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March 29th new releases:
Career Opportunities / The Five Heartbeats
With TMNT II, The Silence of the Lambs, and Dances with Wolves topping the box office, Career Opportunities (Frank Whaley’s first lead role) came in at #4 with weak $4.0 million.


30 years ago - March 1986

February 28th new releases:
Pretty in Pink / House
Pretty in Pink was Molly Ringwald’s third John Hughes film, though this one was directed by Howard Deutch in his debut. Ringwald plays a high school girl from the poor side of the tracks who is pursued by a rich classmate played by Andrew McCarthy, much to the chagrin of her childhood friend Duckie, played by Jon Cryer. (“Blane? His name is Blane??”) Annie Potts and James Spader co-star. Both the film and its soundtrack collection of contemporary music remain 1980s fan favorites. Pretty in Pink opened at #1 with $6 million from 827 theaters. The horror comedy House came in a close second with $5.9 million from 1,440 theaters.

March 7th new releases:
Highlander / Nomads
Highlander was one of those great cheesy sci-fi action movies typical of the 1980s. Christopher Lambert plays an immortal warrior originally of the Scottish highlands trained by Sean Connery’s Egyptian/Spanish swordsman. Over the centuries the immortals fight each other to the death by decapitation (triggering the transfer of energy called “the Quickening”) until only Lambert’s Connor MacLeod is left in contemporary New York City to face The Kurgan, played by Clancy Brown. Queen provided music for the soundtrack, including songs Who Wants to Live Forever and It’s a Kind of Magic. Reviews weren’t good, but audience interest led to three (terrible) sequels and a well-regarded television series that ran for six seasons from 1992-1998. Highlander opened at #7 with $2.4 million from 1,040 theaters and took in $5.9 million overall.

March 14th new releases:
Gung Ho / Crossroads
Gung Ho was Michael Keaton’s fourth role since first starting in 1982 with Night Shift. Ron Howard directed that film and this one about a group of Pennsylvania factory workers who struggle to adapt when their car manufacturer is taken over by Japanese managers. Gedde Watanabe, George Wendt, John Turturro, and Mimi Rogers co-star. Reviews weren’t great, but audiences made Gung Ho #1 for the weekend with $7.1 million from 1,150 theaters. Nine months later Watanabe starred in a nine-episode television series based on the movie, with Scott Bakula playing Keaton’s character Hunt Stevenson.

March 21st new releases:
Police Academy 3: Back in Training / Just Between Friends / GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords / RAD
Steve Guttenberg and his co-stars returned for the next Police Academy sequel, now an annual spring tradition. This was the first in the series to be rated PG instead of R. Poor reviews didn’t stop audiences from going to see it, making Police Academy 3 the #1 movie for the weekend with $9.0 million from 1,788 theaters. This made it the second highest March opening weekend, after the $10.6 million opening of Police Academy 2. Police Academy 3 earned a total of $43 million, down from its predecessor and part of a decline that continued through Police Academy 7 in 1994.

March 28th new releases:
The Money Pit / April Fool’s Day / Lucas
If I compiled a list of my favorite movie scenes (and I should), the kitchen malfunction and flying turkey sequence from The Money Pit would rank near the top. Tom Hanks and Shelley Long star in this comedy about a couple who are swindled into buying what appears to be a stately house but turns out to be the ultimate restoration project. Long was currently in the fourth season of Cheers. This was another film success for Hanks. The Money Pit opened at #2 behind Police Academy 3 with $5.3 million from 1,189 theaters. It managed to take the #1 spot in its third week and went on to earn $37 million.

Lucas is one of those solid 1980s high school dramas not made by John Hughes. Corey Haim stars as a socially awkward kid too smart for his own good. Winona Ryder’s character plays his best friend with feelings for him, while he’s attracted to a new upperclassman played by Kerri Green, who’s interested in the jock played by Charlie Sheen, who is one of the few football players who doesn’t bully Lucas. It’s a whole lot of unrequited attraction and frustration and economic class issues (just like Pretty in Pink) that ends well but not as a fantasy. We’re also treated to a classic 1980s slow-clap scene. Tom Hodges and Jeremy Piven play bullies, and Courtney Thorne-Smith plays Sheen’s girlfriend. Lucas received good reviews but couldn’t turn that into opening weekend dollars. It opened at #11 with $1.2 million from 628 theaters but did manage to bring in $8.2 million overall.

I’d say March 1986 was a good month for moviegoers.

Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!

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