusted); $6.6 million for Tango & Cash with Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell ($11.1 million adjusted); $4.6 million for Spielberg's Always ($7.7 million adjusted); and $4.58 million for The Little Mermaid ($7.68 million adjusted). This gave them a combined haul of $33.58 million ($56.3 million adjusted).
With one exception, the second verse was the same as the first the next weekend on January 12th to 14th. The Richard Gere/Kim Basinger drama Internal Affairs cracked the top five and secured the number four slot with $5 million ($8.4 million adjusted). While this is not a seismic total, it was decent enough considering the month. On the plus side for Gere, he had another film in the hopper for March, a romantic comedy named after a certain Roy Orbison classic, so he just might rebound from a mediocre performance here. The top three remained the same. Oliver Stone's Vietnam morality tale remained number one but fell 27% to $8 million ($13.4 million adjusted). The War of the Roses still edged out the runner-up slot from Tango & Cash by $300,000 and both only dropped 18% and 19%, respectively. The top five pulled in $28.3 million ($45.7 million adjusted), which was down 16% from the previous frame.
Now for the portion that focuses on the dregs of the box office. Outside the top five, very far outside, two other releases were rolled out on January 12th to satisfy the dumping ground quotient. Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, the third installment in the horror franchise that was quickly tarnishing the brilliance of the original, was unleashed and no one seemed to care. It opened in 11th place with only $2.69 million ($4.5 million adjusted) this weekend and would fizzle out to $5.69 million ($9.5 million adjusted). Similarly, Ski Patrol debuted at number 14 with $1.6 million ($2.7 million adjusted). It would actually outgross Leatherface to the tune of $8.4 million ($14.1 million adjusted) before going on to its likely final resting place on USA's Up All Night hosted by Rhonda Shear.
It should also be noted that while Monday, January 15th would have technically been the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, not all states recognized this as a paid holiday until 1999. Therefore, the added bump that this holiday might give the box office today was simply not a factor in 1990.
For January 19th to 21st, the American movie-going public continued to put Tom Cruise in the top spot with $6.2 million ($10.4 million adjusted), off another 23%. The cop tag team of Stallone and Russell was finally able to wrestle the number two spot from Danny DeVito's bickering married couple in The War of the Roses but only by a slim $100,000. Internal Affairs eased 20% to $4 million ($6.7 million adjusted) but that was still good for a second weekend in fourth place. Luckily for Gere and the soon-to-be Ms. Baldwin (and then ex-Ms. Baldwin), the new openers disappointed. Tremors, the new film starring Kevin Bacon, Family Ties' Michael Gross and the sand worms from Dune and Beetlejuice, made only $3.7 million ($6.2 million adjusted), but this was enough money to hit the number five mark. The top five slid 21% to $22.4 million ($37.6 million adjusted).
As the final weekend of January 1990 approached, was there any new release opening that could loosen the Oliver Stone film's grip on the top spot? The answer is no. Nothing new of consequence opened and even the testosterone-filled Tango and Cash still failed to bump Born on the Fourth of July. But alas, Tom Cruise and company were dethroned by that unsung box office powerhouse of Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman (who was already 52 years old in January 1990) and Dan Aykroyd. On January 26th, after riding a wave of critical praise and regularly landing in the bottom part of the top ten on less than 300 screens, Driving Miss Daisy expanded an additional 600 screens and earned $6.3 million ($10.6 million adjusted). The eventual Best Picture winner caused the previous week's top four to each slide a notch but remain in the same order. Numbers two through five were Born on the Fourth of July with $5.1 million ($8.6 million adjusted), Tango & Cash with $4.6 million ($7.7 million adjusted), The War of the Roses with $3.2 ($5.4 million adjusted), and Internal Affairs with $3.1 million ($5.2 million adjusted). Thanks to Ms. Tandy, the top five virtually maintained the previous weekend's total with $22.3 million ($37.4 million adjusted).
Despite what appears to be unimpressive tallies, January 1990 ranked as the second best January on record at the time with $352.5 million in total box office receipts ($591.4 million adjusted). For a point of reference, the total January box office in 2008 for the top 20 films each weekend was $572.3 million. So, 1990's take is still pretty consistent.
As you might guess, next up is a look at February 1990. Let's see if a drama about an elderly Jewish lady and her African-American chauffeur can fend off the competition and hold the crown until it is named Best Picture.