Marquee History
Week 39 - 2015
By Max Braden
September 25, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
This week's highlights are the 10th anniversary of Serenity and a trio of top films from 2000: Remember the Titans, Best in Show, and Girlfight.
Here are the movies that premiered on theater marquees this week...
10 years ago - September 30, 2005
Serenity
I have to admit, I’m in the fan level for this series, which is below the superfan or ultrageek or browncoat or whatever level, so I always mix up the name of the movie versus the tv series name. No confusion among those true fans, though; Serenity is the movie that show creator Joss Whedon pursued after the TV series Firefly was cancelled after less than one season on Fox. Whedon had already had a strong following thanks to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, so the sci-fi/western series was instantly popular among his fans, but struggled for ratings when it premiered in 2002. All the major stars from the show are in the film, headlined by Nathan Fillion as Mal Reynolds, who faces off against a ruthless assassin played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. The movie earned good reviews, but despite strong fan anticipation, it only opened at #2 behind holdover Flightplan with $10 million on 2,188 screens (over 1,000 fewer than Flightplan and Corpse Bride). Its $25 million final gross also fell short of the $39 million budget, but the movie and series continue to be a strong presence at conventions and cosplay events.
A History of Violence
Initially released on 14 screens the prior week, A History of Violence was given a 1,340 screen release this week. David Cronenberg’s crime thriller stars Viggo Mortensen as a former criminal who has settled into a peaceful family life until his past comes looking for him. Maria Bello, Ed Harris, and William Hurt costar. While Mortensen received critical praise for his acting it was Hurt who would receive an Oscar nomination for his performance. Screenwriter Josh Olson also received an Oscar nomination. A History of Violence grabbed the #4 box office spot with $8.1 million and the strongest per-site average of the wide release movies this weekend. It eventually earned $31 million. With DVDs now dominating the home video market, A History of Violence was the last major Hollywood movie to be released on VHS.
Into the Blue
The physiques of Jessica Alba and Paul Walker star in this action thriller about a couple who get caught up in a drug scandal in the Bahamas. Scott Caan, Ashley Scott, and Tyson Beckford costar. Reviews were poor and Jessica Alba received a Razzie Award nomination for her performance. Into the Blue opened at #5 with $7 million on 2,789 screens. It went on to earn $18 million.
The Greatest Game Ever Played
With Transformers still two years away, Shia LaBeouf stars as real life golfer Francis Ouimet, the first amateur to win a U.S. Open, prior to World War I. This is the second film directed by Bill Paxton. Critics generally liked the movie and its visual style. The Greatest Game Ever Played opened at #9 with $3.6 million on 1,014 screens and went on to earn $15 million.
Capote
Opening on only 12 screens, not many saw the movie in theaters this week, but right from the start, this movie was much talked about as an Oscar contender. Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as writer Truman Capote, as he develops the true crime genre with his book In Cold Blood. Catherine Keener plays Nelle Harper Lee and Clifton Collins, Jr. plays the killer interviewed by Capote. Reviews were excellent; Philip Seymour Hoffman went on to win the Best Actor Oscar, and the movie received Oscar nominations for Picture, Director, Screenplay, and Supporting Actress for Keener. Expanding slightly to just over 300 screens during its run, Capote eventually grossed $28 million.
Also opening in limited release this weekend: The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (Julianne Moore), MirrorMask (Neil Gaiman), and Little Manhattan (Josh Hutcherson).
15 years ago - September 29, 2000
Remember the Titans
Set in 1971 Remember the Titans dramatizes the true story of an African American high school coach who dealt with racial issues in the white suburbs of Washington, DC. Denzel Washington stars, with Will Patton, Wood Harris, Ryan Hurst, and Donald Faison. Reviews were good, though not stellar, and Washington won awards from BET, the Black Reel Awards, and the NAACP. Remember the Titans dominated the box office, opening at #1 with $20.9 million on 1,865 screens, ahead of the $7.2 million for The Exorcist Director's Cut. It went on to earn a tremendous $115 million, the second best football movie gross to that time (behind The Waterboy, which was a comedy - only the Rocky movies had grossed more than Remember the Titans in the sports drama category.)
Beautiful
Minnie Driver stars in this comedy about beauty pageants, along with Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Joey Lauren Adams, and Kathleen Turner. This was the first (and as of 2015, the only) theatrical film directed by Sally Field. Reviews were dismal, but in limited release on 646 screens, Beautiful did manage to come in at #10 with $1.4 million. It eventually grossed $3.1 million.
Best in Show
When Christopher Guest’s name is spoken it’s usually accompanied by the word “mockumentary,” and Best in Show ranks up there with This is Spinal Tap (which he wrote but did not direct). Eugene Levy (who co-wrote the screenplay), Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Michael Hitchcock, Jennifer Coolidge, Patrick Cranshaw, John Michael Higgins, and Michael McKean costar as oddball dog owners in this comedy about a national dog show. Fred Willard appears as a hilariously dimwitted TV announcer. Best in Show received excellent reviews and a very strong $31,802 average on only 13 screens. After expanding to just under 500 theaters, it finished its run with a gross of $18 million.
Girlfight
Though not many people saw this movie in theaters, this movie packed a big punch. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and won the Grand Jury Prize. This weekend, it released on 28 screens. Michelle Rodriguez was chosen for the lead role of a girl who takes up boxing against the naysayers in her family and the sport, in her first ever acting role. This was also the first movie from writer-director Karyn Kusama. Both received numerous independent and festival awards along with praise from critics. Rodriguez appeared in The Fast and the Furious the following summer and her career took off from there. Girlfight grossed a total of $1.5 million on a peak of 253 screens.
Also opening in limited release: The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (Timothy Olyphant, Dean Cain, Zach Braff).
20 years ago - September 29, 1995
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
This sequel is the sixth movie in the slasher series that began in 1978. Paul Rudd stars as Tommy Doyle, who first appeared as an eight-year-old character in the 1978 movie, and also appeared in Halloween 2 and 4. The was Rudd’s debut film year, in which he first appeared in Clueless during the summer. Donald Pleasence returns again to play Dr. Loomis in his final major film (Pleasance died in February before the film was released). The plot centers on a “Cult of Thorn” paranormal element. Reviews were poor and audiences chose to the more modern horror of holdover Se7en for the top spot. The Curse of Michael Myers opened at #2 with $7.3 million on 1,679 screens. This was better than the openings of the three 1980s sequels, but in the end the movie only grossed $15 million. The next sequel, Halloween: H20, came three years later.
Devil in a Blue Dress
Denzel Washington plays 1940s private eye Easy Rawlins from Walter Mosley’s first award-winning 1990 crime novel. This was Washington’s third movie of the year, following Crimson Tide and Virtuosity. Tom Sizemore, Don Cheadle and Jennifer Beals costar. The story adds a racial and sociological element to the noire genre, and Cheadle and Beals were both nominated at the Image Awards. Reviews were good and Devil in a Blue Dress opened at #3 with $5.4 million on 1,432 screens. It went on to earn $16 million.
The Big Green
This family-friendly underdog soccer comedy from Disney stars Olivia d’Abo, Steve Guttenberg, and Patrick Renna. Renna was known from 1993’s baseball comedy drama The Sandlot. The movie bombed among critics but managed to come in at #4 with $4.6 million on 2,072 screens. Ultimately it earned $17 million.
Steal Big, Steal Little
Andy Garcia plays twins in this comedy set in Santa Barbara, with Alan Arkin, Rachel Ticotin, Joe Pantoliano, and Holland Taylor. Reviews were poor and box office was worse. Steal Big, Steal Little opened at #8 with $1.7 million on 1,080 screens and finished with less than a tenth of its $35 million budget.
Moonlight and Valentino
Based on the play by Ellen Simon, this drama about life after loss stars Elizabeth Perkins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kathleen Turner, and Whoopi Goldberg. Jon Bon Jovi plays a romantic interest. Critics took note of the overbearing feministic tone and audience response wasn’t very strong. Moonlight and Valentino opened in limited release at #12 with $1.2 million on 669 screens, earning a total of $2.4 million during its run.
Opening in very limited release: To Die For (Nicole Kidman) which I’ll cover next week, when it expanded into moderate release.
25 years ago - September 28, 1990
Pacific Heights
Michael Keaton of course became big in the '80s with comedies and finished the decade with the record-breaking blockbuster Batman. In Pacific Heights, he plays a straight up nasty: a tenant becomes a couple’s worst nightmare when he refuses to pay or leave his apartment and then takes over their lives. Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine costar. The movie has its tense moments but didn’t entirely win over critics. Still, it won the weekend. Pacific Heights took down Goodfellas for #1 with $6.9 million on 1,278 screens. It went on to earn $29 million.
I Come in Peace
This one is a sci-fi action film starring Dolph Lundgren as a cop investigating the drug trade who finds out there’s an alien drug dealer and an alien cop in his midst. About the only highlight of this movie was a nifty alien flying disc used as a murder weapon. Brian Benben, who had just started starring in HBO’s comedy Dream On during the summer, plays an FBI agent for comedic relief. Reviews were not good. I Come in Peace opened at #6 with $1.9 million and went on to earn $4.3 million.
Texasville
Back in 1971, Peter Bogdanovich directed Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Eileen Brennan, Ellen Burstyn, Randy Quaid, and Cloris Leachman in the drama The Last Picture Show based on Larry McMurtry’s novel. That movie was a big hit at the Academy Awards, earning nominations for Bridges, Burstyn, and Leachman (who won), as well as Picture and Director. Nearly 20 years later Bogdanovich and the major cast members return for this sequel. Shepherd was probably the biggest draw, having completed Moonlighting’s five-year run in the spring of 1989. Reviews of Texasville naturally didn’t live up to its predecessor’s accolades. In limited release, Texasville opened moderately at #12 on 354 screens. It went on to earn $2.2 million.
Also debuting in limited release: King of New York (Christopher Walken, David Caruso, and Laurence Fishburne).
30 years ago - September 27, 1985
Invasion U.S.A.
The first half of the '80s was the heydey for Chuck Norris action films. Not only did he have his biggest hit the previous year with Missing in Action, Invasion U.S.A. was his third movie of 1985, following Missing in Action 2 and Code of Silence. Invasion U.S.A. features a story (written in part by Chuck Norris) with a mix of Cuban guerrillas, Soviet agents, and terrorists in Miami. Norris plays former-CIA-agent-pulled-out-of-retirement Matt Hunter. Michael Dudikoff took over the role for the sequel the following year. Reviews were poor but audiences went to see it anyway: Invasion U.S.A. opened at #1 ahead of Agnes of God and Back to the Future with $6.8 million on 1,735 screens. The movie went on to gross $17.5 million, well ahead of Missing in Action 2 but short of Code of Silence.
Maxie
This one is a fantasy comedy about a couple whose house was once occupied by a 1920s flapper, and now the flapper’s ghost occupies the wife. This was almost a year to the day after Steve Martin and lily Tomlin’s possession comedy All of Me. Mandy Patinkin and Glenn Close play the couple. Close had earned her third Oscar nomination earlier in the year and later received a Golden Globe nomination for this movie. Patinkin’s previous movie was Yentl, for which he was also nominated for a Golden Globe. Maxie opened at #6 with $1.1 million on 778 screens and a week later was eclipsed by Glenn Close’s thriller Jagged Edge. Maxie went on to earn $2.5 million.
Also debuting in limited release: The Journey of Natty Gann (Meredith Salenger and John Cusack), Marie: A True Story (Sissy Spacek and Jeff Daniels), Code Name: Emerald (Ed Harris and Max von Sydow)
Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!