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15 years ago - October 27, 2000

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
1999’s Blair Witch Project was one of those movies that makes an impression on the movie industry through the force of its success. Highly rated, well received by audiences, that found-footage horror made on a tiny budget became one of the most successful independent movies of all time. Leave it to Hollywood to ruin a good thing. The sequel received a budget of $15 million, started with a traditional screenplay, starred actors not in the first movie, went through tinkering after filming, and both critics and audiences could see before the movie was released that this was not the material they had flocked to the year before. Book of Shadows ultimately received Razzie nominations for Worst Picture, Director, Screenplay, Screen Couple, and Worst Remake or Sequel (“winning” the last). Book of Shadows opened at #2 behind the fourth weekend of Meet the Parents with $13 million on 3,317 screens, the weekend’s widest release. Ultimately the sequel made $26 million in the U.S., a mere shadow of the first movie’s $140 million gross. In 2015 (this weekend, in fact), we will have the sixth installment of the found-footage Paranormal Activity movie series, while Blair Witch 3 is still in development.

The Little Vampire
This family-friendly comedy is based on the children’s books by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg. Jerry Maguire child actor Jonathan Lipnicki stars as a kid who befriends a young vampire in Scotland. Reviews were mixed and audience interest wasn’t strong. The Little Vampire opened at #6 behind last week’s Pay It Forward and Bedazzled with $5.7 million on 2,009 screens. Its $27 million total gross was significantly less than its $35 million budget.

Lucky Numbers
This was an unlucky year for John Travolta. In May his big budget sci-fi film Battlefield Earth flopped, and then Lucky Numbers was released with almost no chance of making back its $60+ million budget. This comedy from Late Night writer Adam Resnick and You’ve Got Mail director Nora Ephron stars Travolta and Friends star Lisa Kudrow in a plot to rig a state lottery. Reviews were poor, leading to his weakest wide release box office performer since Look Who’s Talking Now. Lucky Numbers opened at #7 with $4.5 million on 2,497 screens and only managed to gross $10 million in total. Travolta "won" this year’s Razzie Award for Worst Actor for both this and his performance in Battlefield Earth after going 15 years without a nomination.

20 years ago - October 27, 1995

Powder
Sean Patrick Flannery, who had starred in the 1993 TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, stars in his first major role in this fantasy about an albino teenager whose supernatural abilities further push him away from fitting in. Mary Steenburgen and Jeff Goldblum costar. Mixed reviews didn’t keep audiences away, as they put the movie at #2 behind last week’s hit Get Shorty with $7.1 million on 1,592 screens. It went on to earn a total of $30 million.

Vampire in Brooklyn
Eddie Murphy, of course, had become a huge star in the 1980s, starring on Saturday Night Live, doing outrageous stand-up comedy, and delivering box office hits in theaters. And up until 1992, with one early exception, all his movies grossed $50 million and up (up to $234 million for Beverly Hills Cop). But then there was Boomerang, his first movie to open not at #1 (it opened at #3); The Distinguished Gentleman (which I still think is funny) earning only $46 million; Beverly Hills Cop III earning $42 million; and then this movie. This was the last movie Murphy was required to do for his Paramount contract, and oddly, it paired him with serious horror director Wes Craven, of Nightmare on Elm Street fame. The result was an awkwardly violent, R-rated, not-so-funny modern vampire movie. Reviews were poor and once again an Eddie Murphy movie failed to capture the #1 or #2 spot. Vampire in Brooklyn opened at #3 with $7 million on 2,307 screens - the widest distribution of the weekend but the lowest per-site average of the top four movies - and ended up with a gross just under $20 million. It was this movie that prompted David Spade to quip, “Look children, a falling star.” during a Hollywood Minute 1995 recap on Saturday Night Live, and that led Murphy to famously snub the show and its reunions until he finally made an appearance on SNL’s 40th anniversary show in February 2015. Fortunately Murphy bounced right back at the box office with his next film, The Nutty Professor.

Copycat
Sigourney Weaver stars as an expert on serial killers who is brought in to help solve a series of murders that match the acts of famous modern serial killers, with detectives played by Holly Hunter and Dermot Mulroney. Harry Connick Jr. also appears as a dramatic antagonist. Reviews were good. Copycat opened at #4 ahead of last week’s Now and Then with $5.1 million on 1,390 screens. It had good legs and eventually earned $32 million.

Three Wishes
Seven weeks after co-starring in To Wong Foo… Patrick Swayze stars in this family fantasy as a drifter who develops a bond with a widower (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and her sons. Reviews were poor, and audience interest was low as well. Three Wishes opened at #7 with $2.6 million on 1,535 screens. It eventually earned $7.0 million in the U.S.

Mighty Aphrodite
By 1995, Woody Allen had already had a dozen films earn Oscar nominations since Annie Hall in 1977. Mighty Aphrodite is perhaps one of his more unexpected films to produce the next nomination. Allen and Helena Bonham Carter star as a couple who adopt a gifted boy who turns out to be the son of a prostitute, played by Mira Sorvino (to particular ditzy effect). Michael Rapaport and Peter Weller co-star, and the movie includes an ancient Greek chorus which provides narration. Critics singled out Sorvino as the highlight. Allen received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay, and Sorvino went on to win the Best Supporting Actress award. Mighty Aphrodite opened on 19 screens this weekend and expanded to a peak of 278 screens, earning $6.4 million overall.

Leaving Las Vegas
Also opening in very limited release was this drama from director Mike Figgis, based on the novel by John O’Brien. Sadly, O’Brien committed suicide during production. Nicolas Cage plays an alcoholic who goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death and befriends a prostitute played by Elisabeth Shue. Reviews were excellent and it later earned Oscar nominations for Screenplay, Director, Shue, and Cage, with Cage winning the Best Actor award. After 12 weeks in limited release, it was given a wide release on February 9, 1996 and went on to gross $32 million in the U.S.

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