Welcome to another weekend where we get to flash back to when there were box offices, and theaters, and toilet paper, and, well, anything at all outside the four walls of our houses we're all trapped in.
One Year Ago--January 18, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Glass--1/$40.3 million/$111.1 million/25/37%/43--It came as a surprise to nearly everyone who went to see M. Night Shyamalan's well-received 2017 thriller Split that the film was a sequel to--or at least took place in the same universe as--his 2000 film Unbreakable, which had been dismissed at the time by audiences and critics expecting The Sixth Sense 2, but had undergone a critical re-evaluation in the subsequent years. So the idea of pitting Bruce Willis's indestructible superhero David against James McAvoy's bevy of supervillians, including the indestructible The Beast, under the manipulation of Samuel L. Jackson's completely destructible supervillain Elijah, aka Mr. Glass, was intriguing. Alas, this film, which has all three men locked in a mental institution under the care of a psychiatrist (Sarah Paulson) who refuses to believe any of them have superpowers, was largely panned. Since it was cheap to produce (only about $20 million, despite the impressive cast), it ended up being immensely profitable, despite underperforming.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Dragon Ball Super: Broly--4/$9.8 million/$30.7 million/80/84%/59--While anime does huge business on TV and through streaming services, the North American theatrical market has remained largely resistant. Outside of various Pokemon movies during the height of that craze in the late 90s and early 00s, anime films--even ones from Studio Ghibli--did only minor business in the U.S. Which is why the opening of Broly was such a shock. The spin-off of the very long-running Dragon Ball franchise, this pits series protagonist Goku against Broly, a super-powerful being from Goku's homeworld, that has been in exile his entire life. Lots of property damage ensues. For whatever reason, this Dragon Ball film caught on in the US while many others hadn't, and it finished its run as the highest-grossing non-Pokemon anime in North America.
Director: Tatsuya Nagamine
January 25, 2019:
#1 Movie:
Glass--$18.9 million
New Wide Releases:
The Kid Who Would Be King--4/$7.2 million/$16.8 million/107/89%/66--Outside of Monty Python, filmmakers who have attempted to adapt the King Arthur legend have usually run into trouble. That maxim remained true with this modern day-set kid's adventure, in which a nerdy tween living in London happens to pull Excalibur out of a concrete block, and suddenly finds himself fated to lead an army against the forces of an evil sorceress. Patrick Stewart appears as Merlin, though he spends much of the film disguised as a high school student (being played by Angus Imrie instead of the once and future Picard). Despite critical acclaim, this ran into the same fate nearly every other Arthur movie runs into in terms of box office.
Director: Joe Cornish
Serenity--8/$4.4 million/$8.6 million/126/20%/37--It's not a good sign when a movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway winds up opening in January. This thriller has McConaughey's fishing boat captain is approached by Hathaway, his ex-wife, about taking her abusive current husband (Jason Clarke) out to the middle of the ocean and leaving him there. Of course, there is always a twist in these types of movies, and this one had a doozy. It was so outrageous that this otherwise generic-looking flop thriller briefly became an object of discussion in the weeks after it came out. All that buzz didn't help with the box office or its critical reception, though.
Director: Steven Knight
New Limited Releases:
BTS World Tour: Love Yourself In Seoul--$3.5 million/161/NA/NA--Coming only a couple of months after Burn the State: The Movie, here was another concert film starring ultra-popular South Korean boyband BTS. Like Burn the Stage, this one went the Fathom route, meaning the producers probably left money on the table by not giving this a traditional theatrical release.
Director: none credited
The Wizard of Oz--$2.1 million/182/98%/100--It was a busy weekend for Fathom, as they also re-released the beloved 1939 musical back to the big screen. While today the film is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, its reception was more mixed 81 years ago, and the two negative reviews that Rotten Tomatoes lists for the film were both from its initial release.
Director: Victor Fleming (and also George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, Richard Thorpe, and King Vidor)
Expanding:
The Favourite--14/$2.5 million
Five Years Ago--January 16, 2015:
#1 Movie/Expanding:
American Sniper--$89.3 million
New Wide Releases:
The Wedding Ringer--2/$20.7 million/$64.5 million/48/29%/35--Kevin Hart had proven to be a solid draw in ensemble and buddy comedies, but hadn't headlined a solo film yet. Even though it wasn't a blockbuster, Ringer showed he was good carrying a film on his own. Hart played the owner of a service that would provide best men for guys getting married who don't have any friends of their own. He agrees to work for Josh Gad, and of course, hijinks occur. Despite this film being moderately successful, Hart went right back to making buddy and ensemble comedies.
Director: Jeremy Garelick
Paddington--3/$19 million/$76.3 million/37/97%/77--Paddington Bear is one of the most beloved characters in British children's literature, so it's not a surprise that the first proper feature film adaption of his adventures would be a huge hit in the UK. In the US, he's not nearly as popular, even though the 1975 animated series ran for years on PBS, Nickelodeon, and Disney. Still, stellar reviews and a lack of kid-friendly competition led this to become a moderate hit on this side of the pond, though not nearly as successful as it was overseas. The comedy tells the origin story of Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) who upon his arrival in England from Peru, gets adopted by Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville. While messing up his new home thanks to his friendly-but-klutzy ways, he also has to elude a taxidermist (Nicole Kidman) who is determined to make him the newest exhibit at the museum.
Director: Paul King
Blackhat--10/$3.9 million/$8 million/145/33%/51--In this cyberthriller, hacker Chris Hemsworth is released from prison to help track down another hacker who is using his computer knowledge to manipulate markets for his financial gain. The critics who loved it really seemed to loved it, but most of them were disappointed in the film, as were audiences, who decided to wait until the next Avengers movie to see Hemsworth on the big screen.
Director: Michael Mann
New Limited Releases:
Spare Parts--$3.6 million/179/55%/50--This inspirational drama, in English but clearly aimed at the Hispanic market, tells the true story of a group of high school kids in Phoenix, several of whom are undocumented, who decide to participate in a robotics competition, even though they have no money and their competition will be well-funded college teams. George Lopez played their coach, with Jamie Lee Curtis as the school's principal and Marisa Tomei as another teacher.
Director: Sean McNamara
Still Alice--$18.8 million/108/85%/72--This drama had a quiet release in late 2014 to qualify for Oscar consideration, though it didn't start reporting box office totals until this wider re-release. Julianne Moore would win Best Actress for playing Alice, a linguistics professor who slowly succumbs to early-onset Alzheimer's, to the distress of her husband (Alec Baldwin) and children (Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish, Kristen Stewart). One of the film's co-directors, Richard Glatzer, was battling ALS himself during production, and he would pass away shortly after the film's release.
Director: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland
January 23, 2015:
#1 Movie:
American Sniper--$64.6 million
New Wide Releases:
The Boy Next Door--2/$14.9 million/$35.4 million/73/11%/30--Jennifer Lopez's movie career wasn't in great shape in the mid-teens, which is probably why she agreed to star in (and produce) this potboiler about a high school teacher who has a one-night stand with the (legal) title character (Ryan Guzman), only to belatedly discover he's a psychopath. Luckily, it was very cheap to make.
Director: Rob Cohen
Strange Magic--7/$5.5 million/$12.4 million/130/17%/25--At one point, George Lucas had one of the most creative minds in Hollywood. Then came Radioland Murders. And the Prequels. And Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So it's safe to say that his name in the credits didn't lead to the same excitement an animated film written and produced by him would have had, say 25 years earlier. A mixture of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Beauty and the Beast, in this variation, a love potion gets loose and causes chaos with fairies and goblins alike. Will the fairy princess and the goblin king realize how much they have in common? You even have to ask?
Director: Gary Rydstrom
Mortdecai--9/$4.2 million/$7.7 million/147/12%/27--Johnny Depp's career was already on the downswing when he agreed to star in this wacky comedy-mystery. Oops. He plays the title character, an unethical art dealer with a wacky mustache who gets recruited to solve a murder. Gwyneth Paltrow played his wife, Ewan McGregor as a police detective, and Paul Bettany and Jeff Goldblum pop up in supporting roles. Luckily for Depp, after a brief period of notoriety, the film has been largely forgotten.
Director: David Koepp
New Limited Releases:
Cake--$2 million/183/48%/49--Another film that got a qualifying run in December but didn't start reporting grosses until its proper release in January, this drama starred Jennifer Aniston as the suicidal survivor of a car accident that killed her son. In a weak year for lead actresses, she seemed posed to get an Oscar nomination, but despite a Golden Globe nod, she ended up losing out to Marion Cotillard. The poor reviews and equally poor box office probably sunk Aniston's chances.
Director: Daniel Barnz
Ten Years Ago--January 15, 2010:
#1 Movie:
Avatar--$42.8 million
New Wide Releases:
The Book of Eli--2/$32.8 million/$94.8 million/34/47%/53--Denzel Washington is probably the reason this post-apocalyptic thriller ended up being a surprise hit. Washington was the guardian of the only remaining copy of a certain book (anyone want to guess the title?), trying to get it to safety, but he is persued by Gary Oldman, who wants the book for himself. Critics were underwhelmed, and it burned out relatively fast, but for a January action movie, it did pretty well.
Director: The Hughes Brothers (Albert and Allen)
The Spy Next Door--6/$9.7 million/$24.3 million/107/12%/27--More typical of January movies was this family-friendly action comedy, starring Jackie Chan. He plays a CIA agent taking care of his girlfriend's three kids while she is away. As always happens in situations like this, the family is attacked by an evil Russian agent wanting to get a MacGuffin from Chan. Hijinks ensure.
Director: Brian Levant
New Limited Releases:
The Last Station--$6.6 million/142/71%/76--Yet another 2009 film that received an Oscar-qualifying run in December but didn't report grosses until January, this largely fictional biopic starred Christopher Plummer as legendary Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, nearing the end of his life, and Helen Mirren as his beloved wife, Sofya. The plot largely is occupied with a discussion about who should control the fate of Tolstoy's works, if the copyright should remain in the family after his death, or if his work should be released into the public domain. James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti, and Kerry Condon played supporting roles. Mirren was nominated for Best Actress and Plummer for Supporting Actor.
Director: Michael Hoffman
Expanding:
The Lovely Bones--3/$17 million
January 22, 2010:
#1 Movie:
Avatar--$34.9 million
New Wide Releases:
Legion--2/$17.5 million/$40.2 million/78/19%/32--The second religious-tinged action thriller in as many weeks, this one takes on more of a supernatural flair, as a group of travelers at a dusty roadside diner are humanity's last chance to prevent God from wiping out humanity, mainly because the coming baby of the pregnant waitress (Adrianne Palicki) is humanity's savior. Paul Bettany plays the archangel Michael, who had decided to defy God and side with the humans, and Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black, Charles S. Dutton, and Tyrese Gibson are among the others in the diner. Despite not being a particularly big hit, it still got a follow-up TV series in 2014 that lasted two seasons.
Director: Scott Stewart
Tooth Fairy--4/$14 million/$60 million/57/18%/36--For whatever reason, Dwayne Johnson spent much of the late aughts and early teens appearing in a number of family movies, usually playing an athlete of some kind who is forced to deal with kids. In this one, he's a hockey player who, after telling his girlfriend's daughter that there is no tooth fairy, is sentenced to become one himself. This one features a better cast than a January family comedy probably should have (compare this one's supporting cast to the supporting cast of The Spy Next Door), including Ashley Judd, Stephen Merchant, Billy Crystal and Julie Andrews. Despite a soft opening, the film ended up having decent legs.
Director: Michael Lembeck
Extraordinary Measures--8/$6 million/$12.1 million/129/29%/45--Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell play a married couple whose children suffers from a rare and fatal disease. Harrison Ford is a biochemist working on possible treatments. Together, they launch a technology company to save the kids. This was essentially a Lifetime movie that somehow ended up on the big screen with movie stars, and audiences treated it as such.
Director: Tom Vaughan
New Limited Releases:
To Save a Life--$3.8 million/157/36%/19--Christian drama where a popular high school athlete decides its more important to be friends with the outcasts after a childhood friend commits suicide. This one stars no one you've ever heard of.
Director: Brian Baugh
Fifteen Years Ago--January 21, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
Are We There Yet?--1/$18.6 million/$82.7 million/24/12%/27--January is a good time for family films starring people who seem unlikely to star in a family film. In this one, that star is Ice Cube, who plays a guy who decides to impress his new girlfriend (Nia Long) by volunteering to drive her two kids on a road trip. Of course, every possible disaster befalls the trio. Despite mediocre reviews, this became an unexpected hit, and would be followed by a sequel and a TV series. The director would direct The Spy Next Door, starring another unlikely family film star, to much less financially successful results, five years later.
Director: Brian Levant
Assault on Precinct 13--5/$7 million/$20 million/113/59%/54--A remake of John Carpenter's 1976 thriller (which itself was a remake of Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, which starred John Wayne), this update to the update to the western starred Ethan Hawke as one of the few cops left at a soon-to-be-closed station, and Laurence Fishburne as a local crime lord in jail there. The cops and prisoners must join forces when the station comes under attack by a group of corrupt cops on Fishburne's payroll, who are determined to kill him (to keep him from testifying against him) and everyone else in the station (to cover their tracks). Despite a solid cast (which included Brian Dennhey, Gabriel Byrne, Maria Bello, and John Leguizamo), critics and audiences preferred the film the first two times they saw it.
Director: Jean-Francois Richet
January 28, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
Hide and Seek--1/$22 million/$51.1 million/54/13%/35--Robert De Niro, who seemed to spend the aughts picking his projects by just randomly grabbing whatever script was closest and agreeing to star in the project, starred in this thriller about a man who, after the suicide of his wife, moves his daughter (Dakota Fanning) to the country where she meets a new, and not exactly wholesome, "imaginary" friend. A solid cast, including Famke Janssen, Elisabeth Shue, Amy Irving, Dylan Baker, and Melissa Leo, didn't prevent audiences or critics from thinking this was utterly ridiculous.
Director: John Polson
Alone in the Dark--12/$2.8 million/$5.2 million/163/1%/9--Of course, Hide and Seek was basically Raging Bull compared to this horror thriller, directed by Uwe Boll near the "height" of his notoriety. Christian Slater played a paranormal investigator who has to stop demonic creatures from another dimension from invading Earth, with the help of Tara Reid (playing the least convincing museum curator of all time) and Stephen Dorff. Despite opening in January, this film was remembered by the Razzies, who nominated Reid for Worst Actress and Boll for Worst Director. IMDB currently lists it as the 13th worst movie ever made, worse than From Justin to Kelly, Battlefield Earth, Gigli, and Glitter.
Director: Uwe Boll
New Limited Releases:
Indigo--$1.2 million/208/NA/NA--This remarkably silly-sounding film is about a young girl with psychic powers who goes on the run with her grandfather to protect her from the girl's estranged father. The film is a product of, and reflects the beliefs of, a group of New Age disciples. But hey, if Christians and Mormons can have their own films, why not New Agers?
Director: Stephen Simon
Expanding:
Million Dollar Baby--3/$12.3 million
Sideways--8/$6.4 million
Twenty Years Ago--January 21, 2000:
#1 Movie:
Next Friday--$8 million
New Wide Releases:
Down to You--2/$7.6 million/$20.1 million/97/3%/13--Stars Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Julia Styles had established their romcom bona fides a year earlier with She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You, respectively. This mediocre follow-up, where they played college kids with an up-and-down relationship, didn't completely kill their careers, but certainly didn't help. This one at least has a decent supporting cast, including Selma Blair, Ashton Kutcher, Rosario Dawson, and Henry Winkler.
Director: Kris Isacsson
Expanding:
Play It to the Bone--9/$3.4 million
Angela's Ashes--10/$3.2 million
January 28, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Eye of the Beholder--1/$5.6 million/$16.5 million/108/9%/29--This Super Bowl weekend release probably hit #1 only because it inexplicably starred Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd, who were hopefully well-compensated for their roles in this bizarre thriller where Judd played a sympathetic serial killer and McGregor played the surveillance expert who becomes obsessed with her.
Director: Stephan Elliott
New Limited Releases:
Isn't She Great--$3 million/167/25%/34--Another one of those projects that looks much better on paper, this largely fictionalized comedic biopic starred Bette Midler as Jacqueline Susann, a failed actress who became a bestselling author thanks to her trashy potboilers like Valley of the Dolls. Nathan Lane played her devoted (and apparently straight) husband and press agent, while Stockard Channing, David Hyde Pierce, and John Cleese showed up in supporting roles. Director Andrew Bergman had had solid comic successes with The Freshman, Honeymoon in Vegas, and It Could Happen to You, though his previous movie had been Striptease. Despite the stellar cast, critics were appalled, and it barely got released (and Bergman has yet to direct again).
Director: Andrew Bergman
Twenty-Five Years Ago--January 20, 1995:
#1 Movie:
Legends of the Fall--$9 million
New Wide Releases:
Murder in the First--5/$4.7 million/$17.4 million/89/50%/NA--Another January release with the whiff of failed Oscar bait all over it, this drama, based (very) loosely on a true story, starred Kevin Bacon as a petty criminal who gets lost in the justice system, eventually spending three years in solitary confinement at Alcatraz, which after finishing, he promptly murdered another inmate. Christian Slater played his attorney, who determined his harsh treatment in jail left him insane. Gary Oldman played Alcatraz's warden.
Director: Marc Rocco
New Limited Releases:
Bad Company--$3.7 million/162/27%/NA--And the generic title of the week goes to this thriller, about a company specializing in bribes and extortion, and the CIA agent who has infiltrated it, but may be out for himself, or out to get the girl or who knows. Pretty much every character doubles and triple crosses each other at some point. Laurence Fishburne plays the CIA agent, Ellen Barkin plays the company bigwig he works with, and Frank Langella plays the company's head.
Director: Damian Harris
January 27, 1995:
#1 Movie:
Legends of the Fall--$6.3 million
New Wide Releases:
Highlander: The Final Dimension--2/$5.5 million/$12.3 million/104/5%/28--Highlander II: The Quickening may not have made a lick of sense, but at least it co-starred Sean Connery. The erstwhile James Bond had better things to do than show up for the third installment, which serves as a direct sequel to the 1986 original and ignores the events of Part II. Christopher Lambert, who had thought he was the final Immortal, is dismayed to discover another (Mario Van Peebles) has survived and wants to fight him. Critics, who hadn't much liked the first two films, didn't find this one any better.
Director: Andrew Morahan
New Limited Releases:
Before Sunrise--$5.5 million/145/100%/77--Kicking off one of the most unlikely (and most acclaimed) cinematic trilogies, this romantic drama stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delphy as strangers who meet on a train traveling through Europe, and decide to spend the night wandering around Vienna together before he has to head back to the US the next morning and she has to go on to Paris. The film, only the fourth that Richard Linklater directed (and third that would get a theatrical release) would end up becoming a cult hit, which led to equally acclaimed followups Before Sunset and Before Midnight, both of which would earn Screenplay nominations at the Oscars.
Director: Richard Linklater
Miami Rhapsody--$5.2 million/147/45%/NA--Essentially a Woody Allen film without Woody Allen (but with Mia Farrow), this romantic comedy starred Sarah Jessica Parker as a Miami woman who is rethinking her engagement after discovering her brother, sister, mother, and father are all having affairs. Antonio Banderas plays the man who Farrow is sleeping with, who Parker also decides to have a fling with. This marked the directorial debut of David Frankel.
Director: David Frankel
Thirty Years Ago--January 19, 1990:
#1 Movie:
Born on the Fourth of July--$6.2 million
New Wide Releases:
Tremors--5/$3.7 million/$16.7 million/71/88%/65--Given that it is now a beloved cult classic, it's hard to know if those review averages actually reflect how the film was greeted in early 1990. Even if the reviews were good, though, the film wasn't much of a success in theaters, and only became popular when it hit video. Kevin Bacon starred as a handyman in a rural Nevada town that is beset by underground giant prehistoric creatures that want to devour the town's residents. Fred Ward played his friend, Family Ties dad Michael Gross had a change-of-pace role as an extreme survivalist, and country music singer Reba McEntire made her acting debut as Gross's wife.
Director: Ron Underwood
Expanding:
Driving Miss Daisy--9/$2.6 million
January 26, 1990:
#1 Movie:
Driving Miss Daisy--$5.7 million
Thirty-Five Years Ago--January 18, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Beverly Hills Cop--$6.5 million
New Wide Releases:
That's Dancing!--6/$1.5 million/$4.2 million/120/NA/NA--As the title implies, this documentary focused on dance numbers throughout the history of cinema, from the silent days all the way to 1983's Flashdance. As the movie was produced and released by MGM, most of the film's focus was on dance numbers from that studio's films. Hosts for the film included Gene Kelly, Liza Minelli, Sammy Davis, Jr., Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Ray Bolger, who introduced his complete, unedited dance number for "If I Only Had a Brain" for the first time. Incidentally, That's Dancing!'s director, Jack Haley, Jr., was the son of the actor who played the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (he was also Minelli's ex-husband, and Minelli, of course, is Judy Garland's daughter).
Director: Jack Haley, Jr.
Expanding:
A Passage to India--5/$1.5 million
January 25, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Beverly Hills Cop--$8.2 million
New Wide Releases:
The Falcon and the Snowman--2/$2.4 million/$17.1 million/52/80%/68--Not to be confused with the upcoming Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, this drama (another film that seemed like it was made to be released in December, not January) stars Timothy Hutton as a young man who gets a job with the CIA in the mid-70s, quickly becomes disillusioned with the US government, and decides to become a Soviet spy. Penn plays his partner, who has a serious cocaine addiction, and who finds himself much more interested in being a spy than Hutton, who quickly decided he wanted out.
Director: John Schlesinger
Tomboy--5/$1.7 million/$14.1 million/61/NA/NA--Betsy Russell, who was already in theaters starring in Avenging Angel, was in her second B-movie in three weeks with this sex comedy about a female mechanic who wants to race stock cars. She also wants to sleep with the hunky guy who is her chief competitor. She also finds time to take plenty of showers.
Director: Herb Freed
New Limited Releases:
Gwendoline--$1.3 million/147/NA/NA--From the director of the legendary soft-core flick Emmanuelle comes this action comedy, which features plenty of naked women, but is considerably more mainstream than most of the director's oeuvre. Tawny Kitaen played Gwendoline, who falls in with a mercenary and finds herself undergoing a number of adventures while searching for an elusive butterfly.
Director: Just Jaeckin
Forty Years Ago--January 18/January 25, 1980:
Once again, there were no new wide releases. We'll see if February brings films that open nationwide.
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