Hindsight: May 1990
By Daron Aldridge
May 5, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
In 1990, April showers didn't exactly drench the box office as weekend after weekend was a virtual drought of box office winners. May flowers would have to come on their own and before the end of the month, a couple new releases would try to kick off the summer movie season properly.
Apropos of Wolverine opening this past Friday with $34.1 million, a look at May 1990 can really illustrate how the box office landscape and movie-going habits of the public have changed in nearly two decades. Try this on for size: You have to combine the inflation-adjusted weekend grosses of the top four films the weekend of May 4th to 6th in 1990 to match what Wolverine did in a single day in 2009. So, it's abundantly clear that the studios then didn't regard the beginning of May as the starting line for the summer box office race, like they do today.
On the Monday morning after the first weekend of May, Julia Roberts' Vivian hadn't yet picked the money of the top box office spot's nightstand and made a break for it. She was still hanging around as the U.S. moviegoers were her best customers. With a slip of only 5% after a month and a half, Pretty Woman scored another $6.8 million ($11.6 million adjusted to 1990 dollars) and was still sitting...well...pretty as the number one movie in America.
Predictably, numero dos was the quartet of radioactively-powered turtles. With a drop of 23% to $5.3 million ($9 million adjusted), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossed that all-important milestone of $100 million after 38 days.
The third spot goes to the debuting horror anthology/TV show adaptation Tales from the Darkside with a $5 million ($8.5 million adj) take. It was the only debuting film to actually make any dent in the box office this weekend. With its third place debut, Tales from the Darkside and its minuscule $3.5 million budget added fuel to the fire that horror films, even those of dubious quality (looking at you, Darkness Falls and Boogeyman), can be moneymakers if the cost is kept low. The budget was possibly kept so low because the actors were only needed for about 25-minute long vignettes. The cast of diverse acting talents included future-multiple Oscar nominee Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Blondie's Deborah Harry and Joey Lawrence's little brother/Gimme a Break coattail rider, Matthew, as well as Christian Slater. Slater's appearance was the first of his three 1990 films (followed by Young Guns II and his big turn in Pump Up the Volume), an attempt at mainstream acceptance that would have probably repulsed J.D. from Heathers.
As expected, the next two spots were occupied by two April leftovers, Spaced Invaders and The Guardian. Despite adding 20+ screens, the alien invasion "comedy" Spaced Invaders dropped 30% to $3.5 million ($5.4 million adjusted) and logged one of the lowest per screen averages in the top ten, second only to the long-in-the-tooth Driving Miss Daisy. William Friedkin's thriller The Guardian was the proud owner of the largest drop in the top 20 with its embarrassing plummet of 46% to $3 million ($5.1 million adjusted).
If Tales from the Darkside was the big film to open up May 1990 a la 2009's Wolverine, what could compare to the reboot of the Star Trek franchise on the second weekend? Nothing, nada, zilch. Friday, May 11th had nary a film open wide. But John Q. Public apparently wanted some popcorn as a big winner from March reemerged into the top five to take number four.
Apparently, Pretty Woman had curried enough favor with Disney/Touchstone to get a bonus of nearly 70 more screens, which resulted in an increase of 11% over the previous weekend. With an uptick and no new challengers, Julia Roberts' breakout film retained the top spot with $7.5 million ($12.9 million adjusted) and followed in the wake of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to her own trip across the $100 million mark.
Speaking of the turtles, the lack of competition had to be welcomed by them because their film held its number two slot despite shedding another 31% of revenue to $ 3.7 million ($6.3 million adjusted). The real darkside of box office for Tales from the Darkside was that it is still a horror film and it performed as they do by dropping 41% to $2.9 million ($4.9 million adjusted). Sadly, this was good enough for another lap in third place.
Number four welcomed an old friend with open arms. The Hunt for Red October resurfaced with $2.2 million ($3.7 million adjusted) with a decrease of only 8% in money and a loss of more than 50 screens. How did this happen? Likely, the void of newcomers and dearth of appealing titles overall get the credit. Undoubtedly, happy to still be in the top five, Spaced Invaders once again declines heavily (37%) to $2 million ($3.4 million adjusted).
Here's the score: Two weekends in May...Zero new box office factors. But as the third weekend approaches, finally, the studios seem to at least try to inject some life into theaters.
While not exactly a blockbuster/tentpole by today's standards, May 18th saw the debut of the witness protection action/comedy Bird on a Wire with Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn. This was the first of a trio of Mel-starring films in 1990 with Air America coming in August and Hamlet opening limited in December. Remember, in the late '80s/early '90s, this pairing of Hawn and Gibson was a big deal that could arguably be compared to the match-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, with two big names brought together for an action/comedy outing. With its debut take of $15.3 million ($26 million adjusted), Bird on a Wire easily took the top spot. Overall, the film did respectable business and outgrossed Mel's cinematic adventure with Goldie's better half in 1988's Tequila Sunrise, which opened to only $6.4 million on its way to $40 million. Apparently, 20 years ago, one Goldie Hawn was better than a Kurt Russell and a Michelle Pfeiffer.
Eerily, Bird on a Wire's final box office tally of $71 million ($120.8 million adjusted) virtually paralleled Gibson's first go-round as Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon, which grossed $65.2 million in 1987 ($119.7 million adjusted to 1987 dollars). Yet, Bird on a Wire didn't spawn a franchise, which is indicative to the fact this is a rather forgettable entry on either actor's filmography.
Speaking of forgettable resume entries, the number two spot was occupied by Robin Williams' Cadillac Man. The Artist Formerly Known as Mork followed up his back-to-back Oscar nominated turns in Good Morning, Vietnam and Dead Poets Society, with this R-rated comedy about a car salesman who has a bad day with his job and relationships on the line, and then, his life when Tim Robbins takes him hostage. Cadillac Man swindled $6.7 million ($11.4 million adjusted) off of moviegoers in its first weekend. It's true this isn't a stellar opening for someone who has had recent box office and critical success like Williams, but Cadillac Man would end up with $27.6 million ($47.0 million adjusted) for a 4.11 multiplier, which isn't devastating.
Here's a piece of information that is the very definition of trivial but I found it noteworthy. Similar to Alec Baldwin the previous month appearing in both The Hunt for Red October and Miami Blues but to a lesser degree, with her part in Cadillac Man and her lead in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Judith Hoag was in two top five movies. Admittedly, it would have been more impressive if anyone had ever heard from her again on the big screen. She didn't even return for the TMNT sequels.
Pretty Woman had to settle for a third place finish but was still in spitting distance of Cadillac Man with $6.3 million ($10.7 million adjusted). More importantly for the tale of Vivian and Edward's forbidden love, Pretty Woman inched past the Tom Clancy submarine-fest to become the second highest-grossing film of the year. She was less than $5 million behind the current leader, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which claimed fourth place as Casey Jones' buddies brought home another $3.3 million ($5.6 million adjusted). Amazingly, after 52 days in theaters, TMNT still had the highest screen count of any film in release with it showing on 2,026 screens.
Finally, Tales from the Darkside was able to cling to the number five spot with $1.9 million ($3.2 million adjusted) from a 35% drop. With Memorial Day and the unquestionable start of summer on the way, Paramount had to have been pleased with Tales from the Darkside's two week tenure in the top five. Ultimately, the horror anthology would gross $16.3 million ($27.7 million adjusted) or 4.65 times its $3.5 million budget. This should be considered a definite victory for Paramount.
For the big finale that was the Memorial Day weekend of 1990, Universal wrapped up a franchise trilogy and Nicolas Cage foreshadowed future box office failures.
The first big event movie of the summer opened on May 25th in the form of the series-capping Back to the Future Part III. Setting an example for the Wachowski brothers' Matrix and Gore Verbinski's Pirates trilogies, Robert Zemeckis filmed the second and third chapters in the McFly saga concurrently with a $40 million price tag for each. Both Parts II and III had the tall-to-live-up-to-legacy of the first film's $197.9 million haul in 1985. When it's adjusted for inflation since 1985, the original Back to the Future earned a thunderous $400.3 million. Universal had just released Part II in November to $27.8 million ($50 million adjusted to 1989 dollars) and an end result of $118.5 million ($213.2 million adjusted to 1989 dollars). Coupled with unflattering critical response, Universal's expectations have to have been tempered for this final chapter.
Let's take a hypothetical nostalgia trip: If Box Office Prophets had been around in those days, you would have undoubtedly been treated to a Monday Morning Quarterback discussion packed with comments like "I bet Universal wishes they could go back in time and make Part II not suck," or "For me, Part II just doesn't McFly," or "For fans of the original film, with this sequel, the filmmakers put the F-U in Future." And now back to the analysis.
Back to the Future Part III ushered out the month of May with a top spot-earning debut of $23.7 million ($40.3 million adjusted) over the four-day holiday weekend ($19.1 million was earned if you exclude Memorial Day). I would be amazed if Universal didn't think that the second installment's lackluster performance and bad reviews/poor audience reception left money on the table for the superior Part III. If you don't compare it to its predecessors, the film is a surefire success but unfortunately, you can't justify taking them out of the equation. To continue to rain on this parade, the fact that it came up more than $4 million shy of Part II even with an extra day of business furthers supports the notion that people were turned off by the convoluted, unsentimental plot of Part II.
Bird on a Wire was still perched near the top of the chart at number two with $12.8 million ($21.8 million adjusted) for the weekend after a slide of 17%. While the extra day of business didn't seem to help Mel and Goldie, our tired and true prostitute with a heart of gold increased an impressive 31%. Pretty Woman not only remained in third place with its $8.2 million ($14 million adjusted) take, it eclipsed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (who finally fell from the top five after 59 days) to be the top-grossing film of 1990. With a slate of summer movies waiting in the wings, Julia Roberts might have to relish this victory for a bit as it is likely fleeting. With Pretty Woman lapping it, Cadillac Man had to settle for the fourth spot with $6.5 million ($11.1 million adjusted).
The final top five spot of the month goes to Fire Birds, starring the box office's most unpredictable star - Nicolas Cage. Over this holiday weekend, the cookie cutter action film with Cage, Tommy Lee Jones, Sean Young and a bunch of Apache helicopters made $6.4 million ($10.9 million adjusted). In 1990, Cage was still five years away from drinking himself to Oscar gold and was just not much of a box office factor, unlike today, where he is just a box office conundrum. This is especially true when you consider that despite being a film in the same genre that would be fruitful for Cage post-Oscar, like The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off, the audience-repelling Fire Birds opened comparably to recent Nic Cage action vehicles (2008's Bangkok Dangerous - $7.8 million and 2007's Next - $7.1 milion). Ultimately, Fire Birds crashed and burned with a final tally of $14.8 million ($25.2 million adjusted).
So, after the skeletal cinematic offerings in the first two weeks of May, the studio finally stretched their legs before the summer marathon with a couple releases with notable stars and the close of a beloved franchise. Up next, Hindsight will forge ahead into warmer months with, hopefully, more films that can set the box office on fire.