Marquee History
Week 50 - 2015
By Max Braden
December 14, 2015
25 years ago - December 14, 1990
Look Who’s Talking Too
What do you do with a baby who can’t take acting direction? Give him a comic voiceover. And what do you do when your talking baby movie is a breakout hit? Double down and make a sequel, of course. Kirstie Alley and John Travolta return as the parents of now-toddler Mikey (voiced by Bruce Willis), and now new-baby Julie (voiced by wisecracking Roseanne Barr, then in the third season of her hit sitcom). Damon Wayans voiced another baby named Eddie, and Mel Brooks voices Mikey’s feared nemesis, Mr. Toilet Man. Though comically voiced-over babies and animals will always capture audience attention, repeating the same joke can wear thin. Reviews were poor and the sequel came up nearly $100 million short of its predecessor. Look Who’s Talking Too opened at #2 behind Home Alone (still #1 in its fifth weekend) with $8.1 million from 1,576 theaters. In the end it grossed just $47.7 million. The film also snagged two Razzie Award nominations for Gilbert Gottfried, who appeared on screen, and Roseanne Barr, who didn’t. Still, Travolta and Alley returned for another sequel in 1993 (Bruce Willis wisely moved on) which performed even worse.
Edward Scissorhands
In a sort of topsy-turvy mashup of Pinocchio, Frankenstein, and Freddy Krueger, Johnny Depp plays a young man assembled by an inventor but left awkwardly with scissors for hands in this adolescent sci-fi-sh drama. Brought into the home of a teenage girl played by Winona Ryder (who was dating Depp offscreen), Edward is seen by the neighborhood both as a gifted hair stylist and landscaper but also as a freak and a threat, especially by Anthony Michael Hall’s character. Once a scrawny underdog in 1980s comedies, Hall had matured to be in the position to play a bully. This was the first of many eccentric and iconic roles for Depp, and one of Tim Burton’s most creative and touching movies. Danny Elfman of course provides the soundtrack. This was to be Vincent Price’s last on-screen performance in a theatrical release. Reviews were excellent, and the film received an Oscar nomination for Best Makeup. Edward Scissorhands was initially released in two theaters on December 7th, earning $79,811 per site that weekend, and then expanded to 1,023 this weekend. It took the #3 spot with $6.3 million, earning the best wide-release average of the weekend. It was a commercial success, earning $56 million during its run.
Mermaids
Winona Ryder stars as the daughter of an eccentric single mother played by Cher in this comedy drama set in the 1960s. She falls for a boy played by Michael Schoeffling while Bob Hoskins pairs with Cher. Christina Ricci appears in her first movie role as Cher’s younger daughter. Reviews were fairly good, and Ryder received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. Mermaids opened at #6 with $3.5 million from 920 theaters and a steady audience helped it bring in $35 million.
Havana
Sydney Pollack directs Robert Redford in this drama set on the eve of the Cuban revolution. Redford plays a gambler and smuggler who falls for a woman played by Lena Olin, and must decide between her and his poker game. In another galaxy, this would be the story of Han Solo. Reviews were poor and the movie bombed at the box office, though it did earn an Oscar nomination for the musical score by Dave Grusin. Havana opened at #9 with $2.1 million from 824 theaters and eventually earned $9.2 million.
30 years ago - December 13, 1985
The Jewel of the Nile
With Romancing the Stone landing among the top ten box office hits of 1984, Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito return for the sequel. While Robert Zemeckis directed the first movie, he took on Back to the Future and this movie was directed by Cujo’s Lewis Teague. Other than the locations changing from South America to Arabia, the plot is basically the same: Joan takes on a writing assignment and gets in trouble, Jack comes to her rescue, and Ralph tries to make a buck out of the circumstances. Though that didn’t inspire critics, it was enough to sell the sequel. Jewel of the Nile opened at #2 behind Rocky IV with $6.6 million from 1,106 theaters. It went on to gross $75.9 million in the U.S., just short of Romancing the Stone’s $76.5 million gross.
Clue
A movie based on a board game? A decade before Jumanji, Clue was one of the first. Tim Curry stars in this comedy - director Jonathan Lynn’s first movie - as the butler for Mr. Boddy, who is blackmailing six guests until he’s murdered in the dark. The ensemble cast features Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, and Colleen Camp. Critics may have found it too scattershot, but I think it resulted in too many funny lines to pick a favorite. The movie was unusual in that audiences saw one of three different endings depending on which theater they attended. Clue opened at #6 with $2.0 million from 1,004 theaters, a fairly weak audience response compared to the other movies this weekend. After adding up all the box office dollars (one plus two plus one plus one, or is it one plus one plus two plus one?) it made $14.6 million in the U.S.
A Chorus Line
Ten years earlier, the Broadway production of this musical won multiple Tony awards and in 1983 became the longest-running show in Broadway history (until 1997 when Cats became the next recordholder). Richard Attenborough’s film format stays fairly close to the stage production, though it does switch out some songs for new ones, with Michael Douglas as the director who interviews the dancers who perform the music. Theater purists may not have been happy, but the movie did later earn Oscar nominations for Best Original Song (“Surprise, Surprise”), Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. A Chorus Line opened at 19 theaters this weekend and added 600 a week later, reaching a peak weekend box office position of #8 at the end of the month. It grossed a total of $14.2 million in the U.S.
Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!
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