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30 years ago - May 1986

May 2nd new releases:
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling / Blue City / No Retreat, No Surrender
Richard Pryor was a huge stand-up comedy star by 1980 but nearly lost it all when he set himself on fire while under the influence of cocaine. Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling stars Pryor as a comedian who does the same thing, and then has an out-of-body experience trying to remedy the destructive behavior in his life. Pryor wrote and directed the film as well as starring in it. Jo Jo Dancer opened at #1 with $4.8 million and eventually earned $18.0 million. Blue City, a drama with Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson, opened at #2 with $2.7 million. It fell to #4 the following week as Sheedy also starred in Short Circuit. No Retreat, No Surrender is notable not for its box office, but as one of Jean-Claude Van Damme's earliest martial arts roles before he became known in Bloodsport.


May 9th new releases:
Short Circuit / Fire With Fire / Dangerously Close
"Johnny Five...is alive!" Who doesn't love a wisecracking robot? Like WarGames, Real Genius, and other movies this decade, Short Circuit takes a shot at wayward military technology with comedy. Ally Sheedy plays a woman who discovers the killer robot Number 5 after it has been struck by lightning and has become self-aware, asking for as much "input" from television and books as she can provide. Steve Guttenberg plays Dr. Newton Crosby, the military program's lead inventor who is sent to recover the lost robot but then helps them escape the military efforts to destroy Number 5. It's a little bit of E.T. and Home Alone. Guttenberg had built up an audience with his hits Police Academy and Cocoon, which helped turn this movie into another success. Short Circuit opened at #1 with $5.3 million from 1,033 theaters and took in a total of $40.6 million. Short Circuit 2 was released in 1988 without Sheedy or Guttenberg (Fisher Stevens returns from the first film) to weaker reviews and box office.


May 16th new releases:
Top Gun / Sweet Liberty
Top Gun wasn't actually the first jet pilot movie of the year - that was Iron Eagle in January - or Tom Cruise's first movie of the year - that was Legend, which was released in April. Top Gun, of course, blew them both away, along with every other movie released in 1986. After opening at #1 with $8.1 million, Top Gun went on to become the top grossing movie of the year with $176 million. As of 2016, that's still the best result of Cruise's career when adjusted for inflation. But the impact of Top Gun wasn't just at the box office; there was a measurable increase in signups for the Navy, and sales of bomber jackets and aviator sunglasses, and possibly beach volleyball nets. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Effects, Editing, Sound, and Song, winning for "Take My Breath Away." The full soundtrack album had multiplatinum sales thanks to Kenny Loggins's "Danger Zone." The movie made Cruise an instant star and has remained a memorable icon of 1980s action.

May 23rd new releases:
Cobra / Poltergeist II: The Other Side
Cobra stars Sylvester Stallone as LAPD "Zombie Squad" officer "Cobra" Cobretti, a cop who probably hasn't seen a booking desk for years because he keeps gunning down his suspects. Brigitte Nielsen plays a witness to a killing spree by members of a cult/crime group, leading to her being put under Cobra's protective care. Stallone and Nielsen were also involved offscreen; they married a month after Rocky IV was released at the end of 1985. Though the movie is senselessly violent, it does feature a decent car chase with Cobra's custom 1950 Mercury Coupe, and a classic 1980s soundtrack with songs by John Cafferty, Jean Beauvoir, and Robert Tepper. Audiences ignored the reviews and made Cobra #1 at the box office with $15.6 million from 2,131 theaters over the four-day Memorial Day weekend, taking down Top Gun. Cobra held the top spot in its second week and went on to gross $49 million (a third of Rambo II's gross the previous year).

Poltergeist II: The Other Side opened at #2 with $12.3 million. The sequel to the 1982 supernatural horror film brings back the original cast as the Freeling family, who now live in a new distant home but are again under supernatural assault by a possessed reverend. In one of the key scenes, a Mezcal worm grows into a huge monster inside the home; the film was later nominated for Best Visual Effects at the Academy Awards. Reviews of the film weren't that great though, and Zelda Rubinstein received a Razzie Award nomination. The total $40.9 million gross was decent but fell short of the first film's $76.6 million total. Poltergeist III was released in 1988.

Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!

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