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25 years ago - October 26, 1990

Graveyard Shift
Based on a short story by Stephen King, this horror thriller takes place in a rat-infested old mill and stars David Andrews, Kelly Wolf, Stephen Macht, and Brad Dourif. Reviews were poor. Audiences made the movie #1 at the box office for the weekend with $5.0 million, the lowest gross for a top opening film this year. Its eventual total gross of $11.5 million was also the second lowest for a Stephen King-based film released to that time.

Sibling Rivalry
Kirstie Alley stars in this comedy of errors from director Carl Reiner as a neglected wife who goes out looking for a fling and ends up finding her husband’s brother. Scott Bakula plays her husband, and Jami Gertz, Bill Pullman, Ed O’Neill, Carrie Fisher, and Sam Elliott co-star. Alley was at the peak of her fame at this time, three years into Cheers plus a huge hit with Look Who’s Talking in 1989. Reviews were not great, and audiences showed moderate interest, putting Sibling Rivalry at #2 at the box office with $4 million on 1,448 screens. It went on to earn $17.8 million in the U.S., much lower than the $140 million for Look Who’s Talking. Less than two months later, she was starring in Look Who’s Talking Too, but that movie only scored a fraction of the original as well.

White Palace which had opened in limited release the previous weekend, expanded to 864 screens and moved into the #3 spot with $3.4 million.

Tune in Tomorrow
Based on the novel “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter” by Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa (who later won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010) this romantic comedy is set in 1950’s New Orleans. Peter Falk stars as a creative radio host who cribs dialogue by his student, played by Keanu Reeves. Reeves had a hit the previous year with Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but this movie only opened on seven screens and peaked on just over 200. Reviews were fair. It eventually earned $1.7 million.

30 years ago - October 25, 1985

Krush Groove
In 2015 we’ve seen the biopic Straight Outta Compton about the rise of N.W.A. in the late 1980s. But by 1985, the rap music industry was already established and rapidly growing enough spark a contemporary origin movie. Krush Groove is based on on the beginnings of Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin and Def Jam Records. Run-D.M.C., Sheila E., Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, and New Edition all appear as themselves. Blair Underwood appears in his first movie role as a fictionalized version of Russell Simmons, while Simmons appears as another fictional character. Reviews mentioned the musical performances (including Shelia E’s “A Love Bizarre”) as the highlight, but the original song “All You Can Eat” by The Fat Boys earned a Razzie nomination. Released on 519 screens, strong audience interest put the movie at #2 at the box office between the much wider distributed Jagged Edge and Commando, both in in their fourth weekend in theaters. Krush Groove took in $2.9 million for a per-site average of $5,597, the strongest over the weekend. It went on to earn $11 million.

On a special anniversary note, this week holds a special place in (fictional) movie history. In case you missed it, October 21, 2015 is the day Marty McFly jumps to at the opening of Back to the Future II (released in 1989). The action first began in the original Back to the Future on October 26, 1985. That’s the date displayed on Doc Brown’s DeLorean when Marty McFly triggers the Flux Capacitor and time travels back to November 5th, 1955. On this weekend in the real 1985, Back to the Future was still cruising strong at #4 at the box office with a total of almost $170 million in its 17th week after release. It remained in the top ten well into December and eventually left theaters in March with over $200 million, the top earner released that year. Chances are pretty good we’ll be seeing some Back to the Future costumes this Halloween.


Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!

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