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15 years ago

Swordfish - June 8, 2001
Hugh Jackman stars as a former convicted hacker recruited by Halle Berry’s character to help out what may or may not be a rogue black ops group headed by John Travolta’s character. Don Cheadle has a supporting role. Looking back on the film, the motives of antagonist Gabriel Shear make an interesting argument about response to terrorism that went unnoticed at the time only three months before 9/11/01. Swordfish was the next big thriller piece for Jackman after his success with X-Men the previous summer, but his stardom may have been overshadowed by the news that Halle Berry (his X-Men co-star) received bonus compensation for a brief topless scene. Teenage boys may have been impressed, but critics were not. Travolta was later nominated for a Razzie Award. Still, Swordfish was the movie that displaced Shrek and Pearl Harbor from the #1 spot with $18.1 million from 2,678 theaters. Despite some decent holdover weeks at the box office, its $69 million total in the U.S. was a bit short of its $100+ million budget.

Evolution - June 8, 2001
David Duchovny and Orlando Jones star in Ivan Reitman’s sci-fi comedy as scientists who face off against the Army in dealing with rapidly evolving alien DNA that arrived on Earth with a meteor. The style of the movie has similar splatter comedy elements to 1997’s Men in Black and Reitman’s work with Ghostbusters. Reviews weren’t great, and unfortunately for Jones this is probably his last memorable role. Evolution opened at #4 with $13.4 million and grossed a total of $38 million, also well short of its budget.

The Animal - June 1, 2001
The combination of Deuce Bigalow in 1999 and The Animal in 2001 were peak years for Rob Schneider as a lead actor. In this comedy he plays a police officer brought back from near death by a mad scientist who has used elements from animals for the procedure. His new animal instincts both help and hinder his work and relationships: hijinks etc. Colleen Haskell, a contestant on the reality television show “Survivor”, plays his love interest in her only film role to date. Of more lasting notoriety than either the movie or Haskell’s career was the discovery that positive film critic David Manning turned out to be a fake identity created by Sony as a marketing tool. The Animal opened at #3 with $19.6 million and dropped to #5 for the June 8th weekend, eventually earning $57 million in the U.S.

Technically in its third weekend of release, Moulin Rouge! added 2,277 theaters and rose to the #4 spot on the June 1st weekend with $13.7 million. It held over well during June and went on to gross $57 million from its U.S. run plus another $121 million from overseas markets, all on a $50 million budget.

What’s the Worst That Could Happen? - June 1, 2001
For Martin Lawrence, the answer to this question would probably be “going into a coma and almost dying from heat exhaustion while filming Big Momma’s House.” Fortunately he survived and Big Momma became a big hit in the summer of 2000. This year’s comedy was not a financial success, but all things considered, that’s not so bad. Lawrence plays a high class thief who is caught attempting to steal from Danny DeVito’s character, who in turn takes his favorite ring, sparking an escalating war between the two. The film opened at #5 with $13.0 million and dropped to #7 for the weekend of June 8th. It grossed a total of $32.2 million, barely half of the the film’s budget. Lawrence’s next two comedies performed similarly, but he bounced back in 2003 with Bad Boys II.

The Anniversary Party - June 8, 2001
In limited release at 120 theaters, this ensemble comedy is led by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming (who co-directed the film), as a couple who host a party to celebrate their wedding anniversary, but the mood declines over the course of the evening. Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates, and Gwyneth Paltrow co-star. The Anniversary Party took in a total of $4 million during its run.

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