Marquee History
Week 6 - 2016
By Max Braden
February 5, 2016
15 years ago - February 9, 2001
Hannibal
When The Silence of the Lambs was released in February 1991 (covered in next week’s Marquee History!) and Hannibal Lecter was identified as one of the most iconic movie villains of all time, audiences were naturally hungry for more. But Hollywood had to wait on author Thomas Harris to publish the next installment of the saga in 1999. Ridley Scott directed this adaptation from a screenplay by David Mamet and Steven Zaillian.
Set 10 years after the events of Lambs, the story finds Dr. Hannibal Lecter residing in Florence, Italy until he is triggered into returning to the United States due to his only surviving victim’s plans for revenge. Anthony Hopkins again plays Lecter, but Julianne Moore replaces Jodie Foster as FBI agent Clarice Starling. Gary Oldman plays the plot’s instigator, with Ray Liotta and Giancarlo Giannini in supporting roles. Critics gave the film good reviews but felt it was not as good as Silence of the Lambs and too gory.
In any case, the return of Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter was irresistible to audiences. Hannibal opened at #1 with $58 million from 3,230 theaters. This made it the best February opening of all time by a large margin - Scream 3 had set the record with $34 million the previous year. It was also the biggest R-rated opening of all time (beating Scary Movie from 2000), and the third biggest opening weekend ever. But 2001 turned out to be a strong year and six other films had bigger opening weekend grosses after February. In the end, Hannibal had grossed $165 million in the U.S. of $351 million total worldwide. The next film in the series was the prequel Red Dragon in 2002, again featuring Hopkins, but in a time before Clarice Starling’s character. Hannibal remains the best performer in the series by nominal figures and comes in just behind The Silence of the Lambs when adjusted for inflation.
Saving Silverman
This comedy from frequent Adam Sandler director Dennis Dugan stars Jason Biggs as Darren Silverman, a guy about to marry his emotionally controlling girlfriend Judith, played by Amanda Peet. His friends, played by Steve Zahn and Jack Black, concoct a series of desperate measures to break them up, including kidnapping. Amanda Detmer and R. Lee Ermey play supporting roles, and Neil Diamond is featured in a cameo. Biggs had his breakthrough hit in 1999 with American Pie, with the sequel to follow later in 2001. Reviews of this film were weak. Saving Silverman opened at #3 with $7.4 million from 2,467 theaters and only earned $19.4 million, short of its $22 million budget.
20 years ago - February 9, 1996
Broken Arrow
Director John Woo’s second American release starred John Travolta and Christian Slater in an action thriller about a stolen nuclear warhead. Howie Long, Samantha Mathis, Delroy Lindo, Frank Whaley, and Bob Gunton appear in supporting roles. Reviews were mixed, but audience response was good enough to help establish Woo in Hollywood and continued keeping Travolta’s name up in the box office press. Broken Arrow opened at #1 with $15.5 million from 2,388 theaters. It grossed $70 million in the U.S. and $79 million in foreign markets. Woo and Travolta worked together again the following year on Face/Off.
Beautiful Girls
Matt Dillon leads an ensemble cast in this R-rated buddy comedy set at a high school reunion. Timothy Hutton, Noah Emmerich, Michael Rapaport, Lauren Holly, Rosie O’Donnell, Martha Plimpton, Natalie Portman, Mira Sorvino, and Uma Thurman co-star. Reviews of the acting and chemistry were good. In moderately wide release, Beautiful Girls opened at #7 with $2.7 million from 752 theaters for a decent per-site average. It went on to earn $10.5 million.
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