This will be the final Flashback in the current form. Next weekend, I am planning to be out of town visiting my brother, though, like with every other aspect of our daily lives right now, it's impossible to know at this moment if the trip will actually happen or not. If I do go, expect the next column in two weeks, where I will begin doubling up the weekends in order to catch up, and I will debut what I hope will be a streamlined new format, which will make these easier and faster to write, and will not have big giant bricks of text for you to have to wade through. If I do cancel my trip, I'll try to have it ready for next weekend.
One Year Ago--December 28, 2018: Aquaman continued to reign supreme, though it suffered a nearly 25% drop, an odd anomaly on a weekend when nearly every other title actually rose from the weekend before (the other droppers in the top 20 were Bumblebee, Welcome to Marwin, Mortal Engines and The Grinch, which lost over half its audience now that Christmas was over). Like Aquaman, films 2-5 (Mary Poppins Returns, the aforementioned Bumblebee, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and The Mule) stayed the same from the previous weekend. Opening in sixth was Christmas Day release Vice. The satirical biopic of former Vice President Mr. Potter Dick Cheney starred Christian Bale, under a bunch of makeup, as Dick, with Amy Adams as his wife Lynn and Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush. The Adam McKay directed film certainly had some...interesting...casting choices (Steve Carrell as Donald Rumsfeld, Tyler Perry--yes, that Tyler Perry--as Colin Powell), and received wildly mixed notices from critics. Nevertheless, it scored big at the Oscars, as it picked up 8 nominations, including Picture, Director, Actor for Bale, Supporting Actress for Adams, Supporting Actor for Rockwell, and Original Screenplay. Its makeup would win. Box-office wise, it did decent, if unremarkable business, opening to $7.8 million and finishing with $47.9 million. McKay also had a hand in the other film that opened wide on Christmas, producing the latest vehicle for his friends Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, in their first major team-up since the McKay-directed Step Brothers 10 years earlier. Unfortunately, Holmes & Watson turned out to be no fucking Catalina Wine Mixer. This broadly comic take on the beloved detective and his faithful sidekick, in an atmosphere where we'd had seemingly dozens of takes on Holmes and Watson in the last few years, was a critical disaster (though not having advanced screenings, forcing the nation's second-tier critics to leave their families Christmas morning to head to the local multiplex for the first show and then skip Christmas dinner to write the review, probably didn't help on that regard). While Vice was getting showered with Oscar noms, Holmes & Watson got showered with 6 Razzie nods, "winning" 4, including Worst Picture. Audiences also largely stayed away, as it opened to $7.4 million and ended its run at $30.6 million. Among the films opening in limited release was the Indian cop thriller Simmba, which played well to the audience for Hindi films, as it ultimately earned $5.1 million in the US. Among the English-language films hoping to get noticed by Oscar was On the Basis of Sex, the second movie about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to be released that year. Unlike the documentary RBG, Sex was a biopic starring Felicity Jones as a young Ginsburg, years before her appointment to the Court, as she brings what would be a landmark discrimination case before the Court of Appeals. The film received mixed reviews, failed to earn any Oscar nominations, and did so-so at the box office, grossing $24.6 million. Another new biopic was the weekend's second film starring John C. Reilly playing one of the title characters opposite a well-known comic actor. In Stan & Ollie, he played Ollie, as in Oliver Hardy, while Steve Coogan played Stan Laurel. The film revolved around the famed comic duo, long after their heyday, making a tour of England in an effort to reignite their careers. The film was well received, and Reilly even scored a Golden Globe nomination, but it was also shut out at the Oscars. The attempt in January to break out of the art houses and go semi-wide didn't work, and the film ended its run with $5.5 million
Five Years Ago--December 26, 2014: Christmas Thursday brought a bevy of new releases, though topping the box office for the second weekend in a row was The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Opening in second was the musical Into the Woods, an adaption of the Stephen Sondheim Broadway hit blending the characters from numerous fairy tales (such as Cinderella, Jack of beanstalk fame, and Little Red Riding Hood) into a story about a baker and his wife (James Corden and Emily Blunt) who are trying to lift the curse put on them by the witch next door (Meryl Streep). Critics liked, but didn't love the film, which got three Oscar nominations, including Streep's customary nod (as Supporting Actress), but it would prove to be a surprisingly solid hit for Disney, opening to $31.1 million and living happily ever after with $128 million. Another surprise hit was the Angelina Jolie-directed Unbroken, starring Jack O'Connell as Louis Zamperini, a former Olympian who was captured during WWII by the Japanese and held as a POW under brutal conditions. Critics were mixed on the film, but it got three technical Oscar nominations. It also opened to $30.6 million and finished with $115.6 million. After Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, Annie, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay--Part 1 came The Gambler, a remake of a largely forgotten 1974 drama which starred James Caan as a professor whose gambling addiction had left him tens of thousands of dollars in debt. The redo cast Mark Wahlberg as the professor,and in the new version, he was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. The supporting cast included Jessica Lange as Wahlberg's disapproving mother, Brie Larson as one of his students, and John Goodman as a loan shark. Despite the star power, this was a rather sordid tale to open on Christmas, and it ended up doing only so-so business, opening to $9.1 million and cashing out at $33.7 million. Opening outside the Top 10 was the Tim Burton-directed Big Eyes, starring Amy Adams as artist Margaret Keene, whose paintings of waifs with huge eyes becomes a sensation in the 1950s. However, it is her husband (Christoph Waltz) who takes credit for the artwork, at least until Margaret sues him. The critical reaction was mixed, and the film was a disappointment at the box office, opening to $3 million and finishing with $14.5 million. Opening right below it was The Interview, a Seth Rogan/James Franco comedy that found itself at the center of possibly the biggest intersection of pop culture and government-sponsored terrorism in history. The film, in which the US government recruits talk show host Franco and his producer Rogan to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un (Randell Park), displeased the real life Kim, and a North Korean group hacked the computer network of Sony Pictures shortly before Thanksgiving, and released reams of sensitive and private data onto the Internet. When the group promised to attack the networks of theaters screening the film, theater chains large and small announced they would not book the movie, and Sony pulled the film from its intended Christmas release. When a number of independent theaters expressed interest in running the film, Sony un-cancelled the film and opened it on over 300 screens, while also releasing the movie digitally. After all that, the film received largely negative reviews, the hackers didn't attack anyone else, and the film made $6.1 million. Two Best Picture nominees opened in limited release. American Sniper, directed by Clint Eastwood, starred Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL who becomes one of the most celebrated snipers in US military history. The drama received good, if not great, reviews, but when it went wide in January, it became a sensation, and would become the highest-grossing film released in 2014, earning $350.1 million. In addition to Picture, it was nominated for five other Oscars, incurring Best Actor for Cooper, and would win for Sound Editing. Selma told the story of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march to promote civil and voting rights for African-Americans. British actor David Oyelowo played Martin Luther King, Jr., British actor Tom Wilkinson played President Lyndon Johnson, British actor Tim Roth played segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace, and British actress Carmen Ejogo played Coretta Scott King. The film also featured extended cameos from Cuba Gooding Jr., Oprah Winfrey, and Martin Sheen, among others. The film received excellent reviews and did well at the box office, earning making $52.1 million. It received only one other nomination besides Best Picture, which it won, for the Original Song "Glory", by John Legend and Common, which is why Legend is an EGOT winner. Also opening was the Belgian drama Two Days, One Night, starring Marion Cotillard as a factory worker coming back from medical leave who discovers that her job is on the verge of being eliminated, and has to convince her co-workers (who will get a bonus if she is laid off) to save her job. Cotillard got her second Oscar nomination for the film, which earned $1.4 million at the US box office.
Ten Years Ago--December 25, 2009: Avatar's second weekend gross was almost identical to its opening weekend gross, as the soon-to-be-highest-grossing-film-ever slid past the $200 million mark in just its second weekend. But Avatar wasn't the only show in town, as the holiday box office was big enough for all three new wide releases to do well. Opening in second was Sherlock Holmes, a more irreverent take on the famed detective than most previous takes on Arthur Conan Doyle's creation. American Robert Downey, Jr. played Holmes as an action hero, investigating how an aristocratic serial killer seemed to have risen from the dead. Jude Law played Watson, while Rachel McAdams played Irene Alder. Critics were reasonably kind to Sherlock, which launched a decade of off-beat and unique takes of Holmes both at the movies and on TV (culminating with, um, Holmes & Watson). At the box office, it became a much bigger smash than anticipated, opening to $62.3 million and discovering $209 million by the end of its run. The film also received two Oscar nominations, for Score and Set Design. Opening in third was the sequel to surprise 2007 family smash Alvin and the Chipmunks. The immortally-titled Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, more or less replaced original human star Jason Lee with Zachary Levi, who takes over as the guardian of the rodents while Lee recuperates mostly offscreen from an accident. David Cross also returns as the bad guy, who discovers another set of singing chipmunks, this time female. Hijinks ensure. Critics, who didn't much like the first film, didn't much like the squeakquel, either, but audiences did, as it opened to $48.9 million and finished with $219.6 million, about on par with the first film. In fourth was the romantic comedy/architecture porn It's Complicated, starring Meryl Streep as a happily divorced woman who is drawn into an affair with her remarried ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) while launching a relationship with the architect (Steve Martin) who is remodeling her house. Critics were mixed on the film, but it did well with audiences who weren't interested in seeing aliens or chipmunks or mysteries, as it opened to $22.1 million and wrapped with an uncomplicated $112.7 million. Opening well in limited release was the Bollywood comedy/drama 3 Idiots, about two old friends who are searching for a third, while reminiscing about their wild college days. The film grossed $6.5 million in North America. Also opening in limited release was the final film of Heath Ledger (who had died nearly two years earlier), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The surreal fantasy starred Christopher Plummer as Parnassus, whose Imaginarum allows people to chose between an easy but immoral life or a hard but virtuous one. Ledger played a mysterious stranger Parnassus's troupe picks up, while a young Andrew Garfield played another member of the troupe, who is suspicious of Ledger. With Ledger having passed away before he could film the scenes set in the Imaginarium, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell stepped in to play his character whose appearance is transformed inside the contraption. Critics were moderately impressed with the film, and it earned Oscar nominations for Costumes and Art Direction, but did mediocre business, earning $7.7 million.
Fifteen Years Ago--December 24, 2004: Most people are usually too busy on Christmas Eve to go see a movie, so its rare for a film to launch on that date, even if it falls on a Friday. That would be the case this Christmas weekend, as new films either launched on Wednesday or waited until Christmas Day on Saturday. Leading the pack was Wednesday release Meet the Fockers, a sequel to 2000's Meet the Parents. Picking up shortly after the events of the first film, the plot has Ben Stiller, as the unfortunately named Gaylord Focker (who understandably goes by "Greg"), taking his future in-laws (Robert De Nero, Blythe Danner) to Florida to meet his hippie parents (Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand). Naturally, there is a whole lot of conflict between De Niro's rigid former CIA agent and the free-spirited Fockers. Despite boasting the hottest cast of 1974, critics were fairly underwhelmed by the comedy, but audiences ate it up, as the film made $70.5 million in its first five days, even with a substantial dip on Christmas Eve. It would go on to be 2004's biggest live-action comedy and 4th-highest grossing film overall (behind only Shrek 2, Spider-Man 2, and The Passion of the Christ), earning a total of $279.3 million. Opening in third, behind Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events was the rather unfortunate Christmas Day release Fat Albert, a live-action comedy based on the 70s Saturday morning cartoon series created and hosted by Bill Cosby, from when he was still a beloved comedian, well before his side gig as a vile rapist was generally known. Keenan Thompson, who at the time was still only in his second season on Saturday Night Live, starred as Albert, who crosses over from his 70s cartoon world to live-action in the modern day in order to help a teenager still in mourning over her recently deceased grandfather. Cosby himself makes an extended cameo, probably ensuring that very few people will voluntarily revisit this film ever again, though it had largely fallen into obscurity long before the allegations against him were widely known. Thompson has yet to headline another movie. Critics were even less impressed with Fat Albert than they were with Meet the Fockers, and the comedy grossed only $10 million in its first two days before grossing an OK $48.1 million overall. The Aviator went wide on Christmas Day to finish fourth for the whole weekend, followed by Ocean's Twelve and the seasonally appropriate The Polar Express. Opening in 7th was the Christmas Day release Darkness, which starred Anna Paquin as an American teenager whose family moves into a large country house in Spain, where sinister things had happened 40 years before. This being a horror movie, said events begin to affect the present-day occupants. The film was actually released in Spain in 2002, and had played in most of Europe by the end of 2003. By the time in arrived in North America, it had been heavily edited to ensure a PG-13 rating. American critics largely found the film incomprehensible, and audiences agreed, giving the film a rare "F" Cinemascore grade. Still, with the only horror competition being the rapidly fading Blade: Trinity, Darkness didn't do completely awful business, opening to $6.4 million over its first two days and grossing a total of $22.2 million. Spanglish and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, which also went wide on Christmas Day, came in 8th and 9th, with the 10th spot going to the semi-wide Wednesday release The Phantom of the Opera. The official adaption of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, which at the time was still a little over a year away from surpassing the run of Cats (itself 15 years away from being adapted into 2019's biggest disaster) to become the longest-running Broadway show ever, Phantom starred Gerard Butler, whose biggest credit at the time was playing the title role in Dracula 2000, as The Phantom, whose obsessive love for young soprano Christine (Emmy Rossum, in her first lead role), leads to disaster. The musical, which also co-starred Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson, and Minnie Driver, was not well-received by critics, and, unlike the Broadway show, was also not well-received by audiences, as it opened to a five-day total of $6.3 million and ended its run with $51.3 million. It did receive three Oscar nominations for Cinematography, Art Direction, and Original Song for closing credits number "Learn to Be Lonely". Opening Wednesday in limited release, the drama Hotel Rwanda debuted. It took place during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when extremists of the dominant ethnic group Hutus attempted to wipe out the minority Tutsis. Don Cheadle played Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu who managed a luxury hotel who, with the help of his Tutsi wife (Sophie Okonedo) was able to shelter over 1,000 people from the violent mob. The drama was well received by critics, and earned three Oscar nominations: Best Actor for Cheadle, Best Supporting Actress for Okonedo, and Best Original Screenplay. The drama also did decent business, ultimately grossing $23.5 million.
December 31, 2004: As there are almost never any wide releases between Christmas Day and the first weekend of the New Year, the box office largely stayed steady from the previous weekend, with Meet the Fockers easily winning the weekend, despite being one of the few movies to dip from the Christmas weekend gross. A handful of titles opened in limited release, hoping to pick up some Oscar nominations, but despite some seemingly impressive Oscar bait titles (Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons in The Merchant of Venice, Sean Penn and Naomi Watts in The Assassination of Richard Nixon, John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson in A Love Song for Bobby Long), none of them succeeded, and indeed, the only one that even had any impact at the box office was the dramady In Good Company. Dennis Quaid plays an ad exec whose new boss is the much, much younger Topher Grace. The duo's working relationship is threatened when Grace begins seeing Quaid's college-aged daughter (Johansson, in her second Oscar bait limited release of the week). Even though the film didn't get any Oscar nominations, it was well-received by critics, and it became a moderate hit when it went wide in January, ultimately earning $45.8 million.
Twenty Years Ago--December 24, 1999: It was a busy Christmas weekend, as four new films went wide and several others opened in limited release. Leading the pack was Oliver Stone's football drama Any Given Sunday, starring Al Pacino as a legendary coach whose glory days appeared to be behind him. Jamie Foxx co-starred in first dramatic role, as the team's third-string quarterback who is thrust on the field and becomes a superstar overnight. The all-star cast also included Dennis Quaid as the team's aging longtime quarterback, James Woods as the corrupt team doctor, and Cameron Diaz as the team's duplicitous owner. Critics thought the film fumbled the storyline, but audiences made the film a moderate hit. It opened on Wednesday, and by the end of the weekend, had taken in $20.6 million, and scored $75.5 million by the end of its run. Opening in second was Christmas Day release The Talented Mr. Ripley. The thriller starred Matt Damon as the aforementioned Ripley, who is hired to go to Italy to persuade rich boy Jude Law to return home to America. Damon is quickly swept up in Law's bohemian party lifestyle, but when it looks like the party might be coming to an end, Damon employs his talents for nefarious ends. Ripley also had an impressive, all-star cast, including Gwynith Paltrow as Law's fiancee, Cate Blanchett as another American Damon gets to know, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a friend of Law's who is suspicious of Damon. Critics mostly praised the film, which earned 5 Oscar nominations, including Supporting Actor for Law and Adapted Screenplay, and audiences made it a bit of a surprise hit, as it opened to $12.7 million in its first two days and would finish its run with $81.3 million. Holdovers Stuart Little, Toy Story 2, and The Green Mile finished ahead of the weekend's other two openings. Man on the Moon starred Jim Carrey as surrealist comedian Andy Kaufman, who enjoyed playing with audience expectations so they had no idea what was real and what was a set-up, a trait that would both boost his career and helped to damage it. Danny DeVito, who had co-starred with the real Kaufman on the sitcom Taxi, played his manager, Paul Giamatti played his comic partner, and Courtney Love played his longtime girlfriend. The film was full of cameos from people who had worked with Kaufman during his short life, including most of the cast of Taxi and David Letterman. Critics admired Milos Forman's film more than they liked it, and even Carrey's name above the title didn't prompt a big turnout. The film opened on Wednesday and made $12.3 million in its first five days, and would go on to gross $34.6 million. Opening right below was the fourth all-star film of the weekend, Galaxy Quest. The comedy starred Tim Allen as the star of a hugely popular Star Trek-like series from the 70s 20 years later, however, he, along with his co-stars, are mostly reduced to making the convention rounds. When real aliens, who have mistaken the show for actual historical footage from Earth, show up to convince the actors to assist them in their war with an evil oppressor, the cast signs on, not realizing it's not just another fan appearance until its too late. The comedy, which co-starred Signourey Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shaloub, and Sam Rockwell, as the show-within-a-show's other cast members, got better-than-expected reviews, which helped it break out in a crowded marketplace, though it would become an even bigger cult hit in the years to come. Quest opened on Christmas Day and made $7 million over its first two days, and would finish a quite impressive, based on that opening, $71.6 million. In limited release, the Winona Ryder vehicle Girl, Interrupted opened to mixed notices. Based on a true story, Ryder played a teenager who finds herself in a mental institution in the sixties after an overdose. The film had a solid mix of veterans (Whoopi Goldberg, Vanessa Redgrave, Jeffrey Tambour), and up and comers (Jared Leto, Brittney Murphy, Elisabeth Moss), but the show was stolen by Angelina Jolie as a popular, but sociopathic, fellow patient. Upon its wide release in January, the film did decent business, grossing $28.9 million. Jolie would receive the film's sole Oscar nomination, her first ,and would win Supporting Actress. Angela's Ashes was an adaption of Frank McCord's bestselling memoir about his desperately poor childhood growing up in Depression-era Ireland with a loving but overwhelmed mother (Emily Watson) and an alcoholic father (Robert Carlyle). The book had been a sensation, but the film adaption landed with a thud, getting mixed reviews. It would receive a single Oscar nomination for its score, and would go on to gross a disappointing $13 million. Snow Falling on Cedars would be another Oscar bait bomb that came away with a mere one nomination, for Cinematography. Also based on a best-seller, the movie starred Ethan Hawke as a small-town journalist in the 50s who gets caught up in the murder trial of a local Japanese-American, who is accused of killing a white fisherman, as well as his longtime love of the defendant's wife, who is also Japanese-American. Richard Jenkins played the town sheriff, and the late Max Von Sydow played the defense attorney. Critics were even more underwhelmed by this then they were by Girl, Interrupted and Angela's Ashes, and audiences ignored the film when it went wide in January, as it grossed only $14.4 million. Of course, those films were critical and commercial smashes compared to Play It to the Bone. Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas play washed-up professional boxers and best friends who are offered the chance to fight each other as the undercard of a Mike Tyson bout. Lolita Davidovich played the woman they both love. Critics were uniformly negative, the film got no end-of-year award buzz of any kind, and it only grossed $8.4 million.
December 31, 1999: Y2K started with the world not coming to an end and with Stuart Little returning to the #1 spot and Toy Story 2 moving up to #2, as family films dominated the millennium weekend. Rounding out the Top 5 were The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Green Mile, and last weekend's #1, Any Given Sunday, which had the second-sharpest fall in the Top 10, ahead of only Man on the Moon (which fell from 6th to 9th). To celebrate the new millennium, Disney rolled out the first movie of it, Fantasia 2000, into IMAX theaters on New Year's Day (as the film had premieres in December, IMDB lists it as a 1999 release). Like the 1940 original, this one consisted of animated vignettes to popular classical music pieces, with the highlights including Donald Duck and Noah to "Pomp and Circumstance", and the intertwining lives of 4 Depression-era New Yorkers drawn in the style of famed illustrator Al Hirshfeld and performed to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". Critics were cool to the project, but it cleaned up at IMAX theaters, opening to $2.3 million despite only playing on 54 screens. After a four-month run exclusively in that format, Disney gave the film a conventional wide release in June, only to see it flop on regular screens. Still, it was such a big success in IMAX that even with the June swoon, it still grossed a total of $60.7 million. Also opening in limited release was the year's final Oscar contender. The Hurricane starred Denzel Washington as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, an up-and-coming boxer who, in 1966, is wrongly convicted of triple murder and sentenced to three life sentences. Despite clear evidence of his innocence and numerous protests on his behalf (including a protest song by Bob Dylan in 1975), he languished in prison until a trio of young activists (including Liev Schreiber) helped to finally get him freed. The Norman Jewison film got solid reviews, but was dogged by accusations of historical inaccuracy, and Washington ultimately got the film's sole Oscar nomination. The film would be a mid-level hit, grossing $50.7 million.
Twenty-Five Years Ago--December 30, 1994: As usual, there were no new post-Christmas wide releases, as Dumb and Dumber continued to reign supreme over New Year's weekend, and Disclosure rose to second. The Jungle Book and Little Women rose to third and fourth, while Richie Rich stayed steady in 5th. With Christmas over, The Santa Clause tumbled from second to sixth, just ahead of I.Q., which was able to jump into the Top 10. The only notable wide release for the final weekend of the year was unexpected hit The Madness of King George. British character actor Nigel Hawthorne, who until then was best known in the US for his starring role on the Britcom Yes, Minister, played King George III, who in the late 1780s, begin to show serious signs of mental illness, and the maneuvering and manipulation of his son, the Price of Wales (Rupert Everett) to undermine his father and to take the throne himself as the Regent. Helen Mirren played Queen Charlotte, who loved and stood by her husband. Critics were near unanimous in praise for the film, which did well with American audiences, earning $15.2 million. It would also earn four Oscar nominations, with nods for Hawthorne for Actor, Mirren for Supporting Actress, and the Adapted Screenplay, and a win for Art Direction.
Thirty Years Ago--December 29, 1989: It was a quiet New Year's Weekend, with no new wide or even major limited releases. The War of the Roses took over the top spot, with Tango & Cash staying steady in second, followed by The Little Mermaid, Back to the Future, Part II, and previous week #1 National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which, like all the other Christmas movies discussed this week, fell sharply after the 25th.
Thirty-Five Years Ago--December 28, 1984: Beverly Hills Cop ended the year as the dominant film in America, more than doubling the gross of second place Pinocchio. 2010, Protocol, and City Heat rounded out the Top 5, with Micki + Maude and The Flamingo Kid jumping into the Top 10. The only limited release of note was Mrs. Soffel, the second limited release in as many weeks starring up-and-coming Australian actor Mel Gibson in a drama opposite an Oscar-winning actress, in this case Diane Keaton. Keaton is the titular Mrs. Soffel, the wife of a prison warden in turn of the century Pennsylvania who finds herself falling for prisoner Gibson. She ultimately helps him and his brother (Matthew Modine, also in his second limited release in two weeks) escape, with dire consequences for all. Unlike Gibson's other film, The River, Mrs. Soffel was largely panned by critics, and ended up earning no Oscar nominations. It also was largely ignored when it went wide in February, ultimately grossing only $4.4 million.
Five Years Ago--December 26, 2014: Christmas Thursday brought a bevy of new releases, though topping the box office for the second weekend in a row was The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Opening in second was the musical Into the Woods, an adaption of the Stephen Sondheim Broadway hit blending the characters from numerous fairy tales (such as Cinderella, Jack of beanstalk fame, and Little Red Riding Hood) into a story about a baker and his wife (James Corden and Emily Blunt) who are trying to lift the curse put on them by the witch next door (Meryl Streep). Critics liked, but didn't love the film, which got three Oscar nominations, including Streep's customary nod (as Supporting Actress), but it would prove to be a surprisingly solid hit for Disney, opening to $31.1 million and living happily ever after with $128 million. Another surprise hit was the Angelina Jolie-directed Unbroken, starring Jack O'Connell as Louis Zamperini, a former Olympian who was captured during WWII by the Japanese and held as a POW under brutal conditions. Critics were mixed on the film, but it got three technical Oscar nominations. It also opened to $30.6 million and finished with $115.6 million. After Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, Annie, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay--Part 1 came The Gambler, a remake of a largely forgotten 1974 drama which starred James Caan as a professor whose gambling addiction had left him tens of thousands of dollars in debt. The redo cast Mark Wahlberg as the professor,and in the new version, he was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. The supporting cast included Jessica Lange as Wahlberg's disapproving mother, Brie Larson as one of his students, and John Goodman as a loan shark. Despite the star power, this was a rather sordid tale to open on Christmas, and it ended up doing only so-so business, opening to $9.1 million and cashing out at $33.7 million. Opening outside the Top 10 was the Tim Burton-directed Big Eyes, starring Amy Adams as artist Margaret Keene, whose paintings of waifs with huge eyes becomes a sensation in the 1950s. However, it is her husband (Christoph Waltz) who takes credit for the artwork, at least until Margaret sues him. The critical reaction was mixed, and the film was a disappointment at the box office, opening to $3 million and finishing with $14.5 million. Opening right below it was The Interview, a Seth Rogan/James Franco comedy that found itself at the center of possibly the biggest intersection of pop culture and government-sponsored terrorism in history. The film, in which the US government recruits talk show host Franco and his producer Rogan to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un (Randell Park), displeased the real life Kim, and a North Korean group hacked the computer network of Sony Pictures shortly before Thanksgiving, and released reams of sensitive and private data onto the Internet. When the group promised to attack the networks of theaters screening the film, theater chains large and small announced they would not book the movie, and Sony pulled the film from its intended Christmas release. When a number of independent theaters expressed interest in running the film, Sony un-cancelled the film and opened it on over 300 screens, while also releasing the movie digitally. After all that, the film received largely negative reviews, the hackers didn't attack anyone else, and the film made $6.1 million. Two Best Picture nominees opened in limited release. American Sniper, directed by Clint Eastwood, starred Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL who becomes one of the most celebrated snipers in US military history. The drama received good, if not great, reviews, but when it went wide in January, it became a sensation, and would become the highest-grossing film released in 2014, earning $350.1 million. In addition to Picture, it was nominated for five other Oscars, incurring Best Actor for Cooper, and would win for Sound Editing. Selma told the story of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march to promote civil and voting rights for African-Americans. British actor David Oyelowo played Martin Luther King, Jr., British actor Tom Wilkinson played President Lyndon Johnson, British actor Tim Roth played segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace, and British actress Carmen Ejogo played Coretta Scott King. The film also featured extended cameos from Cuba Gooding Jr., Oprah Winfrey, and Martin Sheen, among others. The film received excellent reviews and did well at the box office, earning making $52.1 million. It received only one other nomination besides Best Picture, which it won, for the Original Song "Glory", by John Legend and Common, which is why Legend is an EGOT winner. Also opening was the Belgian drama Two Days, One Night, starring Marion Cotillard as a factory worker coming back from medical leave who discovers that her job is on the verge of being eliminated, and has to convince her co-workers (who will get a bonus if she is laid off) to save her job. Cotillard got her second Oscar nomination for the film, which earned $1.4 million at the US box office.
Ten Years Ago--December 25, 2009: Avatar's second weekend gross was almost identical to its opening weekend gross, as the soon-to-be-highest-grossing-film-ever slid past the $200 million mark in just its second weekend. But Avatar wasn't the only show in town, as the holiday box office was big enough for all three new wide releases to do well. Opening in second was Sherlock Holmes, a more irreverent take on the famed detective than most previous takes on Arthur Conan Doyle's creation. American Robert Downey, Jr. played Holmes as an action hero, investigating how an aristocratic serial killer seemed to have risen from the dead. Jude Law played Watson, while Rachel McAdams played Irene Alder. Critics were reasonably kind to Sherlock, which launched a decade of off-beat and unique takes of Holmes both at the movies and on TV (culminating with, um, Holmes & Watson). At the box office, it became a much bigger smash than anticipated, opening to $62.3 million and discovering $209 million by the end of its run. The film also received two Oscar nominations, for Score and Set Design. Opening in third was the sequel to surprise 2007 family smash Alvin and the Chipmunks. The immortally-titled Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, more or less replaced original human star Jason Lee with Zachary Levi, who takes over as the guardian of the rodents while Lee recuperates mostly offscreen from an accident. David Cross also returns as the bad guy, who discovers another set of singing chipmunks, this time female. Hijinks ensure. Critics, who didn't much like the first film, didn't much like the squeakquel, either, but audiences did, as it opened to $48.9 million and finished with $219.6 million, about on par with the first film. In fourth was the romantic comedy/architecture porn It's Complicated, starring Meryl Streep as a happily divorced woman who is drawn into an affair with her remarried ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) while launching a relationship with the architect (Steve Martin) who is remodeling her house. Critics were mixed on the film, but it did well with audiences who weren't interested in seeing aliens or chipmunks or mysteries, as it opened to $22.1 million and wrapped with an uncomplicated $112.7 million. Opening well in limited release was the Bollywood comedy/drama 3 Idiots, about two old friends who are searching for a third, while reminiscing about their wild college days. The film grossed $6.5 million in North America. Also opening in limited release was the final film of Heath Ledger (who had died nearly two years earlier), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The surreal fantasy starred Christopher Plummer as Parnassus, whose Imaginarum allows people to chose between an easy but immoral life or a hard but virtuous one. Ledger played a mysterious stranger Parnassus's troupe picks up, while a young Andrew Garfield played another member of the troupe, who is suspicious of Ledger. With Ledger having passed away before he could film the scenes set in the Imaginarium, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell stepped in to play his character whose appearance is transformed inside the contraption. Critics were moderately impressed with the film, and it earned Oscar nominations for Costumes and Art Direction, but did mediocre business, earning $7.7 million.
Fifteen Years Ago--December 24, 2004: Most people are usually too busy on Christmas Eve to go see a movie, so its rare for a film to launch on that date, even if it falls on a Friday. That would be the case this Christmas weekend, as new films either launched on Wednesday or waited until Christmas Day on Saturday. Leading the pack was Wednesday release Meet the Fockers, a sequel to 2000's Meet the Parents. Picking up shortly after the events of the first film, the plot has Ben Stiller, as the unfortunately named Gaylord Focker (who understandably goes by "Greg"), taking his future in-laws (Robert De Nero, Blythe Danner) to Florida to meet his hippie parents (Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand). Naturally, there is a whole lot of conflict between De Niro's rigid former CIA agent and the free-spirited Fockers. Despite boasting the hottest cast of 1974, critics were fairly underwhelmed by the comedy, but audiences ate it up, as the film made $70.5 million in its first five days, even with a substantial dip on Christmas Eve. It would go on to be 2004's biggest live-action comedy and 4th-highest grossing film overall (behind only Shrek 2, Spider-Man 2, and The Passion of the Christ), earning a total of $279.3 million. Opening in third, behind Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events was the rather unfortunate Christmas Day release Fat Albert, a live-action comedy based on the 70s Saturday morning cartoon series created and hosted by Bill Cosby, from when he was still a beloved comedian, well before his side gig as a vile rapist was generally known. Keenan Thompson, who at the time was still only in his second season on Saturday Night Live, starred as Albert, who crosses over from his 70s cartoon world to live-action in the modern day in order to help a teenager still in mourning over her recently deceased grandfather. Cosby himself makes an extended cameo, probably ensuring that very few people will voluntarily revisit this film ever again, though it had largely fallen into obscurity long before the allegations against him were widely known. Thompson has yet to headline another movie. Critics were even less impressed with Fat Albert than they were with Meet the Fockers, and the comedy grossed only $10 million in its first two days before grossing an OK $48.1 million overall. The Aviator went wide on Christmas Day to finish fourth for the whole weekend, followed by Ocean's Twelve and the seasonally appropriate The Polar Express. Opening in 7th was the Christmas Day release Darkness, which starred Anna Paquin as an American teenager whose family moves into a large country house in Spain, where sinister things had happened 40 years before. This being a horror movie, said events begin to affect the present-day occupants. The film was actually released in Spain in 2002, and had played in most of Europe by the end of 2003. By the time in arrived in North America, it had been heavily edited to ensure a PG-13 rating. American critics largely found the film incomprehensible, and audiences agreed, giving the film a rare "F" Cinemascore grade. Still, with the only horror competition being the rapidly fading Blade: Trinity, Darkness didn't do completely awful business, opening to $6.4 million over its first two days and grossing a total of $22.2 million. Spanglish and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, which also went wide on Christmas Day, came in 8th and 9th, with the 10th spot going to the semi-wide Wednesday release The Phantom of the Opera. The official adaption of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, which at the time was still a little over a year away from surpassing the run of Cats (itself 15 years away from being adapted into 2019's biggest disaster) to become the longest-running Broadway show ever, Phantom starred Gerard Butler, whose biggest credit at the time was playing the title role in Dracula 2000, as The Phantom, whose obsessive love for young soprano Christine (Emmy Rossum, in her first lead role), leads to disaster. The musical, which also co-starred Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson, and Minnie Driver, was not well-received by critics, and, unlike the Broadway show, was also not well-received by audiences, as it opened to a five-day total of $6.3 million and ended its run with $51.3 million. It did receive three Oscar nominations for Cinematography, Art Direction, and Original Song for closing credits number "Learn to Be Lonely". Opening Wednesday in limited release, the drama Hotel Rwanda debuted. It took place during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when extremists of the dominant ethnic group Hutus attempted to wipe out the minority Tutsis. Don Cheadle played Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu who managed a luxury hotel who, with the help of his Tutsi wife (Sophie Okonedo) was able to shelter over 1,000 people from the violent mob. The drama was well received by critics, and earned three Oscar nominations: Best Actor for Cheadle, Best Supporting Actress for Okonedo, and Best Original Screenplay. The drama also did decent business, ultimately grossing $23.5 million.
December 31, 2004: As there are almost never any wide releases between Christmas Day and the first weekend of the New Year, the box office largely stayed steady from the previous weekend, with Meet the Fockers easily winning the weekend, despite being one of the few movies to dip from the Christmas weekend gross. A handful of titles opened in limited release, hoping to pick up some Oscar nominations, but despite some seemingly impressive Oscar bait titles (Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons in The Merchant of Venice, Sean Penn and Naomi Watts in The Assassination of Richard Nixon, John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson in A Love Song for Bobby Long), none of them succeeded, and indeed, the only one that even had any impact at the box office was the dramady In Good Company. Dennis Quaid plays an ad exec whose new boss is the much, much younger Topher Grace. The duo's working relationship is threatened when Grace begins seeing Quaid's college-aged daughter (Johansson, in her second Oscar bait limited release of the week). Even though the film didn't get any Oscar nominations, it was well-received by critics, and it became a moderate hit when it went wide in January, ultimately earning $45.8 million.
Twenty Years Ago--December 24, 1999: It was a busy Christmas weekend, as four new films went wide and several others opened in limited release. Leading the pack was Oliver Stone's football drama Any Given Sunday, starring Al Pacino as a legendary coach whose glory days appeared to be behind him. Jamie Foxx co-starred in first dramatic role, as the team's third-string quarterback who is thrust on the field and becomes a superstar overnight. The all-star cast also included Dennis Quaid as the team's aging longtime quarterback, James Woods as the corrupt team doctor, and Cameron Diaz as the team's duplicitous owner. Critics thought the film fumbled the storyline, but audiences made the film a moderate hit. It opened on Wednesday, and by the end of the weekend, had taken in $20.6 million, and scored $75.5 million by the end of its run. Opening in second was Christmas Day release The Talented Mr. Ripley. The thriller starred Matt Damon as the aforementioned Ripley, who is hired to go to Italy to persuade rich boy Jude Law to return home to America. Damon is quickly swept up in Law's bohemian party lifestyle, but when it looks like the party might be coming to an end, Damon employs his talents for nefarious ends. Ripley also had an impressive, all-star cast, including Gwynith Paltrow as Law's fiancee, Cate Blanchett as another American Damon gets to know, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a friend of Law's who is suspicious of Damon. Critics mostly praised the film, which earned 5 Oscar nominations, including Supporting Actor for Law and Adapted Screenplay, and audiences made it a bit of a surprise hit, as it opened to $12.7 million in its first two days and would finish its run with $81.3 million. Holdovers Stuart Little, Toy Story 2, and The Green Mile finished ahead of the weekend's other two openings. Man on the Moon starred Jim Carrey as surrealist comedian Andy Kaufman, who enjoyed playing with audience expectations so they had no idea what was real and what was a set-up, a trait that would both boost his career and helped to damage it. Danny DeVito, who had co-starred with the real Kaufman on the sitcom Taxi, played his manager, Paul Giamatti played his comic partner, and Courtney Love played his longtime girlfriend. The film was full of cameos from people who had worked with Kaufman during his short life, including most of the cast of Taxi and David Letterman. Critics admired Milos Forman's film more than they liked it, and even Carrey's name above the title didn't prompt a big turnout. The film opened on Wednesday and made $12.3 million in its first five days, and would go on to gross $34.6 million. Opening right below was the fourth all-star film of the weekend, Galaxy Quest. The comedy starred Tim Allen as the star of a hugely popular Star Trek-like series from the 70s 20 years later, however, he, along with his co-stars, are mostly reduced to making the convention rounds. When real aliens, who have mistaken the show for actual historical footage from Earth, show up to convince the actors to assist them in their war with an evil oppressor, the cast signs on, not realizing it's not just another fan appearance until its too late. The comedy, which co-starred Signourey Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shaloub, and Sam Rockwell, as the show-within-a-show's other cast members, got better-than-expected reviews, which helped it break out in a crowded marketplace, though it would become an even bigger cult hit in the years to come. Quest opened on Christmas Day and made $7 million over its first two days, and would finish a quite impressive, based on that opening, $71.6 million. In limited release, the Winona Ryder vehicle Girl, Interrupted opened to mixed notices. Based on a true story, Ryder played a teenager who finds herself in a mental institution in the sixties after an overdose. The film had a solid mix of veterans (Whoopi Goldberg, Vanessa Redgrave, Jeffrey Tambour), and up and comers (Jared Leto, Brittney Murphy, Elisabeth Moss), but the show was stolen by Angelina Jolie as a popular, but sociopathic, fellow patient. Upon its wide release in January, the film did decent business, grossing $28.9 million. Jolie would receive the film's sole Oscar nomination, her first ,and would win Supporting Actress. Angela's Ashes was an adaption of Frank McCord's bestselling memoir about his desperately poor childhood growing up in Depression-era Ireland with a loving but overwhelmed mother (Emily Watson) and an alcoholic father (Robert Carlyle). The book had been a sensation, but the film adaption landed with a thud, getting mixed reviews. It would receive a single Oscar nomination for its score, and would go on to gross a disappointing $13 million. Snow Falling on Cedars would be another Oscar bait bomb that came away with a mere one nomination, for Cinematography. Also based on a best-seller, the movie starred Ethan Hawke as a small-town journalist in the 50s who gets caught up in the murder trial of a local Japanese-American, who is accused of killing a white fisherman, as well as his longtime love of the defendant's wife, who is also Japanese-American. Richard Jenkins played the town sheriff, and the late Max Von Sydow played the defense attorney. Critics were even more underwhelmed by this then they were by Girl, Interrupted and Angela's Ashes, and audiences ignored the film when it went wide in January, as it grossed only $14.4 million. Of course, those films were critical and commercial smashes compared to Play It to the Bone. Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas play washed-up professional boxers and best friends who are offered the chance to fight each other as the undercard of a Mike Tyson bout. Lolita Davidovich played the woman they both love. Critics were uniformly negative, the film got no end-of-year award buzz of any kind, and it only grossed $8.4 million.
December 31, 1999: Y2K started with the world not coming to an end and with Stuart Little returning to the #1 spot and Toy Story 2 moving up to #2, as family films dominated the millennium weekend. Rounding out the Top 5 were The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Green Mile, and last weekend's #1, Any Given Sunday, which had the second-sharpest fall in the Top 10, ahead of only Man on the Moon (which fell from 6th to 9th). To celebrate the new millennium, Disney rolled out the first movie of it, Fantasia 2000, into IMAX theaters on New Year's Day (as the film had premieres in December, IMDB lists it as a 1999 release). Like the 1940 original, this one consisted of animated vignettes to popular classical music pieces, with the highlights including Donald Duck and Noah to "Pomp and Circumstance", and the intertwining lives of 4 Depression-era New Yorkers drawn in the style of famed illustrator Al Hirshfeld and performed to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". Critics were cool to the project, but it cleaned up at IMAX theaters, opening to $2.3 million despite only playing on 54 screens. After a four-month run exclusively in that format, Disney gave the film a conventional wide release in June, only to see it flop on regular screens. Still, it was such a big success in IMAX that even with the June swoon, it still grossed a total of $60.7 million. Also opening in limited release was the year's final Oscar contender. The Hurricane starred Denzel Washington as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, an up-and-coming boxer who, in 1966, is wrongly convicted of triple murder and sentenced to three life sentences. Despite clear evidence of his innocence and numerous protests on his behalf (including a protest song by Bob Dylan in 1975), he languished in prison until a trio of young activists (including Liev Schreiber) helped to finally get him freed. The Norman Jewison film got solid reviews, but was dogged by accusations of historical inaccuracy, and Washington ultimately got the film's sole Oscar nomination. The film would be a mid-level hit, grossing $50.7 million.
Twenty-Five Years Ago--December 30, 1994: As usual, there were no new post-Christmas wide releases, as Dumb and Dumber continued to reign supreme over New Year's weekend, and Disclosure rose to second. The Jungle Book and Little Women rose to third and fourth, while Richie Rich stayed steady in 5th. With Christmas over, The Santa Clause tumbled from second to sixth, just ahead of I.Q., which was able to jump into the Top 10. The only notable wide release for the final weekend of the year was unexpected hit The Madness of King George. British character actor Nigel Hawthorne, who until then was best known in the US for his starring role on the Britcom Yes, Minister, played King George III, who in the late 1780s, begin to show serious signs of mental illness, and the maneuvering and manipulation of his son, the Price of Wales (Rupert Everett) to undermine his father and to take the throne himself as the Regent. Helen Mirren played Queen Charlotte, who loved and stood by her husband. Critics were near unanimous in praise for the film, which did well with American audiences, earning $15.2 million. It would also earn four Oscar nominations, with nods for Hawthorne for Actor, Mirren for Supporting Actress, and the Adapted Screenplay, and a win for Art Direction.
Thirty Years Ago--December 29, 1989: It was a quiet New Year's Weekend, with no new wide or even major limited releases. The War of the Roses took over the top spot, with Tango & Cash staying steady in second, followed by The Little Mermaid, Back to the Future, Part II, and previous week #1 National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which, like all the other Christmas movies discussed this week, fell sharply after the 25th.
Thirty-Five Years Ago--December 28, 1984: Beverly Hills Cop ended the year as the dominant film in America, more than doubling the gross of second place Pinocchio. 2010, Protocol, and City Heat rounded out the Top 5, with Micki + Maude and The Flamingo Kid jumping into the Top 10. The only limited release of note was Mrs. Soffel, the second limited release in as many weeks starring up-and-coming Australian actor Mel Gibson in a drama opposite an Oscar-winning actress, in this case Diane Keaton. Keaton is the titular Mrs. Soffel, the wife of a prison warden in turn of the century Pennsylvania who finds herself falling for prisoner Gibson. She ultimately helps him and his brother (Matthew Modine, also in his second limited release in two weeks) escape, with dire consequences for all. Unlike Gibson's other film, The River, Mrs. Soffel was largely panned by critics, and ended up earning no Oscar nominations. It also was largely ignored when it went wide in February, ultimately grossing only $4.4 million.
No comments:
Post a Comment