Before the All Blockbuster All the Time mentality seized Hollywood early in the 21st century, the first weekend of October was a bit of rest period for the studios--even when the weekend fell over a holiday weekend.
One Year Ago--October 5, 2018: Columbus Day isn't a particularly important moviegoing holiday, but Columbus Day weekend 2018 brought not one but two of the year's biggest blockbusters. Leading the pack was Spider-Man-less Spider-Man spin-off Venom, starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, a investigative journalist whose desire for justice overwhelms his journalistic ethics. When snooping around the high-tech Life Foundation, he gets possessed by an alien symbiote which can take over his body, giving him superhuman strength and a taste for bad guy's faces. Luckily, Venom is a relatively nice symbiote, which comes in handy when he has to battle the evil head of the Life Foundation (Riz Ahmed). Critics scoffed, but audiences ate it up, as it opened to $80.3 million, an October record, and grossed $213.5 million. People didn't quite know what to think when Bradley Cooper announced he was going to use his considerable star power to star in and direct a remake of that old chestnut A Star is Born, with him playing the star on his way down, opposite Lady Gaga, whose previous acting roles had been limited to her music videos, minor parts in Machete Kills and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and a featured role on a season of American Horror Story. As it turned out, Cooper knew what he was doing. Critics went, well, gaga over Star, Cooper, and Gaga, and so did audiences. Star opened to $42.9 million and ended up having some of the best legs of any wide release film of the year, ultimately taking in $215.3 million. It was nominated for eight Oscars, including Picture, Actor for Cooper, Actress for Gaga, and Supporting Actor for Sam Elliott, and won Song for the #1 hit "Shallow". Farther down the chart, Fathom hosted a one-show screening of the Metropolitan Opera's production of Aida in theaters across the country, and were rewarded with $1.2 million. In limited release, the YA adaption The Hate U Give opened to strong reviews. Amandla Stenberg starred as an African-American student in an upscale, mostly white, private school who witnesses the shooting of her unarmed childhood best friend by a police officer. Despite the good reviews, the subject matter might have hit a bit too close to home for the potential audience, as the film only grossed $29.7 million.
Five Years Ago--October 3, 2014: Moviegoers rung in the spookiest month of the year in a very spooky way, nearly giving the top slot to a low-budget, poorly reviewed horror movie instead of the big budget, all-star thriller that had been expected to dominate. Yes, Gone Girl won the weekend, but just barely, by less than $400,000. The David Fincher-directed thriller starred Ben Afflick as a professor who becomes the chief suspect after his wife (Rosamund Pike) disappears. Needless to say, there's a lot more to the story. Critics were largely positive, and the film debuted to $37.5 million. The thriller, which also starred Carrie Coon, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tyler Perry, played strongly through the fall and ended up with a final gross of $167.8 million. While the film was expected to be a significant factor in the Oscar race, it ended up coming away with just one nomination, for Pike for Best Actress. Hot on the tail of Gone Girl--at least that first weekend--was evil doll movie Annabelle. A spin-off of The Conjuring, this film gave the (fictional) backstory of the possessed toy from that film's prologue, with Annabelle Wallis (yes, really) and Ward Horton playing the couple haunted by a demon who has taken up possession in the plaything. Alfre Woodard hopefully collected a nice paycheck as a bookstore owner who knows a thing or two about demonic possession. Despite largely negative reviews, Annabelle opened to $37.1 million. Like most horror titles, it faded quickly, but still turned a very nice profit with a final gross of $84.3 million, as well as spawning two direct sequels. To say Nicholas Cage's choice in roles over the past few years has been interesting is putting it mildly, but even amid the generic straight-to-DVD thrillers and the occasional wannabe cult hit comes a project that stands out in its oddness. Left Behind is just such a project. Based on the post-Rapture novel that was a huge sensation in the Evangelical Christian world in the late 90s and early aughts, Cage played an airline pilot who has to fight to land his damaged plane after the Rapture takes his co-pilot and several of his passengers. Somehow, it managed to get worse reviews than the 2000 film version that had starred Kirk Cameron (not in the same role Cage played). It opened in sixth, behind holdovers The Equalizer, The Boxtrolls, and The Maze Runner, with $6.3 million, and would end its run with a gross of $14 million. Opening in 12th was the Bollywood action comedy Bang Bang. A remake of the 2010 Tom Cruse/Cameron Diaz flick Knight and Day, it grossed an impressive $1.3 million over its opening weekend. Like most Bollywood movies that open well in America, it was a one-weekend wonder, finishing its short run with $2.6 million.
Ten Years Ago--October 2, 2009: It's hard to find the right balance with a horror-comedy. Sometimes, it ends up being mostly a comedy with a few horrific elements, and that's perfectly OK. That's the case with Zombieland, starring Jesse Eisenberg as a Jesse Eisenberg type who has survived the zombie apocalypse by strictly following a set of rules designed to keep him safe from the horde of undead. He ends up hooking up with Woody Harrelson, whose primary motivations seem to be to kill as many zombies as possible and to find Twinkies, and sisters Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, as well as meeting a famous movie star who has also survived. The film definitely had more laughs than scares, which was find for both critics and audiences, who spent $24.7 million on the movie opening weekend, enough for #1, and ultimately the film took in $75.6 million. The original cast, along with director Ruben Fleischer (who nine years later, would direct Venom) have reunited for the sequel with opens on October 18. After Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs in 2nd, the 3D double feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 opened in third. Intending to whet the appetite for the third film in the series, which would open the following June, the Toy Story combo found a surprisingly healthy audience eager to relive the adventures of Buzz and Woody back to back for the cost of one ticket, despite the fact that both movies had been out on DVD and video for years. Undoubtedly helping drive attendance was the chance to see the films in the then relatively new modern 3D format, which had not been available when the films originally opened in 1995 and 1999. The two films opened to $12.5 million and would ultimately add another $30.7 million to split between both films' coffers. Holdover Surrogates finished fourth, ahead of two more newcomers. Opening in fifth was the comedy The Invention of Lying, a vehicle for Ricky Gervais,. Set in a world where everyone tells the unvarnished truth at all times, Gervais plays a schlub who discovers that he has the ability to not be completely honest, a talent he uses to get rich, but also inadvertently founds the concept of religion. Despite being stocked with an absolutely killer cast (Jennifer Garner, Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and the then-still respected Louis C.K. and Jeffrey Tambor--and that's not even counting the cameos), critics were decisively lukewarm, declaring the film's central joke had run out well before the movie did, and audiences found better things to do, as Invention opened to $7 million and topped out at $18.5 million. Audiences were also uninterested in Whip It, the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore. Ellen Page plays a teenage girl who decides to trade in her mom's (Marcia Gay Hardin) desire for her to be a debutante for a spot on a local roller derby team. Despite Barrymore attracting a cast nearly as stacked as Invention's (among her teammates are Kristin Wiig, Juliette Lewis, and Barrymore herself), as well as receiving better reviews, Whip It opened to only $4.7 million and ultimately grossed only $13 million. Opening in limited release was the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man. The dark comedy starred New York stage actor Michael Stuhlbarg as a Jewish college professor in 1960s Minneapolis who has a very, very bad few weeks. Reviews were a bit more mixed than they had been for the Coens' last few efforts, though the ones who loved it really loved it. Audiences were more apprehensive, as it ended up being the Coens' lowest grosser since The Man Who Wasn't There, making only $9.2 million. It did, however, get a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, in the first year of the expanded nominee list.
Fifteen Years Ago--October 1, 2004: One of the odder movie mashups of the last quarter-century or so, the animated Shark Tale was essentially a mixture of The Godfather and Finding Nemo. Will Smith led an impressive voice cast as a ne'er-do-well fish who happens to be in the wrong place at the right time when he's suspected of taking out a mobster shark. Jack Black plays the deceased shark's veterinarian brother, who wants nothing to do with the family business, and teams up with Smith to exploit the situation. The voice cast is filled out with Renee Zellweger, Angelia Jolie, Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro, and seemingly half the cast of The Sopranos, none of whom seem to mind lending their mob movie/TV show bonafides to this. It's probably a given that "GoodFellas, but with fish puns" was going to be a hard sell to critics, so it's not surprising that Shark Tale got largely negative reviews. Audiences were a different story, as the film ended up being the highest grosser of the fall season by far, opening in first to $47.6 million and ultimately grossing $160.9 million. It would also go on to be nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. Movies about cops are a dime a dozen, but there are surprisingly few movies about fire fighters, and even fewer movies about what fire fighters actually do. Indeed, Ladder 49 was the first wide-release movies since 1991's Backdraft to be primarily about the job of fire fighting. Joaquin Phoenix plays a rookie firefighter who gradually proves his worth, and John Travolta plays his mentor. Critics weren't exactly hot for the film, as it received mixed-to-negative reviews. It proved to be a moderate hit, though as it opened in second to $22.1 million and ended up grossing $74.5 million. Occupying positions 3-6 were The Forgotten, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Mr. 3000, and Shaun of the Dead. Opening in 7th was Woman, Thou Art Loosed, an adaption of a novel by Bishop T.D. Jakes (who cameoed in the film) about a woman (Kimberly Elise) who has to struggle to overcome a history of sexual abuse and drug addiction. Reviews were mixed, but the film did decently with African-American audiences, opening to $2.3 million and finishing with $6.9 million. In limited release was David O. Russell's surreal comedy I Heart Huckabees, starring Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin as "existential detectives", investigating department store executive Jude Law, environmentalist Jason Schwarzman, firefighter Mark Wahlberg, and spokeswoman Naomi Watts. Given Russell's reputation and the cast, this was one of the more anticipated films of the fall, but reviews were mixed, as numerous critics found the whole thing too bizarre, and audience reaction was muted. Huckabees ultimately finished with a gross of $12.8 million.
Twenty Years Ago--October 1, 1999: George Clooney had starred in several movies over the past few years, but if worst had come to worst, he'd have his hit TV drama ER to fall back on. After leaving the hit drama in the spring of 1999, however, Three Kings would be his first test of his star power without the safety net. Luckily for him, it was a success. Set in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, the film cast Clooney as an army major who, along with sergeants Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube and private Spike Jonze, sets out with the help of a map from a captured Iraqi, to find gold bullion stolen from Kuwait. They get more than they bargained for when they stumble across captured Iraqi rebels trying to get out of the country. David O. Russell directed his first big-budgeted studio film. Critics were very kind to the movie, and it opened in second, after the second weekend of Double Jeopardy, with $15.9 million. It would ultimately gross a solid $60.1 million. Clooney's decision to leave ER would be further justified the following summer when he re-teamed with Wahlberg for an even bigger hit, The Perfect Storm. Meanwhile, Wahlberg and Russell would work together five years later on the aforementioned I Heart Huckabees. The other three new films that weekend also had ties to television, though, unlike Clooney, the talent involved chose not to sever their ties to the small screen. Opening in sixth, after American Beauty, Blue Streak, and The Sixth Sense, was Drive Me Crazy. Like Three Kings, this rather generic high school-set rom-com starred a TV star, Melissa Joan Hart, of the sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Hart and the then-unknown Adrian Grenier played neighbors with little in common except having both recently been dumped. They decide the best way to get back their exes is to make them jealous, so they agree to pretend to date each other. You can probably guess how the rest of the film played out. Crazy had the misfortune to open at the tail end of a year that already had a glut of high school movies, but even without all those other films in everyone's recent memory, this one was likely too generic to stand out, as the only thing most people remember about it is the Britney Spears title track. The film opened to $6.9 million and ultimately grossed $17.9 million. Hart has largely stayed on TV ever since. After For Love of the Game in 7th, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland would open in 8th. A spin-off of the beloved preschool program Sesame Street (then celebrating its 30th anniversary), this film (whose 73 minute running time is barely longer than an episode of the show) followed the furry red Muppet with the high-pitched voice as he chased his blankie into Oscar's trash can and to his homeworld of Grouchland, where it comes into the possession of Mandy Patinkin, clearly relishing the chance to ham it up. Critics were mixed, but reviews of this were pretty much irrelevant, since the target audience didn't read reviews, or, for that matter, read. However, they did need their parents to drive them to theaters, buy their tickets, and see the movie with them, and, much like what happened when the last Sesame Street feature film, Follow That Bird, opened in 1985, the parents of the nation collectively decided to wait to the film hit DVD/video. Elmo opened at $3.3 million and ended up grossing $11.7 million. Sesame Street has stayed on TV ever since, though a new attempt at a Sesame Street feature film is currently scheduled for 2021. Opening in ninth is the hockey comedy Mystery, Alaska, written by prolific TV producer David E. Kelly. The comedy, the first non-Austin Powers film directed by Jay Roach, is about a pond hockey team from the small titular town who, thanks to a Sports Illustrated article, is invited to play against the NHL's New York Rangers. Russell Crowe played the town sheriff, Burt Reynolds the local judge, and Hank Azaria (in his second film of 1999 with the word "mystery" in the title) as the SI journalist. Even with a decent cast, this probably needed good reviews to find an audience, and it didn't get that. Mystery opened to $3.1 million and topped out at $8.9 million. Like Hart and Elmo, Kelly has stuck to TV ever since.
Twenty-Five Years Ago--October 7, 1994: A week after having to wrap their heads around the idea of "Meryl Streep: Action Star!", moviegoers had a much easier time over Columbus Day weekend with the idea of "Sylvester Stallone: Action Star!" The once and future Rocky starred in The Specialist, playing a bomber-for-hire whose new client, Sharon Stone, wants him to take out the mobsters who killed her parents. But can she be trusted? This being an early-90s Sharon Stone film, of course she has a graphic sex scene (with Stallone, in a shower larger than some people's mansions). She also teams with James Woods (playing Stallone's evil former partner) in a dynamic that Martin Scorsese would do far more with a year later in Casino. Critics were not impressed, and actually rather confused by the convoluted screenplay, but enough stuff blew up real good to get a solid audience into the theaters. The Specialist opened at #1 with $14.3 million and would have a profitable run, finishing with $57.4 million. After Meryl's action turn in The River Wild at #2, came the first starring vehicle for Marisa Tomei she won her Oscar for My Cousin Vinny. Only You was a romantic comedy starring Tomei as a woman who flies off to Italy after learning that the man she's convinced she's fated to marry (despite never having met him) is on his way to the country. Once there, she meets Robert Downy Jr., who tells her he's the man she's looking for. He's not, of course. Despite direction from veteran Norman Jewison, whose most recent romantic comedy had been the beloved Moonstruck (referenced by the prominent moon in the corner of Only You's poster), critics and audiences didn't much care for the film. Only You opened to a disappointing $5.7 million and would gross $20.1 million. Farther down the chart, both The Shawshank Redemption and Ed Wood made their first (and, in the case of Ed Wood, final) appearance in the Top 10 at 8th and 9th.
Thirty Years Ago--October 6, 1989: Hollywood trotted out the star power with two new releases, but audiences largely ignored both to keep seeing Black Rain and Sea of Love, which finished 1 and 2 for the third weekend in a row. Opening in third was An Innocent Man, starring Tom Selleck as said innocent man, who gets framed for being a drug kingpin when a couple of crooked cops invade his house after getting the address wrong. In prison, he is befriended by a veteran convict (F. Murray Abraham) who helps him survive and to get revenge when he gets out. Critics were decidedly unimpressed with the violent melodrama, and neither were audiences, as Innocent Man opened to $5.7 million and would go on to gross $20.1 million. At the other end of the Top 10, at #9, was the even bigger flop Old Gringo. Jane Fonda starred as an American teacher in the early 20th century who travels to Mexico and gets caught up in Pancho Villa's revolution. Jimmy Smits, in his first leading film role, plays a general of Villa's who Fonda falls in love with, and Gregory Peck is the titular Old Gringo, an American author who supports the revolutionaries. Peck received good notices, but the film itself was widely panned, and audiences ignored it. It opened to $1.2 million and only grossed $3.6 million.
Thirty-Five Years Ago--October 5, 1984: Future Best Picture nominees Places in the Heart and A Soldier's Story got wide enough releases that both appeared in the Top 10 for the first time, at #3 and #7 respectively, but the only entirely new release also happened to debut at the top. Teachers was a satirical comedy/drama about an inner city high school, starring Nick Nolte as a popular but burned out teacher who might be a liability to the district in of a lawsuit a former student filed. Others in the impressive cast include JoBeth Williams as a lawyer, Judd Hirsch as the vice principal, Morgan Freeman as the district's lawyer, and the Karate Kid himself, Ralph Macchio as a student. Teachers got moderately positive reviews, and proved to be a moderate hit, opening to $7 million and ultimately grossing $27.8 million.
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