Marquee History
Week 35 - 2015
By Max Braden
August 29, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
This week's highlights are… pretty dismal due to this week falling on the dumping ground of the four-day Labor Day weekend. So, happy 30th, American Ninja.
Here are the movies that premiered on theater marquees this week...
10 years ago - September 2, 2005
Transporter 2
Jason Statham returns in the sequel to the 2002 Luc Besson action film as the courier with a code: Frank Martin doesn’t ask any questions, drives fast, kicks and punches fast, and reluctantly saves the innocent. The weekend’s widest-shown movie, on 3,303 screens, Transporter 2 opened at #1 with $20 million over the four-day Labor Day weekend, which was a record best Labor Day opening to that time (since passed by Halloween and The Possession). Its total gross of $43 million in the U.S. remains Statham’s best solo lead box office performance. The successful series continued with a third Statham movie three years later, a TV series in 2012, and a fourth movie (starring Ed Skrein) coming to theaters next week.
The Constant Gardener
This romantic political thriller based on the John le Carré novel stars Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Hubert Kounde, Danny Huston, and Bill Nighy. With a moderate release on 1,346 screens it wasn’t going to win the weekend, but it did have the best site average. Reviews were very good and personally I ranked it in my top five movies that year, so I encourage everyone to see it if they haven’t yet. Weisz won the Best Supporting Actress award at the Oscars and Screen Actors Guild awards, and the movie also earned multiple nominations with various groups. The Constant Gardener opened at #3 with $10.9 million and finished with $33 million.
Underclassman
Nick Cannon stars as a cop going to school undercover to solve a murder and car thefts in this comedy. Cannon had starred in the well-received Drumline in 2002 and released a rap album in 2003. Poor reviews, poor audience response, and a moderate release led Underclassman to open at #11 with $3 million and close at $5.6 million. He’s since been more famous for hosting America’s Got Talent and for being Mr. / ex-Mr. Mariah Carey.
A Sound of Thunder
Edward Burns and Ben Kingsley star in this sci-fi adventure based on the Ray Bradbury short story in which a time-travel dinosaur safari business goes wrong. Production suffered casting and financing trouble, and that certainly showed on screen with lousy visual effects. Reviews were lousy, and the movie opened at #17 with less than a million dollars on 816 screens.
15 years ago - September 1, 2000
Highlander: Endgame
This fourth entry in the sci-fi action series that began in 1986 brings together Adrian Paul from the TV series and Christopher Lambert from the movies. While the swordplay action is decent, critics complained about the writing. It may not have been as bad as the epic disaster of Highlander 2 in 1991, but this sequel both opened and grossed less than its two predecessors. Highlander: Endgame opened at #5 with $6.2 million over the Labor Day weekend on 1,543 screens, and even its international total of $15 million failed to match its $25 million budget.
Whipped
Amanda Peet serves as the object of affection for a trio of guys in this romantic comedy. Reviews were poor and Whipped opened at #14 with $2.7 million on 1,561 screens.
Gone in 60 Seconds, which had opened in theaters in June and had been nearing the end of its run, was bumped back up to 1,426 screens for the weekend in a push to bring its gross over $100 million (which it finally reached at the end of September).
20 years ago - September 1, 1995
The Prophecy
This horror-thriller from writer Gregory Widen (whose first movie was Highlander in 1986) features a war between the angels with humans caught in the middle. Christopher Walken plays the Archangel Gabriel, with Eric Stoltz, Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, and Viggo Mortensen in the cast. Reviews were fairly good and I remember being fairly impressed by the movie, especially by Mortensen as Lucifer. The Prophecy opened behind holdovers Mortal Kombat and Dangerous Minds at #3 with $7.5 million over the Labor Day weekend on 1,663 screens. Though it only grossed $16 million, the movie’s success brought back Walken for two more sequels, and another two sequels were released in 2005.
Magic in the Water
This family-friendly fantasy stars Sarah Wayne and Joshua Jackson as kids who try to save a Nessie-like creature in a Canadian lake. Mark Harmon plays their father. Reviews weren’t great, and Magic in the Water opened at #16 with $1.4 million on 890 screens.
25 years ago - August 31, 1990
The Lemon Sisters
This weekend’s only new release stars Diane Keaton, Carol Kane, and Kathryn Grody as singers in Atlantic City in the 1980s. Elliott Gould, Ruben Blades, Aidan Quinn, and Nathan Lane also appear. Miramax had enjoyed successes with Sex, Lies, and Videotape, My Left Foot, and Cinema Paradiso recently, but this production had been delayed by rewrites and the critics were not kind to the end result. The Lemon Sisters opened at #12 with $2.1 million over Labor Day weekend on 598 screens. Audiences instead went to see Ghost, which reclaimed the #1 spot in its eighth weekend in theaters.
30 years ago - August 30, 1985
American Ninja
Back in the '80s ninjas were everywhere, dropping out of trees, throwing stuff, and being a general public nuisance. I remember buying a Ninja magazine but I never learned their secrets. In American Ninja, Michael Dudikoff plays an American G.I. with a secret past. (SPOILER: he’s a former child ninja). Embroiled in a stolen-Army-weapons plot, Dudikoff fights ninjas in the Philippines. He was pretty good at beating them, so he starred in two (out of three) sequels that made it to theaters. American Ninja opened at #4 with $3.2 million over the Labor Day weekend on 672 screens (vs the 1,550 screens occupied by continued box office leader Back to the Future) and eventually earned $10.5 million in America.
Compromising Positions
Susan Sarandon stars in this mystery based on the 1978 novel by Susan Isaacs. She plays a former journalist who tries to get back in the business with the investigation of a murdered philandering dentist. Raul Julia, Joe Mantegna, Mary Beth Hurt, Edward Herrmann, and Judith Ivey costar, and Joan Allen makes her first movie appearance.. Reviews were fairly good, especially of Sarandon. Compromising Positions opened at #6 with $ 3.0 million on 570 screens - actually a better average than American Ninja. The movie eventually earned $12.5 million.
First released in 1984, Gremlins was reissued this weekend on 1,174 screens and managed to grab the #8 spot with $2.3 million. Eventually the movie earned a combined $153 million. Similarly, Ghostbusters, which had also premiered in 1984, was in its second week of re-issue and came in just behind Gremlins at #9 with $1.9 million
Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!