Here it is! We're finally caught up! After this week, we'll be only covering one week at a time, which means these columns will, from here on, be half as long--and take half the time to write (that's what I'm excited about).
Now, let's see what June was busting out all over at the nations theaters (mostly movies involving Christian Bale).
One Year Ago--June 7, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
The Secret Life of Pets 2--1/$46.7 million/$158.9 million/18/60%/55--With the exception of Toy Story 4, June 2019 was brutal to every sequel that opened during it (or, in the case of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the day before it). The Secret Life of Pets 2 fared a bit better than the others, in that it had some decent legs. But it still ended up making less than half of its 2016 predecessor, which was probably that summer's most unexpected megablockbuster. Patton Oswalt took over for the disgraced Louis C.K. as the voice of Max, a dog who, early in the movie, gets shipped off to a farm where he comes under the tough-but-fair tutelage of Harrison Ford's veteran sheepdog. Meanwhile, back in the city, one dog (Jenny Slate) is trying to retrieve a toy from an apartment full of cats, while Kevin Hart's psycho rabbit and Tiffany Haddish's shih tzu try to save a rare white tiger cub from a cruel circus. Unlike the original, none of these stories really strongly connected together, leaving this feeling more like a series of vignettes than a coherent whole.
Director: Chris Renaud and Jonathan del Val
Dark Phoenix--2/$32.8 million/$65.9 million/44/23%/43--Speaking of disastrous sequels, the 19-year X-Men theatrical run reached an ignoble end with this attempt to retell the Dark Phoenix saga that was botched thoroughly in X-Men: The Last Stand back in 2006, only to manage to botch it even more. Sophie Turner starred as the psychic and telekinetic Jean Grey, whose powers begin to become uncontrollable. Jessica Chastain played an alien who initially seemed friendly, but soon revealed darker motives. Poor reviews and a feeling that the franchise had wrapped up just fine with Logan in 2017 (give or take a Deadpool) caused this to be one of the summer's biggest bombs.
Director: Simon Kinberg
New Limited Releases:
Bharat--$3 million/166/33%/NA--This epic Bollywood drama spans the years 1947 to 2010, telling the story of the life of one ordinary man as he tries to keep his family together through the ever-turbulent history of modern India. The film was poorly received by critics, but did well on the Bollywood circuit.
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Late Night--$15.5 million/109/80%/70--Emma Thompson is the host of a long-running late night talk show which is running on fumes. In an attempt to revitalize the show, she hires Mindy Kaling (who also wrote the script) to be a new writer, despite Kaling's lack of experience. After a rocky start, Kaling's ideas do seem to be working. John Lithgow played Thompson's husband. The film got good reviews out of Sundance, and did OK business, though it probably would have done better outside of summer.
Director: Nisha Ganatra
June 14, 2020:
New Wide Releases:
Men in Black International--1/$30 million/$80 million/36/23%/38--It now seems clear that trying to keep Will Smith franchises going without Will Smith--or at least Will Smith franchises involving aliens going without Will Smith--is a loser's bet. Three years after the Smithless Independence Day: Resurgence crashed and burned, Men in Black International also bombed, even though it substituted in Thor and Valkyrie (Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson). Thompson played a new recruit who more or less forces her way into becoming a woman in black. For her first assignment, she is assigned to London, where she teams with Hemsworth, who used to be the best of the best of the best, but has been on a steep decline lately. After an alien royal is assassinated on their watch, they become the prime suspects, and have to go on the run. Liam Neeson played the head of the London branch, while Emma Thompson reprised her role from MIB III as the head of the organization.
Director: F. Gary Gray
Shaft--6/$8.9 million/$21.4 million/99/32%/40--The third movie in a five-film series to just be called Shaft, this remake/reboot/sequel starred Jessie T. Usher as the newest generation of the family, an MIT grad and FBI agent who reluctantly turns to his black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks father (Samuel L. Jackson) and later, his grandfather (Richard Roundtree) for help in investigating the murder of his childhood best friend. Long belated sequels rarely do very well, and this proved to be no exception.
Director: Tim Story
New Limited Releases:
The Dead Don't Die--$6.6 million/130/55%/53--Director Jim Jarmusch has a rather eccentric filmography, so the idea of him doing a very meta zombie invasion comedy isn't completely out of left field for him, even if its not exactly what fans of the director would ever expect. He recruited his usual fine cast, including Bill Murray, Adam Driver, and Chloe Sevigny as the cops who grasp pretty quickly that the zombie apocalypse has started, with Steve Buscemi as a local farmer, Tilda Swinton as the new mortician, Tom Waits as a local hermit, Rosie Perez as a news reporter, and Carol Kane as a zombie. The talent didn't really impress critics, who rated this among the lesser of Jarmusch's efforts, and it didn't really attract much of an audience, either.
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Expanding:
Late Night--9/$5.3 million
Five Years Ago--June 5, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
Spy--1/$29.1 million/$110.8 million/27/95%/75--The team of Melissa McCarthy and director Paul Fieg teamed up for the third time with this action comedy about a deskbound CIA agent (McCarthy) who finally gets a chance to do some field work, going undercover to track down an arms dealer (Rose Byrne) who has terrorist connections. Allison Janey played her boss, Jude Law played another agent, and Jason Statham nicely sent up about 90% of his own movie work playing a super macho agent who refuses to believe McCarthy isn't completely over her head.
Director: Paul Feig
Insidious: Chapter 3--3/$22.7 million/$52.2 million/57/57%/52--After Insidious: Chapter 2 ended up overperforming in the fall of 2013, Focus scheduled this in the summer. While the film did OK, it was well below Chapter 2. The next installment opened in January. This one is a prequel to the first two, with demonologist Lin Shaye attempting to help a teenage girl who is being haunted. Dermot Mulroney played the girl's father.
Director: Leigh Whannell
Entourage--4/$10.3 million/$32.4 million/80/33%/38--With Sex and the City, HBO's series and movies about a quartet of women living in New York, over and done with, the network tried to turn its series about a quartet of men living in Los Angeles into its next movie franchise. Movie star Adrian Grenier is directing his first film, and is having trouble getting the film's father and son financiers (Billy Bob Thornton and Haley Joel Osmet) to give him more money to complete the film. Hijinks ensure. Despite the return of the series's cast and a raftload of cameos, the fact the series had been largely forgotten since it ended in 2011 helped account for the movie version being a dismal failure.
Director: Doug Ellin
New Limited Releases:
Love & Mercy--$12.6 million/118/90%/80--This well-received, if unconventional biopic of Beach Boy Brian Wilson jumps back and forth between the 60s and the 80s, with the 60s segments detailing Wilson (Paul Dano) completing Pet Sounds and beginning to struggle with mental illness, and the 80s segments focusing on how Wilson's (John Cusack) girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) realizing that his therapist (Paul Giamatti) was a dangerous quack.
Director: Bill Pohlad
Dil Dhadakne Do--$3.1 million/165/64%/NA--This all-Bollywood star comedy-drama followed a somewhat dysfunctional family as they take a 10-day cruise to celebrate the parents' 30th anniversary. Among the actors that Americans might recognize are Anil Kooper, as the family patriarch, and Priyanka Chopra, as their daughter.
Director: Zoya Akhtar
June 12, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
Jurassic World--1/$208.8 million/$652.3 million/2/70%/59--Briefly holding the record for the biggest opening weekend of all time, until the force woke up at Christmas, this sequel to the original Jurassic Park (that largely ignored the events in the second and third films) takes place at a fully-functioning theme park--at least until the latest genetic wonder dinosaur escapes and starts eating every person in sight. Its up to raptor handler Chris Pratt and corporate bigwig Bryce Dallas Howard to evacuate the park and take down the dinosaur, with Vincent D'Onofrio as the sinister head of park security, who has an idea for the dinosaurs beyond simply zoo animals, and B.D. Wong, the only cast member returning from the first film, as the geneticist responsible for the rebirth of the creatures. While expected to be a huge hit, no one was expecting it to be this massive. A sequel followed in 2018.
Director: Colin Trevorrow
New Limited Releases:
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl--$6.8 million/141/81%/74--Despite strong reviews out of Sundance, this comedy-drama about two teenagers (Thomas Mann and RJ Cyler) who befriend one of their classmates (Olivia Cooke) after she is diagnosed with leukemia underperformed at the box office. Nick Offerman and Connie Britton played Mann's parents and Molly Shannon played Cooke's mother.
Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Expanding:
Love & Mercy--10/$1.7 million
Ten Years Ago--June 4, 2010:
#1 Movie:
Shrek Forever After--$25.5 million
New Wide Releases:
Get Him to the Greek--2/$17.6 million/$61 million/54/72%/65--Ahhh...the late aughts/early teens, when a great deal of time and money were expended to make Russell Brand into a movie star. In this comedy, a semi-sequel to Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Brand's drugged out rock star character from that film has a concert at the Greek Theater in LA, and it's up to record company lackey Jonah Hill (playing a different character than he played in Sarah Marshall) to get him from London to California in time for his performance, a task easier said than done. This one has a truly impressive cast, including Elisabeth Moss as Hill's girlfriend, Rose Byrne as Brand's ex, and a number of famous musicians, including Pink, Lars Ulrich, Christina Aguilera, and Pharrell Williams. Despite the good cast and good reviews, this one underperformed.
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Killers--3/$15.8 million/$47.1 million/69/10%/21--Essentially John Wick: The Romantic Comedy, this starred Ashton Kutcher as a retired assassin and Katherine Heigl as his wife, who has no idea of his former career. When his former boss (Martin Mull) orders him to do another job, they discover that seemingly everyone they know is also an assassin--and wants them dead. Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara played her parents. Of course, the biggest difference between this and the later John Wick films is that those films are actually good.
Director: Robert Luketic
Marmaduke--6/$11.6 million/$33.6 million/86/9%/30--Marmaduke, the long-running, not-exactly-beloved comic strip about a giant, friendly Great Dane and his humans, seemed like an odd choice to be adapted into a live-action movie, but here we are. Lee Pace and Judy Greer played Marmaduke's owners, with William H. Macy as Pace's eccentric boss, but the real talent was in the voice cast, which included Owen Wilson as Marmy, as well as Emma Stone, George Lopez, Kiefer Sutherland, Damon Wayans, Jr., and Sam Elliott. As it was based on a not-beloved comic strip and got poor reviews, it became a not-beloved--or even much seen--movie.
Director: Tom Dey
Splice--8/$7.4 million/$17 million/76%/66--In this sci-fi horror film that didn't become the cult film it seemed destined to be, Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play genetic scientists who secretly splice human and animal DNA into a new creature that rapidly grows and becomes more intelligent--and more dangerous.
Director: Vincenzo Natali
June 11, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
The Karate Kid--1/$55.7 million/$176.6 million/11/66%/61--One of the summer's more surprising smash hits, this remake of the 1984 drama (itself an unexpected smash) starred then 11-year-old Jaden Smith as an American kid who moves with his mother (Taraji P. Henson) to China, where, after coming under attack by the neighborhood bullies, begins learning martial arts from his building's handyman (Jackie Chan) who, since he's played by Jackie Chan, is a master. Despite the title, the film doesn't actually feature any karate, which is a Japanese discipline. Though there was naturally talk of a sequel, one never materialized.
Director: Harald Zwart
The A-Team--2/$25.7 million/$77.2 million/44/48%/47--The weekend's other 80s rehash was this disappointing adaption of the old action show about four vets who go underground as solders of fortune while being sought by the government for a crime they didn't commit. The remake, which serves as the origin story, updates the war from Vietnam to Iraq and has the team (Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlito Copley, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson) trying to track down the bad guys (including Patrick Wilson) who had them framed. Clearly meant to start a franchise, instead the failure of the film ensured that this would be a one-and-done.
Director: Joe Carnahan
New Limited Releases:
Winter's Bone--$6.5 million/143/94%/90--19-year-old Jennifer Lawrence, whose last role had been playing one of the kids on the family sitcom The Bill Engvall Show, did not emerge from this film a superstar. But she did get her first Oscar nomination for this film, and her performance led to her casting as Katness in The Hunger Games, which did make her a superstar. She played a girl in the rural Missouri Ozarks who is searching for her missing father, since her family will lose their house if he does not show up for his court date. Her investigation leads to the local crime family, who is not willing to help. Veteran character actor John Hawkes also was nominated for playing her uncle, who protects her the best he can as she is forced to get deeper into the crime family. The film was also nominated for Picture and Adapted Screenplay.
Director: Debra Granik
Fifteen Years Ago--June 10, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
Mr. & Mrs. Smith--1/$50.3 million/$186.3 million/10/60%/55--In the movie that launched a thousand tabloid articles, soon-to-be-married couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie played a married couple, each of whom is a world-class assassin, and each of whom has no idea that their spouse is also a world-class assassin. Their secret lives come out when their agencies hire them to each kill the same target--and then each other. The film was highly anticipated because of the drama surrounding the stars' personal lives, and proved to be a big hit, even if critics were largely left cold. Vince Vaughn and Kerry Washington co-starred and Pitt's and Jolie's associates, respectively.
Director: Doug Liman
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl--5/$12.5 million/$39.2 million/70/19%/38--With the Spy Kids series having run out of steam, director Robert Rodriguez attempted to launch a new family film series, using a story created by his 6-year-old son as the template. There's a reason studios usually don't hire first graders to be screenwriters. The film is about a young boy (Cayden Boyd) who has to help save the fantasyland he created from its evil ruler (George Lopez, who also played Boyd's teacher), with the help of the titular duo (13-year-old Taylor Lautner and Taylor Dooley). David Arquette and Kristin Davis played Boyd's neglectful parents. To say the film made little sense puts it mildly, and the decision to make it in 3D (before the current 3D technology had been perfected) also came under criticism.
Director: Robert Rodriguez
The Honeymooners--8/$5.5 million/$12.8 million/135/13%/31--Cedric the Entertainer attempted to fill Jackie Gleason's rather large shoes in this update of the classic sitcom. Cedric played Ralph Kramdem, a bus driver in New York City who is constantly falling for get-rich-quick schemes along with his best friend Ed (Mike Epps), to the disapproval of their wives Alice (Gabrielle Union) and Trixie (Regina Hall). Poor reviews and the fact that a Honeymooners move in 2005 seemed awfully irrelevant helped to sink this one.
Director: John Schultz
High Tension--10/$1.9 million/$3.7 million/175/41%/42--This gory French horror film is one of the few films originally produced in a foreign language to get a wide release out of the gate in the US, albeit dubbed into English. Dubbed or not, the thriller, about a teenage girl (Cecile de France) attempting to survive the slaughter of her friend's family at an isolated country house was notable only for the extreme amount of violence and its nonsensical twist ending.
Director: Alexandre Aja
New Limited Releases:
Howl's Moving Castle--$4.7 million/167/87%/80--Hayao Miyazaki's first film since winning the Oscar for Spirited Away was considered a bit of a letdown after the one-two punch of Spirited and Princess Mononoke, but even a less well-received Miyazaki film mostly gets exemplary reviews and an Animated Feature Oscar nomination. The story, inspired in part by the Iraq War, followed a young woman who, shortly after meeting a wizard, is transformed into an old woman by a witch. Finding the wizard's castle, she climbs aboard and joins in their adventures as the wizard, in his own way, tries to contribute to the war that is raging in the country. The English dub had an impressive voice cast, including Christian Bale, Emily Mortimer, Jean Simmons, Lauren Bacall, and Billy Crystal.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
June 17, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
Batman Begins--1/$48.8 million/$205.3 million/8/84%/70--It took 8 years for the stain of Batman and Robin to fade before Warner Bros. decided to reboot the franchise. Christian Bale took on the title role, playing a driftless Bruce Wayne who, after receiving training from the mysterious League of Shadows and his mentor (Liam Neeson) returns to Gotham to pretend to be a billionaire playboy by day and a bat-themed vigilante by night. This has an impressive cast, including Michael Caine as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Tom Wilkinson as a local mobster, Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow, and Katie Holmes as Bruce Wayne's now-grown childhood friend, who works for the DA. Despite raves, this one underperformed somewhat, as audiences were still a bit wary of the Batman franchise. The next entry, in three years, wouldn't. The film received one Oscar nomination, for its cinematography.
Director: Christopher Nolan
The Perfect Man--8/$5.3 million/$16.5 million/128/6%/27--In this romcom that seems to have wandered off of Lifetime and into theaters, Hilary Duff played a teenager whose mom (Heather Locklear) moves every time she breaks up with her latest boyfriend. To stay in one place for once, she invents a secret admirer for her mom. Chris Noth played the uncle of a classmate who Duff patterns her "perfect man" on. Opening to awful reviews and box office, this one probably would have been better off on Lifetime.
Director: Mark Rosman
Twenty Years Ago--June 9, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Gone in 60 Seconds--1/$25.3 million/$101.7 million/22/25%/35--This slick, expensive loose remake of the much lower-budgeted drive-in staple from the 70s starred Nicolas Cage as a retired master car thief who has to come back for "one last score"--specifically heisting 50 luxury cars in one night to save Cage's brother (Giovanni Ribisi) from a gangster (Christoper Eccleston). Robert Duvall played Cage's car stealing mentor, and Angelina Jolie, in her first movie released since winning the Oscar, played a member of Cage's team. Critics liked the various car chase scenes, but found the rest of the production to be rather empty.
Director: Dominic Sena
June 16, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Shaft--1/$21.7 million/$70.3 million/33/67%/50--Almost exactly 19 years before the latest remake/reboot/sequel of Shaft flopped hard came this remake/reboot/sequel that did considerably better than Shaft '19, but was still a disappointment, which explains why this planned franchise starter had to wait 19 years for the next installment. Samuel L. Jackson played NYPD detective John Shaft, who in this version is the nephew of the original (Richard Roundtree). After the chief suspect in the murder of Shaft's friend, a rich son of a real estate developer (Christian Bale), is granted bail despite having previously fled the country, Shaft resigns and vows to take him down, as well as the drug lord (Jeffrey Wright) that Bale hired for protection. Vanessa Williams played a fellow detective, and Toni Collette played an eyewitness to the original murder.
Director: John Singleton
Titan A.E.--5/$9.4 million/$22.8 million/92/51%/48--In this very expensive animated flop that both ended 20th Century Fox's attempts to compete with Disney and Don Bluth's directorial career, Matt Damon voiced one of the few survivors of Earth's destruction, who learns he possesses the map that can lead to a spaceship that might be humanity's last hope of survival. Among other voices were Drew Barrymore, Bill Pullman, and John Leguizamo. Critics admired the animation but found the story derivative, and audiences, who weren't used to Disney-looking animated sci-fi epics, avoided it in droves, leading to the closure of Fox's animation studio.
Director: Don Bluth and Gary Goldman
Boys and Girls--6/$7 million/$21.8 million/94/11%/29--In this utterly forgettable romcom, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Claire Forlani play college students who, despite a rocky history, become friends, and then sleep together, which ruins everything--until, of course, it doesn't. Jason Biggs, in the first of two flop romcoms he was in that summer, played Prinze's best friend, and Alyson Hannigan played Prinze's ex.
Director: Robert Iscove
Expanding:
Fantasia 2000--11/$2.9 million
Twenty-Five Years Ago--June 9, 1995:
New Wide Releases:
Congo--1/$24.6 million/$81 million/16/22%/22--Thanks to the success of Jurassic Park, adaptions of Michael Crichton novels became a common sight at multiplexes through the rest of the decade, including this take on his 1980 novel about diamonds and mysterious gorillas deep in the African jungle. Laura Linney, in her first lead role in a movie, played an electronics expert for a communications company that leads an expedition to find out what happened to the members of an earlier expedition, which was hunting for rare diamonds. Dylan Walsh played a primatologist who is returning his intelligent gorilla, who knows sign language, back to her birthplace. Ernie Hudson played the mercenary hired to lead the expedition, and Tim Curry played a mysterious benefactor who has his own agenda. Critics scoffed at the story, but audiences enjoyed it, turning the film into a minor hit.
Director: Frank Marshall
June 16, 1995:
New Wide Releases:
Batman Forever--1/$52.8 million/$184 million/2/39%/51--Joel Schumacher took over for director Tim Burton, and Val Kilmer took over for Michael Keaton in the third entry in the series, one that proved far more colorful than Burton's much darker take. Gotham is menaced by both former District Attorney Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) who went criminally insane after an attack left half of his head mangled and scarred, and by inventor Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey) whose grudge against Bruce Wayne leads him to adopt the supervillian identity of The Riddler as they use his invention to steal all of Gotham's confidential information--including the true identity of Batman. Nicole Kidman played Bruce's new, Batman-obsessed girlfriend, and Chris O'Donnell joined the cast as Dick Grayson, who becomes Robin. Despite the mixed reviews, this improved on the gross of Batman Returns, and was the summer's top movie.
Director: Joel Schumacher
Pocahontas--8/$2.7 million/$141.6 million/4/55%/58--Such was the power of Disney animation that its latest made the Top 10, despite opening in only 6 theaters in New York and LA (the wide release would come the following weekend). Alas, after the run from The Little Mermaid through The Lion King, critics found Pocahontas to be rather flat, and of course the story of a Native American princess (Irene Bedard) who saves an English settler (Mel Gibson) wasn't even close to historically accurate. Still, critics like the music (even if it, too, was a comedown from previous efforts) and this became one of the biggest movies of the year, even if it grossed less than half of what The Lion King had made the previous summer. The song "Colors of the Wind" would win an Oscar, as would the Score. Among the other voices are Russell Means, Linda Hunt, David Ogden Stiers, and Christian Bale.
Director: Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg
New Limited Releases:
The Postman (Il Postino)--$21.9 million/77/93%/81--Miramax savvyily marketed this gentle Italian drama, about the friendship between a simple mailman (Massimo Troisi) and the exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret) who is exiled onto Troisi's island, and how the poet helped Troisi woo his girlfriend. Much was made of the fact that Troisi postponed necessary heart surgery until after he finished the film, only to die the day after principal photography wrapped. That helped turn the film into the highest-grossing foreign language film in the US up to that time. The film would receive 5 Oscar nominations, including Picture, a posthumous Actor nod for Troisi, Director for Michael Radford and Adapted Screenplay. It would win Dramatic Score, in a bit of coincidence, as Comedy/Musical Score winner Pocahontas also opened this weekend.
Director: Michael Radford
Thirty Years Ago--June 8, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Another 48 HRS.--1/$19.5 million/$80.8 million/14/18%/23--Eddie Murphy was so popular in 1990 that this utterly forgotten sequel to his breakout hit in 1982 was one of the biggest hits of the summer, and also significantly outgrossed his better remembered (if not better reviewed) Harlem Nights from the previous Thanksgiving. Murphy once again teams with Nick Nolte as a recently paroled convict and a tough cop respectively who are forced to team up again when a drug kingpin comes after both of them. Even with Walter Hill back as director, the film was considered a mess.
Director: Walter Hill
June 15, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Dick Tracy--1/$22.5 million/$103.7 million/9/62%/68--Probably the most hyped movie of the summer of 1990, Disney convinced themselves that Warren Beatty's colorful take on the classic comic strip detective would be the second coming of Batman. Although it did well, it didn't come close to Tim Burton's comic adapiton of the previous summer. Beatty plays Tracy, the nameless city's top detective, as he works to bring down crime boss Al Pacino (like most of the cast, under a ton of makeup), while finding himself drawn to torch singer Madonna, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend Glenn Headly. The film is filled with numerous cameos, including Charles Durning, Mandy Patinkin, Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Dick Van Dyke, Catherine O'Hara, James Caan, and Beatty's Bonnie & Clyde co-stars Michael J. Pollard and Estelle Parsons. Understandably, the film's style caught the attention of the Academy, which awarded it three Oscars, for Art Direction, Makeup, and Original Song for Stephen Sondheim's "Sooner or Later". The film was also nominated for Pacino's Supporting performance, as well as its Cinematography, Costumes, and Sound.
Director: Warren Beatty
Gremlins 2: The New Batch--4/$9.7 million/$41.5 million/31/69%/NA--Trading the original's scares and violence for jokes--lots and lots and lots of jokes--this much more comedic sequel has Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates living in Manhattan, where they work in a new high-tech skyscraper. They are reunited with cute mogwai Gizmo, who of course gets wet, and his offspring of course eat after midnight, meaning the building is soon overrun with gremlins. John Glover has a ball playing the building's owner, a cross between Ted Turner and (shudder) Donald Trump (shudder), and Gremlins vets Dick Miller and Jackie Joseph also turn up in New York, reluctantly having to battle the creatures again. Critics weren't sure what to make of the more lighthearted followup, which ended up vastly underperforming at the box office.
Director: Joe Dante (Chuck Jones directed the animated bookends)
The Adventures of Milo and Otis--8/$1.7 million/$10.4 million/99/80%/NA--This family comedy, edited from a 1986 Japanese movie with new English narration by Dudley Moore, tells the story of cute kitten Milo and cute puppy Otis as they become friends on their farm, getting into lots of trouble. Its a pretty cute movie, as long as you don't look into the film's backstory. This actually had a somewhat successful limited release in late 1989, where it earned $3 million, but with a lack of movies aimed at kids that summer, Columbia gave it a re-release.
Director: Masanori Hata
Thirty-Five Years Ago--June 7, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Rambo: First Blood Part II--$10.2 million
New Wide Releases:
The Goonies--2/$9.1 million/$61.4 million/9/75%/62--Steven Spielberg didn't direct a movie that came out the summer of 1985, but his fingerprints were still all over the multiplexes, as he produced two of the season's biggest hits, both of which are still fondly remembered. The first out of the gate was this kiddie variation of his own Indiana Jones series, in which four middle schoolers (Sean Astin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Ke Huy Quan), the older brother of one of them (Josh Brolin), and his two friends (Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton) follow a treasure map below their Oregon coastal town, while a family of criminals (Anne Ramsey, Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano) pursue them. Because the film's continued popularity, a sequel has been rumored to be in the works almost since the day this was released, but so far, nothing has emerged.
Director: Richard Donner
Perfect--4/$4.2 million/$12.9 million/67/19%/46--In this ironically titled drama, which re-teamed John Travolta with his Urban Cowboy director James Bridges, he played a Rolling Stone reporter who decides to write an expose on that hard-hitting topic of fitness clubs and the dating scene within. Jamie Lee Curtis played a workout leader who doesn't trust reporters but falls for Travolta anyway. Marilu Henner and Laraine Newman probably deserved better as a couple of gym patrons who were quite active in pursuing their fellow club members. The weirdest thing about the film is that it cast Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner as the editor of Rolling Stone, except he wasn't playing himself. Travolta wouldn't star in another movie until 1989.
Director: James Bridges
June 14, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Rambo: First Blood Part II--$9.2 million
New Wide Releases:
Prizzi's Honor--4/$4.2 million/$26.7 million/32/86%/84--Probably the most acclaimed movie of the summer, this mob comedy starred Jack Nicholson as a hitman who becomes infatuated with a woman (Kathleen Turner) he meets at a wedding, only to discover that he just murdered her husband, that she may be on the scheme that let to the whacking, and she's a hitwoman herself. Of course, they still get married, which becomes problematic after they're each hired to kill the other. Anjelica Huston, the daughter of director John Huston and at the time the real-life longtime girlfriend of Nicholson, played his vengeful ex, with William Hickey as the don and Robert Loggia as one of his sons. The film would earn 8 Oscar nominations, including Picture, Actor for Nicholson, Supporting Actor for Hickey, Director for the elder Huston (his first in that category in over 30 years), Adapted Screenplay, Costumes, and Editing. The younger Huston would win for Best Supporting Actress.
Director: John Huston
D.A.R.Y.L.--7/$2.7 million/$7.8 million/99/53%/NA--A couple (Mary Beth Hurt, Michael McKean) agree to foster a young boy (busy 80s child actor Barret Oliver) who has amnesia. After displaying a number of extraordinary abilities, it turns out that the kid is an escaped military robot--and the government wants him back. Critics were not kind to the movie, and audiences much preferred The Goonies, the other kid-centric adventure film in wide release at the time.
Director: Simon Wincer
Secret Admirer--9/$2.4 million/$8.6 million/95/30%/46--An anonymous love letter left in the locker of a high school kid (C. Thomas Howell) leads to all sorts of wacky hijinks in this relatively tame sex comedy. Howell is convinced the letter is from his longtime crush (Kelly Preston) and recruits his best friend (future jailbird Lori Loughlin) to deliver an anonymous response of his own. Meanwhile, both Howell's parents (Dee Wallace Stone and Cliff DeYoung) and Preston's parents (Leigh Taylor-Young and Fred Ward) come across the letters and become convinced that their spouses are having or pursuing affairs. Critics didn't find much to admire about the film, and audiences decided to leave the contents a secret to themselves.
Director: David Greenwalt
Forty Years Ago--June 6, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
Up the Academy--NA/NA/0%/29--After National Lampoon's successful foray into movie producing with Animal House, it was natural that the nation's leading humor magazine, Mad, would want their own movie. However, this comedy was a miscalculation from the start. For starters, unlike National Lampoon, which was aimed and college students and young adults, Mad was popular with elementary and middle school kids, so making an R-rated film cut off much of the magazine's audience. Of course, if the film was good, that would have been forgivable. It wasn't. Concerning the hijinks of a group of recruits (including Ralph Macchio, in his film debut) at a military academy, the film was disowned by co-star Rob Liebman, who played the academy's commanding officer. He had his name taken off the credits. So, ultimately, did Mad itself, which paid to have all references to the magazine (including a statue of mascot Alfred E. Neuman) cut from the film's original home video release (the theatrical cut has since been released on DVD). A young Robert Downey, Jr., the son of the film's director, can be seen as an extra.
Director: Robert Downey, Sr.
New Limited Releases:
Kill or Be Killed--NA/NA/NA/NA--This martial arts movie took its time to get to the US, having been originally released in South Africa in 1976. South African martial artist James Ryan is recruited by what turns out to be a former Nazi to join his team for what would turn out to be a brutal competition. Ryan escapes, but after his girlfriend is kidnapped, he joins the other team. This proved popular enough in the US that a sequel came out in 1981.
Director: Ivan Hall
Urban Cowboy--$46.9 million/13/70%/61--Despite John Travolta being near the height of his career, his last film, the ill-fated romantic drama Moment by Moment, had flopped hard, which is perhaps why Paramount decided to give this film a limited release in Southern markets ahead of its nationwide release. They needn't have worried. Travolta played a oil refinery worker who spends his evenings at a large country bar, complete with a mechanical bull. There he meets and eventually marries Debra Winger, but their marriage is a volatile one, especially when former convict Scott Glenn enters the picture. While not soaring to the heights of Grease or Saturday Night Fever, the film was still a strong performer.
Director: James Bridges
June 13, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
Bronco Billy--$24.3 million/26/75%/66--Not a huge hit by Clint Eastwood's standards at the time, this low-key comedy about a money-losing, traveling Wild West show still turned a nice profit. Eastwood, who also directed, played the title character, the star and owner of the show who takes on a new assistant (his then real-life girlfriend Sondra Locke) who is escaping from her greedy husband and family members. Scatman Crothers, who was in two new movies that weekend, played a member of the troupe.
Director: Clint Eastwood
The Island--$15.7 million/46/40%/NA--This rather silly thriller, based on a book by Jaws novelist Peter Benchley, starred Michael Caine as a journalist investigating the Bermuda Triangle, who is captured and taken to the titular island, which has housed a secret band of pirates for centuries. Caine would return to the Caribbean in another movie derived from a Benchley novel, when he co-starred in Jaws: The Revenge. If anything, that went worse than this one.
Director: Michael Ritchie
Mary Poppins--$14 million/54/100%/88--Disney's beloved 1964 musical adaption of the P.L. Travers novels (well, beloved by everyone but P.L. Travers) got a successful re-release for the summer of 1980. Julie Andrews, who cornered the singing nanny market of the mid-60s between this and 1965's even more successful The Sound of Music, won an Oscar for playing the title character, one of five the film picked up (it also won for Editing, Visual Effects, Score, and Song, for "Chim Chim Cher-ee", which isn't even the best song in the movie). In recent years, the movie was adapted into a Broadway musical, the making of the film itself was turned into the drama Saving Mr. Banks (with Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney) and Mary got a 54-year-later sequel, Mary Poppins Returns (with Emily Blunt taking over the role) in 2018.
Director: Robert Stevenson
Roadie--$4.2 million/86/14%/NA--Rock musician Meat Loaf had dabbled in acting before (most notably playing the doomed Eddie the Delivery Boy in The Rocky Horror Picture Show), but somewhat ironically for his first lead performance, he doesn't sing, despite playing a roadie who encounters numerous real-life rock stars. The film featured cameos from Blondie, Hank Williams, Jr., Asleep at the Wheel, Roy Orbison, and Alice Cooper, as well as from Art Carney, playing Meat Loaf's father. Although he soon went back to music, he still dabbles in acting, most notably playing a enthusiastic member of Fight Club.
Director: Alan Rudolph
The Shining--$44 million/14/85%/66--Regarded today by nearly everyone outside of Stephen King as a horror masterpiece, it can be startling to remember that when the film was released, it got largely mixed reviews, as critics quibbled with the film's length, slow pace, and the performances of Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. Indeed, while it is almost certainly the most widely seen film directed by Stanley Kubrick, it would be his first film since Paths of Glory to receive no Oscar nominations. Nicholson played the newly hired winter caretaker at a large hotel in Colorado, whose plans for a few months of writing goes awry when his alcoholism and the hotel's many vengeful ghosts converge. Scatman Crothers, in his other movie of the weekend, played a hotel cook who sensed danger (and whose fate was very different than that in King's novel). It was followed up by a much-later sequel in 2019, Doctor Sleep, that actually managed to do less business in 2019 money than it did in 1980 money.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Wholly Moses!--$14.2 million/53/14%/NA--In this largely forgotten Biblical parody, which probably has more cameo appearances than laughs, Dudley Moore played the guy actually called on by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, only to have Moses get all the credit. Among the guest stars are Laraine Newman, James Coco, Dom DeLuise, John Houseman, Madeline Kahn, John Ritter, and Richard Pryor (whose accidental burning occurred a few days before the film's release).
Director: Gary Weis
Expanding:
Urban Cowboy
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