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15 years ago - April 13, 2001

Bridget Jones’s Diary
This R-rated romantic comedy was based on the 1997 best-selling novel by Helen Fielding, itself a loose adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Renee Zellweger stars as the 30-something looking for love who thinks she wants her boss, played by Hugh Grant, but is destined to fall for Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy. Critics and audiences took to it very well, and Zellweger and Firth both received BAFTA nominations, with Zellweger also receiving a Golden Globe nomination. Though Bridget Jones’s Diary opened at #3 this weekend with $10.7 million from 1,611 theaters, it expanded further to 2,221 for week two, winning the #1 spot and remaining in the top ten for the next eight weeks. It grossed $71 million in the U.S. but an additional $210 million from foreign markets, making it highly profitable. The sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, was released in 2004, and Bridget Jones’s Baby is due in theaters later this year.

Joe Dirt
This comedy was created by and stars David Spade as the lead character, a mullet-haired radio station janitor who goes through ups and downs trying to find out who were his parents. Brittany Daniel, Dennis Miller, Christopher Walken, Jaime Pressly and Kid Rock co-star. Critics gave it a like-it-or-hate-it response. Audiences made the movie #4 with $8 million from 2,638 theaters, leading to a profitable total of $27.0 million. Spade and much of the original cast returned for a sequel in 2015 which was released by online distributor Crackle.

Kingdom Come
This ensemble comedy based on the play Dearly Departed features LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica Fox, Anthony Anderson, and Whoopi Goldberg as family members who come together at a funeral. Critics were not impressed with the writing, but Goldberg, Fox, Cedric the Entertainer, and Loretta Devine each were nominated for NAACP Image Awards. Kingdom Come opened at #6 with $7.5 million from 1,111 theaters, the strongest average of the new openers. It went on to gross $23.2 million.

Josie and the Pussycats
This was a live action comedy based on the Archie comic and 1970s animated television series about an all-female musical group and their adventures in and out of trouble. Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson star as the bandmates, and Gabriel Mann, Missi Pyle, Alan Cumming, and Parker Posey co-star. Critics gave the movie weak reviews, and audiences just didn’t show up. This was a far different reaction than for the Spice Girls movie Spice World only four years earlier, which earned $100 million. Josie and the Pussycats opened at #7 with $4.5 million from 2,556 theaters - a poor average compared to the rest of the weekend. It only managed to gross $14.2 million, less than half its production budget.

20 years ago - April 12, 1996

James and the Giant Peach
This family adventure, mixing live action and stop-motion animation, was based on the Roald Dahl novel about a boy who grows a giant peach, befriends some insects inside, and goes on an adventure to New York City. The film was produced by Tim Burton, who had released the stop motion fantasy The Nightmare Before Christmas three years earlier. Paul Terry plays James, and Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Jane Leeves, Susan Sarandon, David Thewlis, and Miriam Margolyes voice the insect friends. Critics overwhelmingly praised the film, and Randy Newman’s musical score later earned an Oscar nomination. James and the Giant Peach opened at #2 behind Primal Fear with $7.5 million from 2,262 theaters, eventually earning a moderate $28.9 million in the U.S.

Fear
This thriller was the third film role for Mark Wahlberg and a pre-fame role for Reese Witherspoon as well. Witherspoon plays a sweet and innocent teen who starts dating a dangerous guy, in a plot that reverses the roles of Fatal Attraction. Critics were not impressed, but the movie clearly appealed to its teen audience. Fear opened at #4 with $6.3 million from 1,584 theaters and was able to gross $20.5 million during its run. Wahlberg was nominated for Best Villain at the MTV Movie Awards.

Also opening in limited release this weekend: the comedy Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy and the historical drama Jane Eyre, starring Anna Paquin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, William Hurt, and Joan Plowright.


25 years ago - April 12, 1991

Out for Justice
Steven Seagal had another #1 hit with this action flick, in which he stars as detective Gino Felino, who hunts down low-level mob renegade Richie Madano (played by William Forsythe) for killing Gino’s partner Bobby Lupo. Jerry Orbach and Anthony DeSando co-star. The movie’s action highlight has to be the “Anybody seen Richie?” pool hall fight using cue sticks and a ball wrapped in a towel. Out for Justice took in $10.5 million this weekend from 2,010 theaters and grossed a total of $39.6 million, short of the mid-40s totals for Hard to Kill and Marked for Death in 1990.

Opening in limited release this weekend: John Malkovich and Andie McDowell in the con artist comedy The Object of Beauty and Hugh Grant, Judy Davis, and Emma Thompson in the Chopin biopic Impromptu.


30 years ago - April 11, 1986

Band of the Hand
This teen drama from Miami Vice producer Michael Mann was directed by Starsky & Hutch actor Paul Michael Glaser as his debut. Stephen Lang plays a Vietnam vet who takes troubled teens into a Florida swamp for a program in survival and teamwork, then uses them as a vigilante group to take down drug dealers in Miami. Laurence Fishburne and James Remar co-star as two of the drug dealers. The theme song on the movie’s soundtrack was written by Bob Dylan. Band of the Hand opened at #3 behind Police Academy 3 in its fourth weekend, with $2.2 million from 930 theaters, on the way to a total of $4.8 million. This is one of those “oh, I remember that movie” movies which must have been on regular movie channel play when I was a teen. For a quick bit of fun, look up a clip from the movie and take a look at the outlandish 1980s fashion.

Off Beat
This comedy stars Judge Reinhold as a librarian who gets caught up in an undercover police operation and has to juggle his secret identity with his romantic interests in an actual policewoman played by Meg Tilly. John Turturro and Harvey Keitel co-star. Having a significant role in Beverly Hills Cop obviously didn’t translate into solo box office success for Reinhold. Off Beat opened at #5 with $2 million from 1,127 theaters and made $4.8 million overall.

Critters
According to director Stephen Herek, Critters was not a copycat of Gremlins, having been conceived before that movie was released in 1984. Even so, one has to imagine that the $140+ million success of Gremlins must have played a role in getting this movie produced. Critters leans a little more into the action genre, featuring humanoid extraterrestrial bounty hunters who have arrived on Earth to hunt down the extraterrestrial Krites, which are chomping up humans in the heartland. The Critters - Krites - are like the offspring of porcupines bred with wolverines, moving by rolling around and attacking by slinging their spines or biting with their mouths of endless sharp teeth. This little monster movie became a fan favorite in its own right and spawned sequels in 1988, 1991, and 1992. Critters opened at #6 in moderate release with $1.6 million from 540 theaters and brought in $13.1 million overall.


Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!

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