Hindsight: April 1990
By Daron Aldridge
March 24, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
It wasn't for a lack of trying by the studios to keep the March momentum rolling as the first full weekend of April 1990 saw four new films open on more than 1,000 screens. Unfortunately, none of them could wrest the top two spots away from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Pretty Woman. TMNT hauled away another $18.8 million ($32 million adjusted to 2008 ticket prices), which was off 26% from its debut the week before, and Pretty Woman took home $11.3 million ($19.2 mil adjusted) off a scant 10%.
The best ranking of the new bunch was the third masterpiece in the Ernest P. Worrel opus, Ernest Goes to Jail. Jim Varney's cash cow for Disney brought home $6.1 million ($10.4 million adjusted), which landed it in third place. Considering that its predecessors (Ernest Goes to Camp and Ernest Saves Santa) carried budget of between $3 to 6 million, Ernest's time in the big house likely paid for itself after only three days. This is pretty amazing considering that the character stemmed from being a television commercial shill. He was the face of Braum's restaurants in my youth. That would be the same thing as ABC's foolish creation of an entire series around the Geico Cavemen but with positive revenue. Come to think of it, maybe Ernest was their template as Disney was involved with both endeavors. In the end, Ernest Goes to Jail performed as expected with a final take of $25.2 million ($42.9 million adjusted), which closely resembled the final box office of $23.5 million for Ernest Goes to Camp and $28.2 million for Ernest Saves Santa. Apparently, not only did both Jim Varney and Tyler Perry "go to jail" in a movie and often dress in drag for a role, they were both consistent box office draws, albeit it likely came from very different audiences.
Fourth place was claimed by The First Power, a film that tested Lou Diamond Phillips' box office pull outside of brat pack westerns and a Ritchie Valens biopic. The supernatural thriller saw Phillips' character battle and try to vanquish an unstoppable evil. So, art imitated life as Phillips battled the evil that is Ernest. Alas, The First Power came up almost $500,000 short of topping Varney and earned $5.7 million ($9.7 million adjusted). Despite being bridesmaid to Ernest Goes to Jail throughout its theatrical run, The First Power was a moneymaker for MGM as it more than doubled its $10 million budget with a final tally of $22.4 million ($38.1 million adjusted).
The number five spot for the weekend was held onto by that other colossal March release, The Hunt for Red October. Despite being down 23% from the week before, the Clancy film earned $5 million ($8.5 million adjusted) and kept the other new releases at bay from cracking the top five.
For the third new release of the weekend, Lawrence Kasdan assembled notable cast for the crime/comedy, I Love You to Death. The ensemble cast included some high profile players at the time, including Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves. In 1990, Kevin Kline was only two years removed from his Best Supporting Actor Oscar win for A Fish Called Wanda and Tracey Ullman was coming off the run of her Fox sketch television series that birthed one of the greatest television series ever created - The Simpsons, of course. Phoenix had just portrayed the younger Indiana Jones and Reeves was unleashed on the world a year earlier as Ted "Theodore" Logan. The strong cast that had delivered before, especially in comedy, was there but the audience apparently was not, as I Love You to Death could only eke out a sixth place finish with $4 million ($6.8 million adjusted) and ultimately, it would only live a short life at theaters before coming to a final resting place of $16.2 million ($27.6 million adjusted).
The last new movie of the weekend was John Waters' Cry-Baby, starring Johnny Depp. Mr. Waters' second attempt at a mainstream film (following 1988's Hairspray) plopped into seventh place with only $3 million ($5.1 million adjusted) on more than 1,200 screens. The positive was that Cry-Baby had already earned half of Hairspray's complete box office haul. Unfortunately, the film carried an estimated $11 million budget and would never do more than languish in the basement of the top ten for a final tally of $8.3 million ($14.1 million adjusted).
One final note about this weekend's result was that after $86.9 million and counting, as well as the big daddy of Oscars � Best Picture � Driving Miss Daisy would finally leave the top five and not return. The little old lady still had some gas in the tank as it would earn another $20 million other the next few weeks to end with $106.6 million ($181.4 mil adjusted). This total is even more impressive considering its budget of only $7.5 million. Bravo, Ms. Tandy for being an 81-year-old box office powerhouse, bravo!
The second weekend of April looked a whole lot like the first with the same five films in the top five, but with Sean Connery's 45-day old submarine drama jumping up a couple notches. Once again, the heroes in a half-shell sat on top of the heap with $14.1 million ($24 million adjusted) but that was a decline of another 25% from the previous week. Despite remaining number one, Leonardo and company were not holding as well as Julia Roberts' Pretty Woman, which remained number two with a slight drop of another 10% to $10.1 million ($17.2 mil adjusted). Ms. Roberts' box office coming out party was starting to warm up.
The Hunt for Red October sailed back up to the number three spot thanks to a small 15% dip and 31% and 33% declines for Ernest Goes to Jail and The First Power, respectively. The Jack Ryan film added another $4.3 million ($7.3 million adjusted) to its take, Jim Varney's film earned another $4.2 million ($7.1 million adjusted) and Lou Diamond Phillip's flick made another $3.8 million ($6.5 million adjusted).
Crazy People was peeping through the window at the top five from its sixth place finish and was the biggest of two new releases, which strangely both had "crazy" in their titles. The comedy starred Dudley Moore and Darryl Hannah and was likely intended to be more like Moore's Like Father Like Son from 1987 with its total of $34.4 million gross and less like Arthur 2: On the Rocks with a sad $14.7 million total. While he has the history of some box office success, Hannah was more relevant at the moment. She was coming off three rather high profile films (Roxanne, Wall Street, and Steel Magnolias), but she remained either the love interest or part of an ensemble. While her visibility was high in 1990, she was not remotely the draw for any of these and Crazy People didn't do her any box office clout favors with its debut of $3.6 million ($6.1 million adjusted) and would scratch out another $10 million to earn a total of $13.2 million ($22.5 million adjusted).
In the fine tradition of 1988's Iron Eagle II: The Battle Beyond the Flag, another sequel void of demand was released � The Gods Must Be Crazy II. The sequel was filmed in 1985 and collected dust for five years before showing up in theaters unexpectedly like a Coke bottle falling from the heavens into the African wilderness. Despite a tenth place finish and earning $1.2 million ($2 million adjusted) from 321 screens, the sequel had the best per-screen average in the top ten for any film not starring Eric Roberts' sister or reptilian martial artists. With tickets prices in 1990 at $4.22 on average, that means the original film had about 284,000 lining up for round two, which would end with $6.3 million ($10.7 mil adjusted). That gives the film a very good 5.25 multiplier, which is not too shabby for a film that was probably already written off Columbia's books a half a decade earlier.
With only one film opening close to wide (821 screens) on April 20th, any potential top five shakeups would have to wait a week. But this sole film would provide that box office rarity of one actor starring in two films in the top five � actually the number three and number four films for the weekend.
First, let's address the tug of war for the top two spots. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continued to rebuff Pretty Woman's advances but its margin of victory had eroded to about $1.5 million. Off another 30%, the comic-based film earned another $9.8 million ($16.7 million adjusted) to the pile of green it already had in the bank. After 24 days, it had made $89 million ($151 million adjusted) and still had some miles in it. Pretty Woman slipped 18% to $8.3 million ($14.1 million adjusted) and would continue its run as salutatorian to Splinter's star pupils.
Incidentally, when adjusted for inflation, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had an identical total after 24 days as last fall's Twilight, which we know was a great example of frontloading. As has been demonstrated again and again recently, like Mary Hart, films just don't have the legs they used to. You see, in the late '80s/early '90s, Mary Hart was the host of Entertainment Tonight and supposedly had her legs insured for a million dollars and...nevermind.
Like the weekend before, number three goes to Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin's underwater adventure, The Hunt for Red October, which beat Pretty Woman's week-to-week decline by only diving 17% to earn $3.6 million ($6.1 million adjusted). This is even more impressive considering the Cold War film had been in theaters for 52 days.
So, based upon the tease earlier, was it Sean Connery or Alec Baldwin that has the number four film also? As intriguing/disturbing as it may be to see a then 60-year old Connery star in Miami Blues as an ex-con opposite a 28-year-old Jennifer Jason Leigh as a prostitute, alas it is Baldwin who occupies both the number three and four slots. Miami Blues debuted with $3 million ($5.1 million adjusted) and sadly, earned less than the Gods Must be Crazy II, in the long run. Miami Blues ended up with a total of $9.9 million ($16.8 million adjusted).
The number five spot would go to our good friend Ernest for another week. Ernest Goes to Jail made another $2.95 million ($5 million adjusted) and despite undoubted proclamations that this was a sign that the world was coming to an end, it wasn't raining blood and people weren't called up to heaven in the Rapture.
The last weekend of this month tasted a lot like the first weekend with four new films released and not a sleeper in the bunch. Pretty Woman finally outlasted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to regain her top spot after a month in second place. The romantic comedy added another $7.2 million ($12.3 million adjusted) to its total with a decline of 14%. In contrast, the turtles more than doubled that drop with a 29% decline to $6.9 million ($11.7 million adjusted), which was still good enough to keep second place.
The highest debuting film this weekend was The Guardian with $5.6 million ($9.5 million adjusted). The Guardian comes across as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle mixed with Rosemary's Baby, with its newborn and supernatural/evil babysitter plot. With the talented William Friedkin at the helm, it makes you wonder, "What was he thinking? Is he just trying to prove that The French Connection and The Exorcist were flukes." Regardless of the lack of quality, the film still did decently in its opening round but for my tastes, this dreck is more offensive that Varney's Ernest.
Landing in the number four spot is Spaced Invaders with $4.5 million ($8.3 million adjusted). The sci-fi comedy starred a case of unknowns but one person would soon be part of the second biggest film of Steven Spielberg's career. Before she could traipse around Jurassic Park in three short years, Ariana Richards appeared in two films in the first four months of 1990. Following her appearance in Tremors, which was released in January, she had a more prominent role here. Apparently, running from giant worms and running around with little green men was the right practice to running away from big green dinosaurs. Disney must have had enough faith in the film to give it a screen count of 1,821, which was second only to TMNT for screen count in the top ten. With a tiny budget of only $3 million, Disney got 150% of that figure back in three days.
The Hunt for Red October finally had to surrender its number three spot but clung to number five with $3 million ($5.1 million adjusted).
The police corruption and legal drama Q&A debuted this weekend as well but had to settle for number six with $2.8 million ($4.8 million adjusted). This low total flies in the face of the talented cast of Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton and Armand Assante, and legendary director Sidney Lumet. If the Q was "Does anyone really wanted to see this?" Then the A was a clear, "No...not really." Q & A would finish with $11.2 million ($19.1 million adjusted) and be a memory until December/January when Assante got his Golden Globe nomination for the film.
Interesting side note: Sidney Lumet directed the masterpiece original 12 Angry Men in 1957 and William Friedkin directed the HBO remake in 1997. Both men release a movie on the exact same weekend in April 1990.
In honor of 2008's comeback kid, this weekend also saw the theatrical release of Wild Orchid, starring The Wrestler himself, Mickey Rourke and his future wife/ex-wife, Carre Otis. This film was second foray into erotic drama following 1986's 9 1/2 Weeks. There was no hiding the film's purpose of titillation. All you had to do was look at the director, Mr. Zalmon King. King was the writer of 9 1/2 Weeks and the writer/director of the similarly themed Two Moon Junction, prior to Wild Orchid. This soft core trifecta was the perfect groundwork for his future project, Red Shoe Diaries. The name Zalman King would become synonymous with the late night programming of Showtime and Cinemax in the 1990s and hero to every heterosexual teenage boy. Before he would go to that blissful place, King's Wild Orchid would wilt at the box office with a debut of only $2.6 million ($4.4 mil adjusted) and a final of $11 million ($18.7 million adjusted).
All in all, in April 1990, the battle for number one was a two-man fight, rather a four-turtle and one-woman fight. Thanks to its declines of less than 20% for five weeks and 25%+ declines for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Pretty Woman finished the month of April on the throne with $81 million already in the bank. Also, Ernest Goes to Jail was the highest grossing film released this month. This seems to highlight the studios' lack of faith in this month for box office revenue.
With summer approaching, how long would Julia Roberts reign? Working in her favor is the fact that this was 1990 and studios still waited to release their summer tentpole blockbusters until late May, unlike today's eager beavers. So, Pretty Woman might just have another month of smooth sailing if May's new films are as lackluster as April's were. May 1990 in Hindsight is coming up next.