The summer movie season is underway--at least from 1990 onward. Before then, big summer movies didn't start arriving until Memorial Day.
One Year Ago--May 10, 2019:
#1 Movie:
Avengers: Endgame--$63.3 million
New Wide Releases:
Pokemon Detective Pikachu--2/$54.4 million/$144.1 million/19/68%/53--Given the vast, multidecade, multiplatform popularity of the Pokemon franchise, its a bit surprising that it waited until 2019 to move into live-action, and when it did, it chose to adapt one of its more minor games. Its even more surprising that the final product ended up being something akin to Deadpool for Kids, thanks to Ryan Reynolds, who voices Detective Pikachu with all the sardonic style he voices the very-R rated Marvel character, just with none of the profanity or graphic sex and/or violence talk. The plot has Reynolds's Pikachu, who can, unlike most Pokemon, talk in the King's English--but only to Justice Smith, playing the son of Pikachu's late cop partner. Ken Watanabe played Smith's parner's old friend, and Bill Nighy was a rich bigwig. The identity of the villain wasn't too difficult to figure out, but I doubt anyone watched this expecting an airtight mystery. The fact its far better than it has any right to be is good enough.
Director: Rob Letterman
The Hustle--3/$13 million/$35.4 million/73/14%/35--A year after the gender-flipped remake of beloved 80s comedy Overboard comes this gender-flipped remake of beloved 80s comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, with Anne Hathaway stepping into Michael Caine's shoes as a wealthy, wildly successful conwoman living on the French Rivera, and Rebel Wilson taking over for Steve Martin as the petty thief who susses out Hathaway's secret and wants in. This might have been received better if the prior summer hadn't seen a gender-flipped entry in the Ocean's franchise with an entire team of conwomen, an entry in which Hathaway had co-starred. Then again, even without the existence of Ocean's Eight, this would have likely flopped anyway.
Director: Chris Addison
Poms--6/$5.4 million/$13.6 million/112/36%/36--Just like Hathaway spent two straight summers starring in movies about conwomen, Diane Keaton spent two straight summers starring in female variations of the "Geezers rediscover life!" vehicles that always seem to star Morgan Freeman. Alas, Poms was a pretty big step down from the previous year's Book Club, which had been a sleeper hit. Keaton played the newest resident of a retirement community who gets the idea from her neighbor (Jacki Weaver) to form a cheerleading club, whose members included Rhea Perlman and Pam Grier. Unfortunately, this wannabe geriatric Bring It On ended up bringing it off.
Director: Zara Hayes
Tolkien--9/$2.2 million/$4.5 million/149/50%/48--The time to release a biopic of the author of The Lord of the Rings would probably be when the movies themselves were still brand new. Alas, by 2019, there wasn't much of a reason to see this film, which cast Nicolas Hoult as the young writer whose horrific experiences in World War I would greatly influence his writing, and Lily Collins as his friend who would eventually be his wife.
Director: Dome Karukoski
May 17, 2020:
New Wide Releases:
John Wick: Chapter III-Parabellum--1/$56.8 million/$171 million/14/90%/73--After John Wick: Chapter Two more than doubled the final gross of the first installment, Chapter III almost pulled off the same feat, coming within $13 million of doubling the gross of Chapter II. Keanu Reeves returns as the titular hitman extraordinaire, whom, for reasons I can't fathom, people keep coming after, only to die violently for their troubles. Really, no matter what the bounty on his head is, it isn't worth it! Ian McShane and Laurence Fishburne return from previous installments, with Oscar winners Halle Berry and Anjelica Huston joining the mayhem for the first time. If the pattern holds, John Wick: Chapter IV should make well over $300 million domestic, which at this point wouldn't surprise me at all.
Director: Chad Stahelski
A Dog's Journey--4/$8 million/$22.8 million/92/50%/43--A Dog's Purpose was a surprise hit in January 2017, so it makes sense that A Dog's Way Home was released at the same time in 2019. The problem for the makers of A Dog's Purpose is that A Dog's Way Home was not the sequel to A Dog's Purpose. A Dog's Journey was, and with the competing film taking its natural release date, the producers decided to hazard an early summer release, which proved to be a mistake. Once again, we watch good dog Bailey (voiced by Josh Gad) die and get reincarnated over and over again, while trying to make his way to his original owner (Dennis Quaid, much nicer than he was in The Intruder) and his granddaughter, who goes from toddler to young woman during the course of the film.
Director: Gail Mancuso
The Sun is Also a Star--8/$2.5 million/$5 million/142/51%/52--Another romantic YA adaption about star-crossed wannabe lovers, this one at least has no one dying of a terminal illness. Instead, high school seniors Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton have only a single day together before her family is supposed to be deported back to Jamaica. Even though the book it was based on was a bestseller, this adaption was basically dumped.
Director: Ry Russo-Young
Five Years Ago--May 8, 2015:
#1 Movie:
Avengers: Age of Ultron--$77.8 million
New Wide Releases:
Hot Pursuit--2/$13.9 million/$34.6 million/74/7%/31--Less than six months after coming back with Wild, Reese Witherspoon found herself once again starring in the type of lame film that almost derailed her career, this one a lame buddy comedy with Sofia Vergara that owes a giant debt to Midnight Run. Witherspoon played a cop required to get Vergara from San Antonio to Dallas to testify against a drug lord, while having to evade the drug lord's many henchmen, including Witherspoon's fellow cops. This was more or less set up as a sacrificial lamb against Avengers.
Director: Anne Fletcher
The D Train--19/$0.5 million/$0.7 million/242/54%/NA--Not even Jack Black could get anyone interested in this black comedy about an unpopular guy (Black) who decides to convince his graduating class's most popular student (James Marsden) to attend the upcoming reunion. Originally headed for a release mostly at art houses, this was inexplicably booked in over a thousand theaters for its opening weekend, where it had one of the worst performances of any film released on that many screens ever.
Director: Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul
May 15, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
Pitch Perfect 2--1/$69.2 million/$184.3 million/12/65%/63--The original Pitch Perfect was a sleeper hit in 2012, grossing $65 million, before becoming a monster on home video. How much of a monster? This sequel outgrossed the entire run of the first film in its first three days. The college all-female a capella group led by Anna Kendrick is back, and now gets a chance to compete in an international competition. Also returning are team members Rebel Wilson and Brittney Snow. Co-star Elizabeth Banks made her directorial debut. The third and final film in the series was released in 2017.
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Mad Max: Fury Road--2/$45.4 million/$153.6 million/21/97%/90--Tom Hardy took over for Mel Gibson as the Mad Max franchise is revived after 30 years of dormancy. The result is arguably the most acclaimed action movie of the 21st century so far. In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Hardy reluctantly agrees to help Charlize Theron and the five wives of a despotic gang leader escape from his clutches. What follows was one of the most epic car chases ever put to film. Even though the film was only moderately successful at the box office, it was nominated for 10 Oscars, including Picture and Director for George Miller, and won six, including Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, and both Sound awards.
Director: George Miller
Expanding:
Far From the Madding Crowd--10/$1.3 million
Ten Years Ago--May 7, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
Iron Man 2--1/$128.1 million/$312.4 million/3/73%/57--Moviegoers who eagerly lined up to see Robert Downey, Jr. reprise his role as billionaire Tony Stark, who, unlike most superheroes, had happily revealed at the end of the first movie that he was, indeed, Iron Man, didn't realize that they were seeing what would be the third cog in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and not merely a sequel. It had been two years since the first two parts, the original Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, and the only hints of interconnectedness in those had been Samuel L. Jackson's cameo after the credits on Iron Man, and Downey himself showing up in the post-credits sequence of Hulk. The world building would begin in earnest in this one, with Jackson having a bigger part and the introduction of Scarlett Johansson as series mainstay Black Widow, whose long-awaited solo film would be out right now if it wasn't for the pandemic (fingers crossed for November). There's even a brief appearance by a very young Peter Parker (though it wouldn't be confirmed that the kid was indeed Peter until several years later). Unfortunately, all that world-building didn't help the film itself much, which was a disappointing mishmash in which Iron Man had to fight both an imprisoned Russian tech genius (Mickey Rourke) out for revenge and a rival arms manufacturer (Sam Rockwell) who also has a grudge against Stark. Gwyneth Paltrow is back as Pepper, and Don Cheadle replaced Terrance Howard as Rhodey. Iron Man 2 would be nominated for its Visual Effects.
Director: Jon Favreau
Babies--9/$2.1 million/$7.3 million/139/69%/63--After the success of Earth the previous years, Focus decided to compete with Disney in terms of wide-release documentaries on crowd-pleasing topics. Their inaugural effort, this French documentary, would also be their last. The film watched the first year of four children from around the world, two babies growing up in rural environments in Namibia and Mongolia, and two others growing up in extremely urban Tokyo and San Francisco. Critics generally liked the movie, which did well for a doc, but also made less than half of what Disney's competing Oceans (ironically, also a French doc) made.
Director: Thomas Balmes
May 14, 2010:
#1 Movie:
Iron Man 2--$52 million
New Wide Releases:
Robin Hood--2/$36.1 million/$105.3 million/26/43%/53--There didn't seem to be a desperate need to yet another retelling of the Robin Hood legend, even a dark and gritty take from the Gladiator team of director Ridley Scott and star Russell Crowe. Serving more like a prequel to the well-known legend, Crowe plays an archer named Robin who poses as the dead Robin of Loxley at the request of his father (Max Von Sydow) to keep King John (Oscar Isaac) from taking the family land. From there, he's less concerned with robbing from the rich to give to the poor as he is rallying the barons to resist a French invasion. Cate Blanchett played Maid Marion, here the widow of the dead Robin, who slowly but surely warms up to the living Robin. Any hopes for a franchise were dashed when Robin Hood greatly underperformed, but don't worry, filmgoers only had to wait 8 1/2 years for yet another big-budgeted version of Robin Hood (which also flopped).
Director: Ridley Scott
Letters to Juliet--3/$13.5 million/$53 million/63/41%/50--Amanda Seyfried starred in her second correspondence-based romance of the year with this romcomdram about an American writer who, while visiting Verona, joins a group that answers letters written to Juliet, as in Shakespeare's heroine. One 50-year-old letter she answers brings Vanessa Redgrave to Italy, to search for her lost love. Will Seyfried fall for Redgrave's disagreeable grandson (Christopher Egan) or stay with her boring fiancee (Gael Garcia Bernal)? You probably don't need to see the movie to know the answer to that one. This one wasn't the out-of-nowhere hit Dear John had been, but it did well for itself.
Director: Gary Winick
Just Wright--4/$8.3 million/$21.5 million/111/45%/51--Rap star Common took a run at movie stardom with this romantic comedy playing a NBA star who, after an injury, falls for his physical therapist (Queen Latifiah), who just happens to be the best friend of his fiancee (Paula Patton). Despite a decent supporting cast (including Phylicia Rashad and Pam Grier) and cameos from several NBA players (including Dwayne Wade, Dwight Howard, and Jalen Rose), the film didn't break out.
Director: Sanaa Hamri
Fifteen Years Ago--May 13, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
Monster-in-Law--1/$24 million/$82.9 million/23/18%/31--One of the great mysteries of life is why the legendary Jane Fonda would come out of a 15-year retirement to star in this ode to how women are all shrieking harpies deep down. Fonda played a famous, recently fired talk show host who is aghast that her son (Michael Vartan) is dating a dogwalker and aspiring fashion designer (Jennifer Lopez). What follows is a series of scenes in which Fonda tries her best to humiliate Lopez, followed by a series of scenes in which Lopez turns the table and tries to humiliate Fonda. This clearly wants to be a distaff Meet the Parents, but manages to be worse than Meet the Fockers. While Fonda would ultimately go on to have a pretty good comeback, this would be Lopez's last hit until Hustlers.
Director: Robert Luketic
Kicking & Screaming--2/$20.2 million/$52.8 million/52/41%/45--Will Ferrell stared in yet another rehash of Bad News Bears, this time focusing on kids' soccer. Ferrell played a mild-mannered suburban dad who agrees to take the helm of his son's team, which is the worst in the league. That puts him in direct competition with his estranged father (Robert Duvall) who is the hyper-competitive coach of the best team in the league. Famed football coach Mike Ditka played himself and 12-year-old Josh Hutcherson played Duvall's much younger other son.
Director: Jesse Dylan
Unleashed--3/$10.6 million/$24.5 million/102/66%/58--In this action spectacle, Jet Li played essentially a slave to a loan shark (Bob Hoskins) who uses Li's fierce fighting skills against his enemies, while leaving him collared and locked up like a dog the other times. Eventually, Li escapes and takes refuge with a kindly blind pianist (Morgan Freeman) and his stepdaughter, who teach him what being free and civilized is like, at least until Hoskins and his men track him down. This wasn't a big hit, but its decent reviews and excellent fight scenes helped it do decent business.
Director: Louis Leterrier
Mindhunters--10/$2 million/$4.5 million/169/24%/33--Miramax basically dumped this long-shelved thriller, which had been filmed in 2002, about a group of young FBI profilers, including Christian Slater, Jonny Lee Miller, and LL Cool J, who start getting picked off for real while training on an isolated island. The box office and reviews indicated it probably could have just stayed shelved.
Director: Renny Harlin
May 20, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith--1/$108.4 million/$380.3 million/1/80%/68--The finale of the Prequel Trilogy was easily the best-received of the three films, as Anakin (Hayden Christensen) comes completely under the control of Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) and the Dark Side, as the Chancellor consolidates his power and wipes out most of the Jedi, while Anakin former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) before being reborn as Darth Vader, while Anakin's wife Padme (Natalie Portman) gives birth to a certain set of twins. Other than a scantly-attended animated Clone Wars movie in 2008, this would be it for the franchise on the big screen for the next decade (as well as the final film George Lucas has directed to date), until after Disney bought LucasFilm and begin making the long-awaited Episodes VII-IX. Despite the film's box office success and the legacy of the franchise, the film would only be nominated for Makeup.
Director: George Lucas
Twenty Years Ago--May 12, 2000:
#1 Movie:
Gladiator--$24.7 million
New Wide Releases:
Battlefield Earth--2/$11.6 million/$21.5 million/95/3%/9--In addition to founding Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard wrote science fiction. One of his final books was Battlefield Earth, a pulpy epic about a heroic human who figures out the way to conquer the alien race that had long conquered Earth. Noted Scientologist John Travolta was eager to play the human in the early 80s, but couldn't get financing until after his mid-90s comeback. He really shouldn't have bothered. Travolta played a 9-foot-tall, dredlocked alien who of course was utterly evil, while Barry Pepper played the human who saved the planet. Forest Whitaker played another, more sympathetic alien. The film immediately became a punchline and is still widely regarded as one of the worst big budget films ever. Despite its colossal failure, Travolta still dreams of making a sequel.
Director: Roger Christian
Center State--6/$4.6 million/$17.2 million/105/42%/52--In this soapy melodrama that owes a big debt to Fame, a group of young ballet dancers (including a young Zoe Saldana, in her film debut) enroll in a prestigious dance school in New York, where they deal with love triangles, eating disorders, and the intense competition inherent in being a professional dancer. Peter Gallagher played the school's chief choreographer. This might have done better had it been released at a different time of year.
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Screwed--8/$3.3 million/$7 million/141/13%/7--Norm MacDonald made a second and final attempt to become a leading man with this broad comedy, in which MacDonald's attempts to kidnap the dog of his awful employer (Elaine Stritch) to hold it for ransom go awry, making everyone think that MacDonald was the one kidnapped. Despite the talent in front of the camera (Dave Chappelle as MacDonald's partner in crime, Danny DeVito as a morgue employee, Sarah Silverman as MacDonald's girlfriend) and behind (the film was written by Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt, and Man on the Moon screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who made their directorial debut--and to date, finale), the film flopped hard with critics and audiences. Unlike MacDonald's other star vehicle, Dirty Work, this one has not become a cult classic.
Director: Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
Held Up--10/$1.9 million/$4.7 million/154/17%/21--In this forgettable comedy, which had been shot two years earlier, Jamie Foxx plays a guy dumped by his girlfriend (Nia Long) at a convenience store while on a road trip, then gets stuck in a hostage situation when the store gets robbed. Despite the success of Any Given Sunday, Foxx would have to endure several more years of cheap comedies like this before he finally moved permanently to the A-list with Collateral and Ray.
Director: Seve Rash
May 19, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Dinosaur--1/$38.9 million/$137.8 million/11/64%/56--Maybe Disney's single most forgotten animated feature since their late 80s renaissance, this adventure film put CGI dinosaurs in front of real backgrounds to depict the story of an orphaned iguanodon (voiced by D.B. Sweeney) who is raised by a group of lemurs, who, after a meteor destroys their island, join a pack of other iguandons to seek a refuge and to avoid predator dinosaurs. Alfre Woodward voiced the lemur who raised Sweeney, with Ossie Davis as the lemurs' leader, and Julianne Margulies as Sweeney's love interest. Even though there would be several more traditionally animated movies still to come from Disney, this first non-Pixar CGI film from the studio would prove to be a herald of the future.
Director: Eric Leighton and Ralph Zondag
Road Trip--3/$15.5 million/$68.5 million/36/58%/55--In this raunchy comedy, a college student (Breckin Meyer) discovers a sex tape he made with another girl (Amy Smart) was accidentally mailed to his long-distance girlfriend, so he and friends Seann William Scott, Paulo Costanzo, and D.J. Qualls try to get from New York to Texas to intercept it before she has a chance to watch it. Hijinks ensue. Best remembered for launching both the directional career of Todd Phillips (who had only directed documentaries before) and the short-lived leading man career of MTV star Tom Green.
Director: Todd Phillips
Small Time Crooks--7/$3.9 million/$17.3 million/104/66%/69--Woody Allen's widest release since the scandal-tinged Husbands and Wives in 1992, and highest-grossing since Crimes and Misdemeanors in 1989, this comedy had Allen play a career criminal whose plans to drill from a closed-down restaurant they rented to a bank prove to be a failure, but the homemade cookies that Allen's wife (Tracey Ullman) sells to cover the crime proves to be a huge hit. Hugh Grant played an art dealer that Ullman takes a shine to once the cookie money starts rolling in. The success of this led to Allen's next few films also getting wide releases, but they were all flops both critically and commercially, and it wouldn't be until 2005's Match Point (which opened in limited release) that Allen would have a film top this one's grosses.
Director: Woody Allen
Twenty-Five Years Ago--May 12, 1995:
New Wide Releases:
Crimson Tide--1/$18.6 million/$91.4 million/11/88%/66--In this tense thriller, a submarine receives orders to fire its nuclear missiles at a base seized by Russian separatists who are threatening war with the US. When a second message is interrupted before it finished being received, with no way to complete the message, conflict erupts between the captain (Gene Hackman) who wants to fire the weapons, and his second-in-command (Denzel Washington) who think s the second message might have been retracting the first one. The thriller would prove to be an early summer hit, and would receive three Oscar nominations, two for its sound and one for Film Editing.
Director: Tony Scott
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain--4/$2.8 million/$10.9 million/113/58%/NA--Hugh Grant's first film since the success of Four Weddings and a Funeral the year before was this gentle British comedy about a English cartographer who arrives in a Welsh town in 1917 bearing the bad news that the local mountain is actually just short of the height to officially qualify as a mountain. The town conspires to keep Grant around until they've had a chance to add on to their hill to turn it back into a mountain. The film is cute, but is primarily remembered for its absurdly long title.
Director: Christopher Monger
Gordy--8/$1.6 million/$3.9 million/159/26%/NA--In the first talking pig movie of the summer of 1995, the titular swine finds his entire family has been taken away, and sets out on a journey to get them back, meeting up with a country singer and his daughter, as well as the young heir to a large corporation, who have to work together to save Gordy from the evil businessman who wants the pig dead. Reading this plot description, it's pretty easy to see how this was eclipsed by Babe.
Director: Mark Lewis
New Limited Releases:
The Perez Family--$2.8 million/171/65%/NA--In the second Hispanic drama with the word "Family" in the title in two weeks, Alfred Molina and Marisa Tomei play Cuban refugees who come to Miami as part of the 1980 Marial Boatlift. Although strangers, since they have the same last name, they agree to pretend to be married because families qualify for asylum faster. Anjelica Huston played Molina's actual wife, who has been living in Miami for 20 years while he was imprisoned in Cuba, and Chazz Palminteri played a policeman.
Director: Mira Nair
A Little Princess--$10 million/118/97%/83--In this adaption of the classic children's novel, a young girl whose father is a wealthy British army captain is enrolled in a New York boarding school while he is fighting in World War I. When he is apparently killed in action, the school's cruel headmistress forces the girl to become a servant, though the girl never loses her faith in humanity. Despite the rapturous reviews, this film got lost among the big-budget offerings of early summer. It did get two Oscar nominations for Cinematography and Art Direction.
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
May 19, 1995:
New Wide Releases:
Die Hard With a Vengeance--1/$22.2 million/$100 million/10/52%/58--For the third entry, the filmmakers shook up the Die Hard formula. This one takes place in early summer instead of Christmas, and the terrorist (Jeremy Irons) forces Bruce Willis into his plot instead of Willis stumbling onto it. Irons makes Willis and good Samaritan Samuel L. Jackson, as a grouchy Harlem store owner, to undergo a series of tasks all over New York City in order to distract the NYPD from the massive heist he is planning of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. While the film ended up as 1995's highest grossing film worldwide, it was a bit of a disappointment in the US, just barely making $100 million. After this, the franchise would go on hiatus for the next 12 years, until 2007's Live Free or Die Hard.
Director: John McTiernan
Forget Paris--3/$5.8 million/$33.2 million/53/50%/NA--In the month's second romcom centering around the City of Lights, NBA referee Billy Crystal (who also directed) and airline employee Debra Winger meet and fall in love in Paris, but discover that married life once they return to the US isn't so easy, particularly with Crystal on the road six months of the year and Winger regretting giving up her career overseas to move back to the US. It didn't quite outgross the competing French Kiss, but did end up having better legs.
Director: Billy Crystal
Expanding:
A Little Princess--6/$2 million
Thirty Years Ago--May 11, 1990:
#1 Movie:
Pretty Woman--$7.6 million
New Limited Releases:
Longtime Companion--$4.6 million/125/89%/NA--This was not the first American film to address the AIDS crisis, but it was the first to get play outside of big city art houses, as well as the first to get serious end-of-year awards attention. The film follows the lives of a group of gay men, including Campbell Scott, Dermot Mulroney, and Bruce Davidson, throughout the 1980s as, one by one, they get sick and die. Mary Louise Parker played another friend, and Tony Shalhoub, primarily known as a theater actor at the time, played a doctor. The film received strong reviews, and Davidson would be nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
Director: Norman Rene
Pathfinder--$0.01 million/223/NA/NA--For whatever reason, this Norwegian drama didn't make its American debut until three years after it had been released in its home country and two years after it was nominated for Foreign Language Film. Better late than never, I guess. Roughly a thousand years ago, a teenage boy volunteers to lead an invading tribe to the hideout of his people, but he has a plan to single-handily defeat the enemies once and for all. Despite the Oscar nomination, hardly anyone went to see this in its brief theatrical run.
Director: Nils Gaup
May 18, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Bird on a Wire--1/$15.3 million/$71 million/16/32%/36--This action comedy, which kicked off the summer movie season, starred Mel Gibson as a FBI informant in the witness protection program who runs into his ex-fiancee (Goldie Hawn) just as the corrupt DEA agent he put in prison (David Carradine) shows up to get revenge, forcing both Gibson and Hawn to go on the run. As the first big movie in weeks, it did quite well at the box office, though it opened to largely bad reviews.
Director: John Badham
Cadillac Man--2/$6.7 million/$27.6 million/44/55%/50--Robin Williams played a fast-talking car salesman in this black comedy, who is juggling his job, a mob debt, and two girlfriends (Fran Drescher and Lori Petty) whose life gets infinitely more complicated when his dealership is taken hostage by Tim Robbins. Despite the presence of Williams, who was coming off his Oscar-nominated turn in Dead Poets Society, the film underperformed at the box office.
Director: Roger Donaldson
Thirty-Five Years Ago--May 10, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Code of Silence--$3.6 million
New Wide Releases:
Rustlers' Rhapsody--2/$2.4 million/$6.1 million/109/17%/NA--In this poorly received western parody, Tom Berenger played a traditional singing cowboy who is fully aware of all the tropes of old-fashioned, family-friendly westerns, as he rides into yet another town to face down yet another power-mad bad guy (Andy Griffith) terrorizing the townpeople. Critics compared it unfavorably with Blazing Saddles, which had come out 11 years prior.
Director: Hugh Wilson
Rappin'--4/$1.8 million/$2.9 million/130/NA/NA--From the makers of 1984's Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo came this film that pretty much had the same plot, except instead of breakdancing, the characters rap their way to beating the evil developers who want to gentrify the neighborhood. Mario Van Peebles starred, with early appearances by Eriq La Salle, Kadeen Hardison (who a decade later would star in Van Peebles's Panther), and Ice-T.
Director: Joel Silberg
May 17, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Code of Silence--$2.8 million
Forty Years Ago--May 9, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
Friday the 13th--$39.8 million/18/63%/22--Your guess is as good as mine as why, of the seemingly dozens of ripoffs of Halloween that were produced in the late 70s and early 80s, this one, about a group of stupid teens (including a young Kevin Bacon) who visit a long-abandoned summer camp and get slaughtered one by one, became the huge hit of the lot, with ten sequels and a reboot, which introduced one of the most iconic movie villains of the last four decades in hockey mask wearing Jason Voorhees. Of course, as anyone who has seen Scream knows, Jason is not the killer in this first installment, but instead his vengeful mother (TV staple Betsy Palmer) is responsible for the mayhem. Like most of the slasher films of the era, this got mostly terrible reviews upon release, but spawning an enduring movie series seems to have raised the film's reputation over the years.
Director: Sean S. Cunningham
The Nude Bomb--$14.7 million/50/17%/NA--Ten years after the end of popular spy spoof sitcom Get Smart, its star, Don Adams, returned to his most iconic role of Maxwell Smart in The Nude Bomb. Unfortunately, hardly anyone else from the original series returned, including Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 or original creator Buck Henry and Mel Brooks (the film was scripted by a couple of the show's writers). Adams most prominent co-star is soft core porn legend Sylvia Kristel, who (mostly) keeps her clothes on (the film was rated PG, after all). While there would be no theatrical follow-up, Adams would return as Smart, this time with Feldon, in the TV movie Get Smart, Again in 1989, followed by a short-lived revival series in 1995.
Director: Clive Donner
New Limited Releases:
My Brilliant Career--NA/NA/84%/NA--This well-received Australian drama starred Judy Davis, in her first major role, as a woman in late 19th century rural Australia who dreams of becoming a writer. Sent to live with her grandmother, she sparks a romance with local Sam Neill (in one of his first major roles) but isn't sure if marriage is compatible with her dreams. The film, the first feature-length work by director Gillian Armstrong, would have a long run at US art houses and would earn an Oscar nomination for its Costumes.
Director: Gillian Armstrong (credited as Gill Armstrong)
A Small Circle of Friends--$0.8 million/111/NA/NA--This romantic drama, set during the turbulent late 60s, concerns two Harvard students (Brad Davis and Jameson Parker) and their relationship with their friend Karen Allen. Also appearing in smaller roles are Shelley Long, in her first movie, and Daniel Stern, in his third. This also marked the directorial debut of Rob Cohen, whose future movies would, in general, be radically different from this one.
Director: Rob Cohen
May 16, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
The Hollywood Knights--$10 million/61/17%/NA--This lowbrow comedy about the antics of a group of high schoolers over the course of one night in 1965 is best remembered these days for being the film debut of Michelle Pfeiffer, as well as the first film of then-Taxi star Tony Danza, who played Pfeiffer's boyfriend, and stand-up comic Robert Wuhl, who played the gang's leader. It also marks an early film appearance for Fran Drescher, who played a girl Wuhl picked up.
Director: Floyd Mutrux
The Long Riders--$15.8 million/45/83%/64--If you're going to make a western about the brother-filled James Gang, it makes sense to hire actual brothers. So this western starred James and Stacy Keach as Jessie and Frank James, David, Keith, and Robert Carradine as the Youngers, Randy and Dennis Quaid as the Millers, and Christopher and Nicolas Guest as the Fords. Despite the obvious gimmick, the film was very well received and became a minor hit.
Director: Walter Hill
New Limited Releases:
Die Laughing--NA/NA/NA/NA--This largely forgotten vehicle for young heartthrob Robbie Benson casts him as a taxi driver who is framed for the murder of a prominent scientist. Given that he has the scientist's materials (and monkey), he has to stay one step ahead of the bad guys (including Bud Cort) to clear his name. Even though Benson was coming off the popular Ice Castles, this one ended up being more or less dumped. The film was the debut of Peter Coyote, and also co-starred Charles Durning and, in her final role, Elsa Lanchester.
Director: Jeff Werner
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