Marquee History
Week 50 - 2015
By Max Braden
December 14, 2015
Welcome to Marquee History, the weekly column that takes you back to a time when you - or your parents - were younger. Prepare to become nostalgic (and shocked) at how much time has passed when you recall what was new in theaters 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 years ago.
This week's highlights are the 20th anniversary of Heat, 25th anniversary of Edward Scissorhands, and 30th anniversary of Clue.
Here are the movies that premiered on theater marquees this week...
10 years ago - December 16, 2005
King Kong
Having completed his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, director Peter Jackson moved on to this remake of the 1933 thriller. He again called on Andy Serkis to provide the motion capture acting that would bring the giant ape to life. Naomi Watts stars as Ann Darrow, with Jack Black and Adrien Brody playing Carl Denham and Jack Driscoll respectively. The film’s final $207 million budget made it the most expensive movie ever produced, making significant use of visual effects. Reviews were good, but the 3+ hour runtime resulted in an opening that didn’t quite meet initial expectations. King Kong opened on Wednesday the 14th, bringing in $16 million before its three-day weekend of $50.1 million from 3,568 theaters. That put it at #4 in the all-time December opening weekend list. The film made $218 million in the U.S. and a total of $550 million worldwide.
The Family Stone
This is probably my favorite dysfunctional holiday movie. Sarah Jessica Parker stars among the ensemble cast as the girlfriend who visits her boyfriend’s family for Christmas and just can’t seem to fit in. Dermot Mulroney, Luke Wilson, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, Elizabeth Reaser, and Tyrone Giordano play the children of Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson. Luke Wilson’s stoner advice to Parker to “let your freak flag fly” and the requisite kitchen disaster provide the comedy, while Diane Keaton and Claire Danes provide some drama. The mixed tone resulted in mixed reviews, but audiences made it profitable. The Family Stone opened at #3 behind The Chronicles of Narnia with $12.5 million from 2,466 theaters and eventually earned $60 million.
The Producers
The original Producers was a 1968 comedy film made by Mel Brooks, was turned into a Broadway musical in 2001 starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, which they then turned back into this film in 2005, which involves a plot about a musical. The two play Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, two producers who hope to swindle investors but encounter a problem when their intended flop is a hit. Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell play the intended stars of the show, called “Springtime for Hitler.” Jon Lovitz, Michael McKean, and Richard Kind co-star. Reviews were decent, and the film earned four Golden Globe nominations. The Producers opened in six theaters this weekend, with an average of $25,765 per site, and expanded to a little under 1,000 theaters by the end of December. By the end of February it had earned $19.3 million, an unprofitable loss compared to its $45 million budget.
Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Not many audiences actually saw this movie in theaters but it’s notable as the first movie directed by Tommy Lee Jones. He stars as a rancher and best friend of Melquiades Estrada, an illegal immigrant accidentally killed and hastily buried in Texas by a Border Patrol agent. Jones’s character decides to fulfill a promise of burying his friend properly in his Mexican home town. Barry Pepper, Dwight Yoakam, Melissa Leo, January Jones, and Julio Cedillo co-star. The Three Burials was initially shown at Cannes, where Jones won Best Actor, and was released in five theaters this weekend. Expanding to just a few hundred theaters in February, it ran until June, earning a total of $5 million.
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