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15 years ago - April 20, 2001

Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles
The first Crocodile Dundee movie was an enormous hit in 1986, becoming the second highest grossing movie of the year with $175 million. Paul Hogan and his wife/co-star Linda Kozlowski returned for a successful sequel in 1988 that featured the couple being chased into the Australian outback by Colombian drug cartel members. This third and thankfully final entry in the series, released 13 years later, was clearly too little, too late. In it, the couple moves to Los Angeles with their son, and Mick pokes his nose into a Hollywood murder mystery. Unlike the first two movies, critical reception of this one was poor. Dundee III opened at #4, while Bridget Jones’s Diary moved up to #1, with $7.7 million from 2,123 theaters. It went on to earn $25.6 million in the U.S, which was barely more than Crocodile Dundee II’s opening weekend take.

Freddy Got Fingered
What to say about this "comedy." I suppose it’s a love-it-or-hate-it choice, and most everybody I know hates it for its obnoxious, in-your-face comedic style drawn from The Tom Green Show. Critics especially hated the movie, and it won Razzie Awards for Worst Screenplay, Worst Actor, Worst Director, and Worst Screen Couple (all for Tom Green), and Worst Picture. Co-stars Rip Torn, Drew Barrymore, and Julie Hagerty were also nominated. Freddy Got Fingered opened at #5 with $7 million and went on to earn $14.2 million.

20 years ago - April 19, 1996

The Substitute
Capitalizing on the prior year success of high school drama Dangerous Minds and Steven Seagal’s regular-guy-with-deadly-backstory action movies, The Substitute stars Tom Berenger as a former Vietnam special forces veteran who takes on a drug ring infesting a high school in Miami. Reviews and overall box office were not good, but the film began a franchise that had sequels (each starring Treat Williams instead of Berenger) in 1998, 1999, and 2001. The Substitute opened at #2 behind Primal Fear in its third weekend, with $6 million from 1,742 theaters. It earned just $14.8 million overall.

Mrs. Winterbourne
Ricki Lake stars in this mistaken-identity romantic comedy along with Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser, set at a wealthy estate. Lake was currently in the third season of hosting her daytime talk show. Mrs. Winterbourne opened at #6 with $3.8 million and eventually earned $10 million.

Celtic Pride
Celtic Pride was one of writer Judd Apatow’s early comedies. It stars Daniel Stern and Dan Aykroyd as obsessed Boston Celtics fans who kidnap a Utah Jazz star player (Damon Wayans) in order to secure a Game 7 win in the NBA finals. Celtic Pride opened at #8 with $3.8 million and earned a disappointing $9.2 million overall.

Also opening in limited release this weekend: Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, which earned just $1 million during its run.

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