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25 years ago - February 22, 1991

Scenes From a Mall
Bette Midler and Woody Allen star in this comedy from director Paul Mazursky as a married couple struggling with infidelity and keeping their marriage together. Reviews were weak, and the box office performance was especially weak for both Midler and Allen. With The Silence of the Lambs again dominating the weekend with $11.9 million, Scenes From a Mall opened at #6 with $3.8 million from 1,039 theaters.

He Said, She Said
Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins star in this romantic comedy as two journalists who face off as politically opposed hosts of an op-ed television series. Despite their differences of course they fall for each other. Nathan Lane, Anthony LaPaglia, and Sharon Stone appear in supporting roles. The movie is directed in a way that presents their relationship from both his and hers perspectives, and it was largely this storytelling device that was a sticking point with critics. He Said, She Said opened at #7 with $2.8 million from 908 theaters and went on to earn $9.8 million.

30 years ago - February 21, 1986

The Hitcher
Rutger Hauer plays the title role in this violent thriller as a serial killer who hitches a ride and torments C. Thomas Howell and Jennifer Jason Leigh. This was director Robert Harmon’s feature length debut. Critics were not in favor of the film, which was released a few hundred theaters short of the weekend’s carryover films. The Hitcher opened at #8 with $2.1 million from 794 theaters grossed a total of $5.8 million. Howell returned for a sequel in 2003, and a remake was released in 2007 starring Sean Bean.

9 ½ Weeks
Two things sell a Hollywood movie: sex and violence. Most of the time these elements are highlighted as a scene in a broader story, but every five to ten years we see a movie released that advertises blatant eroticism as its primary draw (usually at the expense of other qualities). In 2015 it was Fifty Shades of Grey. In 1986 it was this movie starring Mickey Rourke as John Gray, a Wall Street finance guy who coaxes Kim Basinger’s art gallery character into various kinky sex play activities during their brief affair. Basinger had gained fame in 1983 as a Bond girl in Never Say Never Again and for posing in Playboy, while Rourke had gained fame the same year for Diner. Director Adrian Lyne’s previous film was Flashdance, and he would go on to direct Fatal Attraction after this one. Reviews were mixed - some were favorable to the characters and story, but Basinger was nominated for a Razzie Award (Rourke would get his own nomination for the erotic drama Wild Orchid in 1991) - and while not many audiences got to see this in theaters, it was certainly talked about and became a hit on cable and home video. 9 ½ Weeks opened at 28 theaters this weekend with a strong $11,743 per-site average and went on to earn $6.7 million as one of the year’s stronger limited releases. Rourke starred in a direct-to-video sequel with Angie Everhart in 1997, and a prequel in the series was also released to video in 1998.


Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!

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