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Pump Up the Volume
Similar in theme to Heathers two years earlier, Pump Up the Volume features Christian Slater as a chain smoking, mad as hell high school student who broadcasts on a pirate radio station to criticize the stigma of teen depression and suicide. Samantha Mathis plays the girl who finds him out. Reviews were good and the movie received four nominations at the Independent Spirit Awards. Pump Up the Volume earned $1.6 million at 799 theaters and went on to gross $11.5 million.

After Dark, My Sweet
Jason Patric and Rachel Ward star in this passionate crime thriller with Bruce Dern, based on the novel by Jim Thompson. Reviews were good but the movie only opened on 30 screens and stayed in limited release, earning $2.6 million overall.

30 years ago - August 23, 1985

Teen Wolf
Teen Wolf stars Michael J. Fox as a high school basketball player who can’t seem to win in this comedy. Reluctantly hiding his double identity as a werewolf, he then turns it to his advantage to take down his jock rival and win the girl who’s been right in front of him the whole time. Teen Wolf didn’t win the weekend, but opening at #2 isn’t so bad when you’re also starring in the #1 movie; Back to the Future led the box office in its eighth weekend. Teen Wolf opened to mixed reviews and $6.1 million, going on to earn $30 million. A month later Fox would continue starring as Alex P. Keaton in the fourth season of Family Ties.

Godzilla 1985
Japanese film house Toho released the first Godzilla movie way back in 1954, which was edited into an American version starring Raymond Burr and titled Godzilla, King of the Monsters! In 1984 Toho produced a sequel called The Return of Godzilla, and again it was edited as an American sequel to King of the Monsters with Raymond Burr inserted to reprise his original role. The movie touches on the issue of nuclear arsenals, with the American edit depicting U.S. forces more favorably than in the Japanese version. The movie suffered poor reviews and Raymond Burr was nominated for a Razzie Award. Godzilla 1985 had a limited opening at 235 sites and went on to earn $4.1 million in the U.S. It would be another 15 years before another Japanese-produced Godzilla film was released in the U.S.

Better Off Dead...
I like Teen Wolf and Michael J. Fox plenty, but as an '80s fan my pick this weekend is Better Off Dead. John Cusack stars as Lane Myer, a high school guy depressed over losing his girlfriend to the school jock (Aaron Dozier in his only feature film). He’s eventually turned around by a French exchange student (Diane Franklin, who might be as well known for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure in 1989) who helps him restore his 1967 Camaro and prove he’s the better skier to his nemesis. I’m sensing a common theme this week. Cusack and director Savage Steve Holland even worked together again the following year on One Crazy Summer. The movie features a flirty/working montage to Howard Jones’s “Like to Get to Know You Well” as well as a daydream stop-motion sequence with an animated hamburger dancing to “Everybody Wants Some” by Van Halen. Oh yes, and Lane plays the sax. I'm laughing again recalling some of the movie's dialogue, and that Camaro... Better Off Dead opened on only 13 screens in August and then expanded to a wide release at 650 sites in October, for an eventual total gross of $10.2 million.

Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!

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