One Year Ago--May 24, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Aladdin--1/$91.5 million/$355.6 million/8/57%/53--Hopes that, after Dumbo, audiences were getting tired of seeing Disney mine its back catalog were largely dashed when this live-action retelling of the beloved 1992 animated feature exceeded expectations. Will Smith put his own spin on the Genie (if not making anyone forget Robin Williams), and the filmmakers deserve credit for casting actors of Middle Eastern decent in the rest of the major roles (including Egyptian native Mena Massoud as the title character and Naomi Scott, an actress of Indian decent, as Jasmine). But the rest of the production, directed for some reason by Guy Ritchie, stuck very closely to the animated film. The result was a watchable, but not much more than that, film.
Director: Guy Ritchie
Brightburn--5/$7.9 million/$17.3 million/105/57%/44--Childless couple Elizabeth Banks and David Denman discover some sort of space pod has crashed on their farm, with a baby inside. Adopting the child, they raise him until, as a pre-teen, he begins to manifest strange powers. So far, so Superman. But in this horror flick, instead of growing up to stand for truth, justice, and the American way, the young alien decides to indulge his baser impulses, using his newfound abilities to extract gruesome revenge on everyone who has wronged him, or at least who he think has wronged him. Positioned to be a possible sleeper and/or cult movie, it didn't make much impact at the box office, and has largely been forgotten a year later.
Director: David Yarovesky
Booksmart--6/$6.9 million/$22.7 million/93/97%/84--The weekend's other movie with a one compound word title beginning with B that hoped to be a sleeper hit and/or cult movie also disappointed at the box office. But thanks to terrific reviews, it's much better positioned to attract a large cult following. The summer's first riff on Superbad, this comedy starred Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein (Superbad star Jonah Hill's real-life sister) as two friends who, after having sacrificed a social life for good grades and college scholarships, decide that graduation night will be a night of debauchery. The supporting cast includes Jason Sudeikis as the school principal and Will Forte and Lisa Kudrow as Dever's parents.
Director: Olivia Wilde
May 31, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Godzilla: King of the Monsters--1/$47.8 million/$110.5 million/26/42%/48--2014's Godzilla reboot proved to be a critical and commercial success, but no one seemed much interested in the sequel, which sees Godzilla doing battle with several of his traditional enemies, including Rodan and Ghidorah. There are humans in this, including Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler, and Millie Bobbie Brown, but mostly, what the the way-overqualified cast is called on to do is to stare in wonder and/or horror at the giant monster fights while being shaken around on the hydraulic sets (seriously, the film also stars Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, and David Strathairn, hopefully all of whom picked up big paychecks). The disappointing gross for this film proves again that pre-manufactured cinematic universes are a huge risk, as Godzilla vs. Kong was already in production when this came out.
Director: Michael Dougherty
Rocketman--3/$25.7 million/$96.4 million/33/89%/69--The second biopic of a queer groundbreaking British pop star of the 70s named after one of their most famous songs directed by Dexter Fletcher to come out in 7 months, this look at the early days in the career of Elton John (played by Taron Egerton) probably suffered boxoffice-wise in comparison to Bohemian Rhapsody (which Fletcher took over after Bryan Singer was fired) from the increased competition, the more fantasy-driven plotline, the more explicit gay content, and the R rating. In addition, even though Rhapsody was an Oscar darling, the better received Rocketman only got a single nod, for its original song "I'm Gonna Love Me Again", which would win John his second Oscar (and longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin his first).
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Ma--4/$18.1 million/$45.9 million/59/55%/53--Octavia Spencer, in an all-too-rare leading role, re-teamed with her The Help director Tate Taylor for this rather campy thriller, in which Spencer allows a group of local teens to host parties in her basement, only to become more and more creepily involved in their lives. Juliette Lewis and Luke Evans play a couple of the partying teens' parents, who might just have a history with Spencer, and Alison Janey, another Help vet, played Spencer's boss. Critics liked Spencer, but felt the film itself was lacking.
Director: Tate Taylor
Five Years Ago--May 22, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
Tomorrowland--1/$33 million/$93.4 million/30/50%/60--Yet another effort by Disney to turn part of their theme parks into a summer blockbuster, this one had attractive talent in front of the camera (George Clooney, Hugh Laurie) and behind it (director Brad Bird), but its storyline involving a teenage girl trying to get to the titular utopia, fell flat with audiences. Bird would head back to animation after this.
Director: Brad Bird
Poltergeist--4/$22.6 million/$47.4 million/58/31%/47--Yet another unnecessary reboot of a 70s/80s horror classic, this tale of a family who discovers their ordinary suburban home is haunted by malevolent spirits has been updated to include modern technology (GPS trackers! Flat screen TVs!), but otherwise didn't offer much different from the 1982 original. Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt play the hapless homeowners, with Jared Harris and Jane Adams as the paranormal investigators who arrive to help the family. After a decent opening, it performed like most horror movies and faded fast.
Director: Gil Kenan
New Limited Releases:
Tanu Weds Manu Returns--$3 million/167/57%/NA--This awkwardly titled Bollywood sequel picks up four years after the original, where married life has turned out to be less than harmonious for the titular couple. While separated, he meets a woman who looks just like his wife and becomes infatuated with the new girl. The film, which was very short by Bollywood standards (only a bit over 2 hours) did well, being one of the higher grossing Indian movies in North America of the year.
Director: Aanand L. Rai
When Marnie Was There--$0.6 million/250/91%/72--This Studio Ghibli release, about a young girl sent to live in the countryside for the summer who befriends another girl living at a seemingly abandoned nearby mansion, failed to make much of an impression on moviegoers. However, it did get an Oscar nomination for Animated Feature, making it one of 2005's lowest-grossing nominees.
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi (English voice direction: James Simone)
May 29, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
San Andreas--1/$54.6 million/$155.2 million/20/50%/43--41 years after Earthquake gleefully destroyed Los Angeles, San Andreas destroys it again, and throws San Francisco and the Hoover Dam to boot. Like most disaster movies, millions die, but as long as the central characters (Dwayne Johnson and Carla Gugino as a couple on the verge of divorce, Alexandra Daddario as their daughter) survive, then who cares about the other deaths? Paul Giamatti played a seismologist who is the first to realize that, to quote the tagline of another LA-based disaster film, the coast is toast.
Director: Brad Peyton
Aloha--6/$9.7 million/$21.1 million/100/20%/40--Bradley Cooper's run of smash hits came to a sudden end with this disappointing dramady, in which he played a military contractor working on a project in Hawaii where he encounters his ex-girlfriend (Rachel McAdams), who is now married to John Krasinski. The casting of the very white Emma Stone as a native Hawaiian who serves as Cooper's military liaison was controversial, to say the least. Also in the cast is Alec Baldwin, as Cooper's former commanding officer from his time in the military, and Bill Murray as a billionaire with a secret agenda. This proved to be another disappointment for director Cameron Crowe, who hadn't had a critical success since Almost Famous.
Director: Cameron Crowe
Ten Years Ago--May 21, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
Shrek Forever After--1/$70.8 million/$238.7 million/8/58%/58--The Shrek series limped to a close, critically at least, with this entry in which Rumpelstiltskin, for his own nefarious purposes, gives the ogre (Mike Meyers) a chance to see what his life would have been like if he had never met Fiona (Cameron Diaz) or Donkey (Eddie Murphy). This ended up as the lowest-grosser of the series (though it was still a sizable hit), indicating it was probably the right time to call it quits (though rumors of a reboot persist).
Director: Mike Mitchell
MacGruber--6/$4 million/$8.5 million/136/48%/43--This feature version of the recurring Saturday Night Live sketch about a hopelessly incompetent secret agent (Will Forte) was both a massive critical and commercial failure when it was released, but time has improved its reputation considerably. Forte was tasked with taking down arch enemy Val Kilmer with the help of team members Kristin Wiig (who also regularly appeared in the SNL sketches) and a much more reluctant Ryan Phillipe. Maya Rudolph played Forte's late wife. The film has become such a cult hit in the decade since its release that a sequel is in the works.
Director: Jorma Taccone
Kites--10/$1 million/$1.6 million/177/72%/62--The first Bollywood film to make the Box Office Top Ten (albeit on a relatively slow weekend) was this action drama about a star-crossed couple who flee from Las Vegas to Mexico to escape her vengeful fiancee. The film was, after its opening weekend, simultaneously available in two versions: this two-hour version mostly in Hindi, and the "Remix" version, whose edit was supervised by Brett Ratner, which opened a week later. That cut ran 90 minutes and was mostly in English. While the Hindi version collapsed after its decent opening weekend, it still did substantially better than the Remix version, which couldn't even crack $50,000 domestic.
Director: Anurag Basu
May 28, 2010:
#1 Movie:
Shrek Forever After--$43.3 million
New Wide Releases:
Sex and the City 2--2/$31 million/$95.4 million/33/16%/27--After the somewhat surprising success of the first Sex and the City movie in 2008, the producers for the second movie based on the long-running TV show went all out, sending the cast to Morocco, standing in for Abu Dhabi. Sarah Jessica Parker runs into trouble with her marriage to Chris Noth, Kristin Davis is overwhelmed by her two young daughters, Cynthia Nixon deals with unemployment, and Kim Cattrall either talks about or has sex in pretty much every scene. Even critics who had liked the first film found this one forced and shallow, and it had a disappointing run. Despite its failure, there was still talk of a third film, though the deterioration of the relationship of Parker and Cattrall seems to have ended that threat.
Director: Michael Patrick King
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time--3/$30.1 million/$90.8 million/37/37%/50--Unlike with the casting of Aladdin nine years later, Disney cast the notably white Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular Middle Eastern prince in this video game adaption, who discovers that his uncle (Ben Kingsley) will do whatever he has to do to get his hands on a time-controlling dagger. This is a plot that probably made more sense as a game than as a movie. Disney was hoping this could be their next big franchise, but poor reviews and indifferent box office killed it before it got off the ground.
Director: Mike Newell
Fifteen Years Ago--May 27, 2005:
#1 Movie:
Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith--$55.2 million
New Wide Releases:
The Longest Yard--2/$47.6 million/$158.1 million/12/31%/48--Given his first true blockbuster was The Waterboy, its not surprising that Adam Sandler would return to football, albeit in a somewhat more realistic film, in this remake of the 1974 Burt Reynonds vehicle. Sandler played a former pro quarterback sentenced to prison, where the warden (James Cromwell) maintains a successful team among the guards (mostly played by former football players and wrestlers) and wants Sandler to start a team of prisoners to allow the guards to practice. Chris Rock played a prisoner who assists Sandler, and Reynolds took a supporting part to play another former player-turned-prisoner who agrees to coach Sandler and the team. Critics compared it negatively to the Reynolds original, but as Sandler was near the peak of his box office prowess, the film was a solid success.
Director: Peter Segal
Madagascar--3/$47.2 million/$193.6 million/9/54%/57--Four New York zoo animals: a lion (Ben Stiller), a zebra (Chris Rock, in his second film of the weekend), a hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and a giraffe (David Schwimmer), are getting shipped to Kenya, but after an accident, wash up on the shore of Madagascar, where they have to adjust to a very different lifestyle than they were used to. Sacha Baron Cohen voiced the leader of a group of lemurs who befriend the animals. With no Pixar movie that summer, this played well for weeks and eventually spawned two sequels and a spinoff involving the militaristic penguins from the zoo.
Director: Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
June 3, 2005:
#1 Movie:
Madagascar--$28.1 million
New Wide Releases:
Cinderella Man--4/$18.3 million/$61.7 million/42/80%/69--This boxing biopic seemed to have everything going for it--Ron Howard directing, recent Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger co-starring--but only a few months after Million Dollar Baby, audiences weren't particularly interested in returning to the ring so quickly, particularly to see the story of a 1930s boxer most of them had probably never heard of before. Crowe played James Braddock, who went from being a longshoreman to the heavyweight champion of the world after improbably knocking out champ Max Baer. Had it been released later in the year, or had done better against the summer competition, it would have been a likely Oscar contender. Instead, it had to settle for two technical nominations (for Makeup and Editing) and a Supporting nod for Paul Giamatti, as Crowe's manager (a nomination that was seen at least in part as a makeup for him not being nominated for Sideways).
Director: Ron Howard
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants--5/$9.8 million/$39.1 million/71/77%/66--This adaption of the popular YA novel became a sleeper hit. Four teenage girls (Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively) find a pair of jeans that fit all of them perfectly, despite their different shapes and sizes. With them all being separated during the summer, they resolve to send the pants back and forth and recount their various adventures. A sequel would follow in 2008.
Director: Ken Kwapis
Lords of Dogtown--6/$5.6 million/$11.3 million/140/55%/56--An adaption of the popular 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, this fictionalized version ended up falling flat. A group of young surfers in the 1970s, including Emile Hirsch, become innovators on skateboards, fine-tuning their craft in empty swimming pools. Heath Ledger played the owner of a surf shop that sponsored their team.
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Twenty Years Ago--May 26, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Mission: Impossible II--1/$57.9 million/$215.4 million/3/57%/59--Tom Cruise returns to the role of secret agent Ethan Hunt, now with somewhat longer hair, as he chooses to accept a mission of tracking down a former colleague (Dougray Scott) who has stolen both a deadly, lab-created virus, and the cure for it, intending to profit greatly from both. Thandie Newton played Scott's former girlfriend, a thief who Cruise recruits to infiltrate Scott's team. Ving Rhames returns from the first film as Cruise's team member and Anthony Hopkins takes over as the head of Cruise's agency. The film was praised for director John Woo's action set pieces, but the storyline was considered weak. Scott had been signed to play Wolverine in X-Men, but filming on this ran so long that Scott was forced to drop out, so the producers hired little-known Australian actor Hugh Jackman instead.
Director: John Woo
Shanghai Noon--2/$15.6 million/$56.9 million/47/79%/77--In this western action comedy, Jackie Chan played a guard at the Chinese Imperial Palace who travels to 1880s Nevada in pursuit of a kidnapped princess (Lucy Liu), where he reluctantly teams up with an outlaw (Owen Wilson) who had been thrown out of his gang. A then-largely unknown Walton Goggins played the new leader of Wilson's former band. While not a huge success, it did well enough to warrant a sequel in 2003.
Director: Tom Dey
June 2, 2000:
#1 Movie:
Mission: Impossible II--$27 million
New Wide Releases:
Big Momma's House--2/$25.6 million/$117.6 million/17/30%/33--In this goofy action comedy that became one of the summer's bigger surprise hits, Martin Lawrence played an FBI agent who has to pose as an elderly, overweight woman in order to learn how the woman's granddaughter (Nia Long) aided an escaped criminal (Terrance Howard). Paul Giamatti played Lawrence's partner, Anthony Anderson played a security guard who is somehow the only person in the movie to see though Lawrence's not-very-convincing disguise, and Octavia Spencer played a neighbor. Lawrence would don the fat suit again in two unnecessary sequels.
Director: Raja Gosnell
Twenty-Five Years Ago--May 26, 1995:
New Wide Releases:
Casper--1/$16.8 million/$100.3 million/8/47%/49--That would be Casper, the Friendly Ghost, in this live-action version of the old cartoon/comic series. Casper lives in an old mansion with his obnoxious uncles who are determined to keep the living out. However, paranormal investigator Bill Pullman and daughter Christina Ricci move in, at the behest of mansion owner Cathy Moriatry, who hopes to evict the ghosts in order to find a treasure supposedly hidden in the house. Eric Idle played Moriatry's assistant, and a young Devon Sawa had a small part at the end of the film. This was the first film to have a CGI-generated main character.
Director: Brad Silberling
Braveheart--3/$9.9 million/$75.6 million/18/77%/68--Mel Gibson (who had a cameo in Casper) directed his second film, a three-hour epic about 13th century Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace (Gibson), who stages a rebellion against the ruling English after they execute his wife. Patrick McGoohan played evil English king Edward Longshanks, and Sophie Marceau played Edward's daughter-in-law, Princess Isabelle, who (in this version at least) has an affair with Gibson. The film was a solid success, but despite only getting decent, and not rave, reviews, it became an Oscar darling, getting nominated for ten, and winning 5, including Picture and Director for Gibson.
Director: Mel Gibson
Johnny Mnemonic--6/$6 million/$19.1 million/84/13%/NA--Four years before The Matrix, Keanu Reeves starred in his first cyberthriller, one that was considerably more clunky and nonsensical than his 1999 hit. In the far-off year of 2021, Reeves played Johnny, a cybercourier who can upload data directly to a drive in his brain. When he agrees to transport a file larger than his capabilities, he quickly discovers that many people want the info in his head, and are willing to cut his head off to get it. If that wasn't enough, because of the size of the file, he has to get it out within a few days before it kills him--and he doesn't have the password to download the material out of his head. Dolph Lungreen played a hitman chasing after Reeves, Henry Rollins played an underground doctor, and Ice-T played a freedom fighter who was the intended recipient of Reeves's information.
Director: Robert Longo
Mad Love--7/$6.8 million*/$15.5 million/94/28%/NA--Strait-laced high-school senior Chris O'Donnell falls for new girl Drew Barrymore, unaware that she is mentally ill. When she is committed by her parents, he breaks her out and they head toward Mexico, at least until her condition deteriorates. Joan Allen played Barrymore's mother. Critics liked the performances, but the film itself fell flat.
Director: Antonia Bird
*This is the number for the entire 4-day Memorial Day weekend.
Tales From the Hood--9/$3.9 million*/$11.8 million/108/47%/NA--Spike Lee produced this horror anthology (the first to get a wide release since 1990's Tales From the Darkside) that centered around four tales told by a funeral director (Clarence Williams III) to three gangbangers. In them, an activist against police corruption who is executed by rogue cops comes back from the grave for revenge, a young boy discovers that his drawings can work like voodoo dolls against his mother's abusive boyfriend (David Alan Grier), a racist senator (Corbin Bernsen) is beset by dolls inhabited by the spirits of murdered slaves, and a violent gang member is given a chance at redemption. The scariest thing about this is, in twenty-five years, it feels like very little has changed in regards to the first and third stories.
Director: Rusty Cundieff
*This is the number for the entire 4-day Memorial Day weekend.
June 2, 1995:
#1 Movie:
Casper--$13.4 million
New Wide Releases:
The Bridges of Madison County--2/$10.5 million/$71.5 million/21/90%/66--Clint Eastwood (who also had a cameo in Casper) directed this adaption of the runaway bestseller that nearly everyone agreed was one of the rare examples of the movie being much, much better than the book. Eastwood played a National Geographic photographer sent to Iowa to take pictures of covered bridges in the 1960s who meets an Italian war bride (Meryl Streep) whose family has left her to go to the state fair. They subsequently have a passionate affair. Despite the better reviews, the similar box office, and the more Oscar-friendly leads and director, this still ended up with only one Oscar nomination (for Streep, of course) compared to Braveheart's 10.
Director: Clint Eastwood
Fluke--11/$1.4 million/$4 million/157/27%/NA--In this thoroughly depressing-sounding family film a dog (voiced by Matthew Modine) realizes that he used to be human, and seeks to return to his wife (Nancy Travis) and son. This happens after his first owner and best dog friend both die, and Fluke is forced to become a test subject for a cosmetics company. Samuel L. Jackson voiced the other dog, and Eric Stoltz played Modine's former business partner, who Modine suspects might have killed him (again, such a wonderful kids movie!). Apparently, audiences in early summer 1995 wanted ther family movies to be about dead kids, not dead dads and live dogs.
Director: Carlo Carlei
New Limited Releases:
The Glass Shield--$3.4 million/165/65%/NA--This drama about police corruption and racism is about two LA County sheriff's deputies, one black (Michael Boatman) and one female (Lori Petty) who realize their colleagues are racists. They have to work to expose the corruption in the department, including the framing of an African-American man (Ice Cube) for a murder. Elliott Gould played the husband of the murder victim and Michael Ironside and M. Emmet Walsh played two of the corrupt cops. Like Tales From the Hood, this one also sounds like it could be set in 2020.
Director: Charles Burnett
Thirty Years Ago--May 25, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Back to the Future Part III--1/$23.7 million/$87.7 million/11/80%/55--After Part II went from 1985 to 2015 to alternative 1985 to 1955, Part III was content to stay primarily in only one year, 1885, when Hill Valley was still brand new, but the Tannen family was still causing trouble. Michael J. Fox went back in time--again--to rescue Christopher Lloyd after finding evidence that he was going to be killed by Thomas F. Wilson (playing the ancestor of his Biff from the first two movies) and finds himself stranded after blowing the DeLorean's gas line, and like Lloyd, also in Wilson's cross-hairs. Meanwhile, Lloyd finds himself falling for the new schoolmarm (Mary Steenburgen) who shares his interest in science and the works of Jules Verne. Lea Thompson played Fox's great-great grandmother in addition to her usual role as Fox's mom (Fox himself did double duty as his own great-great grandfather). Unfortunately, audiences were getting a bit tired of all the time travel, as Part III ended up underperforming, despite garnering much better reviews than the frenetic Part II.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Fire Birds--5/$6.4 million/$14.8 million/83/10%/NA--This blatant Top Gun ripoff wastes the talents of Tommy Lee Jones and a still-mostly-sane Nicolas Cage, who played an arrogant military helicopter pilot undergoing training in the then-new Apache copters. Jones played Cage's commanding officer, who has the usual mix of respect for his flying abilities and disdain over his attitude, and Sean Young, also mostly pre-crazy, played Cage's ex-girlfriend who, wouldn't you know it, is also training alongside him. It all climaxes with an heroic attack on a South American drug cartel. It's rather telling that this made almost exactly as much as Cage's other summer movie, the David Lynch extravaganza Wild at Heart, which would come out in August.
Director: David Green
June 1, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Total Recall--1/$25.5 million/$119.4 million/7/82%/57--Arnold Schwarzenegger was the top box office draw in 1990, proven by him getting two films into the year's Top 10. This was the first, a hyper-violent action spectacle in which Schwarzenegger played an ordinary construction worker who gets memory implants and suddenly realizes he's a double agent aiding the rebellion on Mars. Sharon Stone played his "wife" and Michael Ironside played the top henchman of Mars's dictator. To this day, this film inspires debate about whether the events in the film were "real" or all in Schwarzenegger's head. It would be nominated for the two Sound awards at the Oscars, and would win a noncompetitive one for its visual effects (the last one of those before the category was permanently made competitive).
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Thirty-Five Years Ago--May 24, 1985:
New Wide Releases:
Rambo: First Blood Part II--1/$25.2 million/$150.4 million/2/36%/47--1982's First Blood, despite being an action movie first and foremost, offered a relatively nuanced look at a Vietnam Vet suffering from PTSD and the heartless authorities who didn't care in the least. All that nuance goes out the window for the sequel, in which Sylvester Stallone's Rambo becomes essentially Superman, returning to Vietnam to basically fight the war all by himself in an effort to rescue POWs still being held captive. Richard Crenna also returned from the first film as Stallone's former commanding officer who recruits him for the mission, and Charles Napier played the cowardly officer in charge, who didn't actually want to save any of the men. This was the first of two Stallone megablockbuster sequels that year. It would get a nomination for Sound Effects Editing at the Oscars.
Director: George P. Cosmatos
A View to a Kill--2/$13.3 million/$50.3 million/13/36%/40--The 7th and final outing for Roger Moore as James Bond finds 007 investigating an American microchip manufacturer (Christopher Walkin, who in theory should have been an awesome Bond villain) whose scheme is to destroy Silicon Valley and claim a microchip monopoly for himself. If that sounds somewhat familiar, that is essentially Lex Luthor's plan in Superman. Tanya Roberts, 28 years Moore's junior, played the Bond Girl, and Grace Jones played Walkin's top henchwoman. At least Duran Duran's theme song, the only Bond song to hit #1 on the Billboard chart, is a good one.
Director: John Glen
Brewster's Millions--3/$9.9 million/$40.8 million/20/35%/37--In what is at least the 7th filmed version of a 1902 novel, Richard Pryor played a washed-up baseball player who get a challenge from his late, multi-millionaire uncle (Hume Cronyn): spend $30 million in 30 days, ending with no physical possessions, and he gets the rest of his uncle's $300 million estate. Fail, and he ends up with nothing. John Candy played Pryor's best friend, who has no idea of the challenge, Jerry Orbach played the manager of Pryor's team, and Rick Moranis reunites with SCTV co-star Candy in a cameo as an obnoxious comedian. Director Walter Hill had previously only made westerns and action movies, and after this would return to making only westerns and action movies.
Director: Walter Hill
May 31, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Rambo: First Blood Part II--$14.8 million
New Wide Releases:
Fletch--2/$7 million/$50.6 million/12/77%/68--Chevy Chase starred in this fondly remembered action comedy as a investigative newspaper reporter prone to adopt all manner of disguises and identities. While undercover as a homeless junkie, he is approached by a millionaire (Tim Matheson) with an offer to kill him because of his terminal cancer. Suspicious, Chase investigates and uncovers a large conspiracy. Joe Don Baker played an LA police chief who does not like Chase and a still-unknown Geena Davis played Chase's colleague. This was followed by a less-successful sequel in 1989.
Director: Michael Ritchie
Forty Years Ago--May 23, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
The Empire Strikes Back--$209.4 million/1/94%/82--Widely considered the best of the original trilogy, which means its widely considered the best of all the Star Wars movies, the second installment of the saga (yeah, yeah, it's actually the fifth, I know) would end its run as the second-highest grossing film of all time, behind only Star Wars, despite the cliffhanger ending that had Harrison Ford frozen in carbonite and Mark Hamill (and audiences) pondering if perhaps the most famous parentage reveal in movie history was actually true. It's easy to forget today, when you can just click onto Return of the Jedi on Disney+ as soon as the credits of this begin to roll, that audiences had to wait three agonizing years to find out what happened next. Despite the reviews and the financial success, Empire wasn't nearly as successful as Star Wars was at the Oscars, getting only three nominations, none of them top-of-the-line, and winning only one competitive award, for Sound (it would also win a special award for its Visual Effects).
Director: Irvin Kershner
The Gong Show Movie--$6.6 million/77/NA/NA--Offering itself up as a sacrificial lamb to Empire was this bizarre passion project/fit of ego by Chuck Barris, the maestro of controversial game shows, of which the most controversial was The Gong Show, a daily low-rent talent competition that enjoyed a brief run of notoriety on NBC's daytime schedule before being dumped for a few years into first-run syndication. The film combined outtakes from the show, including rejected acts, with a storyline following Barris (playing himself) through a "typical" week of producing the show. Not only did the movie star Barris, but was also directed and written by him, and featured five songs he wrote on the soundtrack. Thankfully, this film's disastrous performance with both critics and audiences ensured that Barris, who never directed again and only made one additional movie appearance, wouldn't get around to The Newlywed Game Movie.
Director: Chuck Barris
Gorp--NA/NA/NA/NA--This summer camp-set sex comedy is primarily a ripoff of Animal House rather than the much tamer Meatballs (which didn't open until after this film had finished filming and which coincidentally had a widespread re-release this weekend as well). Mostly a series of barely connected vignettes about the camp's dining hall wait staff as they chase after girls and foster a rivalry with the counselors, this one does feature a pretty good cast of up-and-comers, including Dennis Quaid, Fran Drescher, and Rosanna Arquette, and its director, Joseph Rubin, would go on to have a respectable, if not exemplary, career.
Director: Joseph Rubin
New Limited Releases:
Carny--$1.8 million/104/NA/68--Despite starring recent Oscar nominees Gary Busey and Jodie Foster, this drama about the seedy underbelly of traveling carnivals made little impact. Busey played a longtime carny who begins a relationship with a local girl (Foster, who was only 16 during production and 18 years younger than Busey) at one stop. Bored with her life, Foster decides to join the carnival herself, as the troupe has to negotiate with corrupt local officials and crime bosses.
Director: Robert Kaylor
May 30, 1980:
New Limited Releases:
The Silent Scream--NA/NA/NA/NA--Standard issue slasher film, albeit one with a relatively low body count, about a group of college student roommates who are being stalked and killed by an unknown person. The biggest name in the cast was Yvonne De Carlo, who played the kids' landlord. This one had a troubled production, as most of the original footage was dumped and the film reshot before beginning its relatively limited rollout.
Director: Denny Harris
Director: Guy Ritchie
Brightburn--5/$7.9 million/$17.3 million/105/57%/44--Childless couple Elizabeth Banks and David Denman discover some sort of space pod has crashed on their farm, with a baby inside. Adopting the child, they raise him until, as a pre-teen, he begins to manifest strange powers. So far, so Superman. But in this horror flick, instead of growing up to stand for truth, justice, and the American way, the young alien decides to indulge his baser impulses, using his newfound abilities to extract gruesome revenge on everyone who has wronged him, or at least who he think has wronged him. Positioned to be a possible sleeper and/or cult movie, it didn't make much impact at the box office, and has largely been forgotten a year later.
Director: David Yarovesky
Booksmart--6/$6.9 million/$22.7 million/93/97%/84--The weekend's other movie with a one compound word title beginning with B that hoped to be a sleeper hit and/or cult movie also disappointed at the box office. But thanks to terrific reviews, it's much better positioned to attract a large cult following. The summer's first riff on Superbad, this comedy starred Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein (Superbad star Jonah Hill's real-life sister) as two friends who, after having sacrificed a social life for good grades and college scholarships, decide that graduation night will be a night of debauchery. The supporting cast includes Jason Sudeikis as the school principal and Will Forte and Lisa Kudrow as Dever's parents.
Director: Olivia Wilde
May 31, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Godzilla: King of the Monsters--1/$47.8 million/$110.5 million/26/42%/48--2014's Godzilla reboot proved to be a critical and commercial success, but no one seemed much interested in the sequel, which sees Godzilla doing battle with several of his traditional enemies, including Rodan and Ghidorah. There are humans in this, including Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler, and Millie Bobbie Brown, but mostly, what the the way-overqualified cast is called on to do is to stare in wonder and/or horror at the giant monster fights while being shaken around on the hydraulic sets (seriously, the film also stars Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, and David Strathairn, hopefully all of whom picked up big paychecks). The disappointing gross for this film proves again that pre-manufactured cinematic universes are a huge risk, as Godzilla vs. Kong was already in production when this came out.
Director: Michael Dougherty
Rocketman--3/$25.7 million/$96.4 million/33/89%/69--The second biopic of a queer groundbreaking British pop star of the 70s named after one of their most famous songs directed by Dexter Fletcher to come out in 7 months, this look at the early days in the career of Elton John (played by Taron Egerton) probably suffered boxoffice-wise in comparison to Bohemian Rhapsody (which Fletcher took over after Bryan Singer was fired) from the increased competition, the more fantasy-driven plotline, the more explicit gay content, and the R rating. In addition, even though Rhapsody was an Oscar darling, the better received Rocketman only got a single nod, for its original song "I'm Gonna Love Me Again", which would win John his second Oscar (and longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin his first).
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Ma--4/$18.1 million/$45.9 million/59/55%/53--Octavia Spencer, in an all-too-rare leading role, re-teamed with her The Help director Tate Taylor for this rather campy thriller, in which Spencer allows a group of local teens to host parties in her basement, only to become more and more creepily involved in their lives. Juliette Lewis and Luke Evans play a couple of the partying teens' parents, who might just have a history with Spencer, and Alison Janey, another Help vet, played Spencer's boss. Critics liked Spencer, but felt the film itself was lacking.
Director: Tate Taylor
Five Years Ago--May 22, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
Tomorrowland--1/$33 million/$93.4 million/30/50%/60--Yet another effort by Disney to turn part of their theme parks into a summer blockbuster, this one had attractive talent in front of the camera (George Clooney, Hugh Laurie) and behind it (director Brad Bird), but its storyline involving a teenage girl trying to get to the titular utopia, fell flat with audiences. Bird would head back to animation after this.
Director: Brad Bird
Poltergeist--4/$22.6 million/$47.4 million/58/31%/47--Yet another unnecessary reboot of a 70s/80s horror classic, this tale of a family who discovers their ordinary suburban home is haunted by malevolent spirits has been updated to include modern technology (GPS trackers! Flat screen TVs!), but otherwise didn't offer much different from the 1982 original. Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt play the hapless homeowners, with Jared Harris and Jane Adams as the paranormal investigators who arrive to help the family. After a decent opening, it performed like most horror movies and faded fast.
Director: Gil Kenan
New Limited Releases:
Tanu Weds Manu Returns--$3 million/167/57%/NA--This awkwardly titled Bollywood sequel picks up four years after the original, where married life has turned out to be less than harmonious for the titular couple. While separated, he meets a woman who looks just like his wife and becomes infatuated with the new girl. The film, which was very short by Bollywood standards (only a bit over 2 hours) did well, being one of the higher grossing Indian movies in North America of the year.
Director: Aanand L. Rai
When Marnie Was There--$0.6 million/250/91%/72--This Studio Ghibli release, about a young girl sent to live in the countryside for the summer who befriends another girl living at a seemingly abandoned nearby mansion, failed to make much of an impression on moviegoers. However, it did get an Oscar nomination for Animated Feature, making it one of 2005's lowest-grossing nominees.
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi (English voice direction: James Simone)
May 29, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
San Andreas--1/$54.6 million/$155.2 million/20/50%/43--41 years after Earthquake gleefully destroyed Los Angeles, San Andreas destroys it again, and throws San Francisco and the Hoover Dam to boot. Like most disaster movies, millions die, but as long as the central characters (Dwayne Johnson and Carla Gugino as a couple on the verge of divorce, Alexandra Daddario as their daughter) survive, then who cares about the other deaths? Paul Giamatti played a seismologist who is the first to realize that, to quote the tagline of another LA-based disaster film, the coast is toast.
Director: Brad Peyton
Aloha--6/$9.7 million/$21.1 million/100/20%/40--Bradley Cooper's run of smash hits came to a sudden end with this disappointing dramady, in which he played a military contractor working on a project in Hawaii where he encounters his ex-girlfriend (Rachel McAdams), who is now married to John Krasinski. The casting of the very white Emma Stone as a native Hawaiian who serves as Cooper's military liaison was controversial, to say the least. Also in the cast is Alec Baldwin, as Cooper's former commanding officer from his time in the military, and Bill Murray as a billionaire with a secret agenda. This proved to be another disappointment for director Cameron Crowe, who hadn't had a critical success since Almost Famous.
Director: Cameron Crowe
Ten Years Ago--May 21, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
Shrek Forever After--1/$70.8 million/$238.7 million/8/58%/58--The Shrek series limped to a close, critically at least, with this entry in which Rumpelstiltskin, for his own nefarious purposes, gives the ogre (Mike Meyers) a chance to see what his life would have been like if he had never met Fiona (Cameron Diaz) or Donkey (Eddie Murphy). This ended up as the lowest-grosser of the series (though it was still a sizable hit), indicating it was probably the right time to call it quits (though rumors of a reboot persist).
Director: Mike Mitchell
MacGruber--6/$4 million/$8.5 million/136/48%/43--This feature version of the recurring Saturday Night Live sketch about a hopelessly incompetent secret agent (Will Forte) was both a massive critical and commercial failure when it was released, but time has improved its reputation considerably. Forte was tasked with taking down arch enemy Val Kilmer with the help of team members Kristin Wiig (who also regularly appeared in the SNL sketches) and a much more reluctant Ryan Phillipe. Maya Rudolph played Forte's late wife. The film has become such a cult hit in the decade since its release that a sequel is in the works.
Director: Jorma Taccone
Kites--10/$1 million/$1.6 million/177/72%/62--The first Bollywood film to make the Box Office Top Ten (albeit on a relatively slow weekend) was this action drama about a star-crossed couple who flee from Las Vegas to Mexico to escape her vengeful fiancee. The film was, after its opening weekend, simultaneously available in two versions: this two-hour version mostly in Hindi, and the "Remix" version, whose edit was supervised by Brett Ratner, which opened a week later. That cut ran 90 minutes and was mostly in English. While the Hindi version collapsed after its decent opening weekend, it still did substantially better than the Remix version, which couldn't even crack $50,000 domestic.
Director: Anurag Basu
May 28, 2010:
#1 Movie:
Shrek Forever After--$43.3 million
New Wide Releases:
Sex and the City 2--2/$31 million/$95.4 million/33/16%/27--After the somewhat surprising success of the first Sex and the City movie in 2008, the producers for the second movie based on the long-running TV show went all out, sending the cast to Morocco, standing in for Abu Dhabi. Sarah Jessica Parker runs into trouble with her marriage to Chris Noth, Kristin Davis is overwhelmed by her two young daughters, Cynthia Nixon deals with unemployment, and Kim Cattrall either talks about or has sex in pretty much every scene. Even critics who had liked the first film found this one forced and shallow, and it had a disappointing run. Despite its failure, there was still talk of a third film, though the deterioration of the relationship of Parker and Cattrall seems to have ended that threat.
Director: Michael Patrick King
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time--3/$30.1 million/$90.8 million/37/37%/50--Unlike with the casting of Aladdin nine years later, Disney cast the notably white Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular Middle Eastern prince in this video game adaption, who discovers that his uncle (Ben Kingsley) will do whatever he has to do to get his hands on a time-controlling dagger. This is a plot that probably made more sense as a game than as a movie. Disney was hoping this could be their next big franchise, but poor reviews and indifferent box office killed it before it got off the ground.
Director: Mike Newell
Fifteen Years Ago--May 27, 2005:
#1 Movie:
Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith--$55.2 million
New Wide Releases:
The Longest Yard--2/$47.6 million/$158.1 million/12/31%/48--Given his first true blockbuster was The Waterboy, its not surprising that Adam Sandler would return to football, albeit in a somewhat more realistic film, in this remake of the 1974 Burt Reynonds vehicle. Sandler played a former pro quarterback sentenced to prison, where the warden (James Cromwell) maintains a successful team among the guards (mostly played by former football players and wrestlers) and wants Sandler to start a team of prisoners to allow the guards to practice. Chris Rock played a prisoner who assists Sandler, and Reynolds took a supporting part to play another former player-turned-prisoner who agrees to coach Sandler and the team. Critics compared it negatively to the Reynolds original, but as Sandler was near the peak of his box office prowess, the film was a solid success.
Director: Peter Segal
Madagascar--3/$47.2 million/$193.6 million/9/54%/57--Four New York zoo animals: a lion (Ben Stiller), a zebra (Chris Rock, in his second film of the weekend), a hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and a giraffe (David Schwimmer), are getting shipped to Kenya, but after an accident, wash up on the shore of Madagascar, where they have to adjust to a very different lifestyle than they were used to. Sacha Baron Cohen voiced the leader of a group of lemurs who befriend the animals. With no Pixar movie that summer, this played well for weeks and eventually spawned two sequels and a spinoff involving the militaristic penguins from the zoo.
Director: Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
June 3, 2005:
#1 Movie:
Madagascar--$28.1 million
New Wide Releases:
Cinderella Man--4/$18.3 million/$61.7 million/42/80%/69--This boxing biopic seemed to have everything going for it--Ron Howard directing, recent Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger co-starring--but only a few months after Million Dollar Baby, audiences weren't particularly interested in returning to the ring so quickly, particularly to see the story of a 1930s boxer most of them had probably never heard of before. Crowe played James Braddock, who went from being a longshoreman to the heavyweight champion of the world after improbably knocking out champ Max Baer. Had it been released later in the year, or had done better against the summer competition, it would have been a likely Oscar contender. Instead, it had to settle for two technical nominations (for Makeup and Editing) and a Supporting nod for Paul Giamatti, as Crowe's manager (a nomination that was seen at least in part as a makeup for him not being nominated for Sideways).
Director: Ron Howard
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants--5/$9.8 million/$39.1 million/71/77%/66--This adaption of the popular YA novel became a sleeper hit. Four teenage girls (Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively) find a pair of jeans that fit all of them perfectly, despite their different shapes and sizes. With them all being separated during the summer, they resolve to send the pants back and forth and recount their various adventures. A sequel would follow in 2008.
Director: Ken Kwapis
Lords of Dogtown--6/$5.6 million/$11.3 million/140/55%/56--An adaption of the popular 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, this fictionalized version ended up falling flat. A group of young surfers in the 1970s, including Emile Hirsch, become innovators on skateboards, fine-tuning their craft in empty swimming pools. Heath Ledger played the owner of a surf shop that sponsored their team.
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Twenty Years Ago--May 26, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Mission: Impossible II--1/$57.9 million/$215.4 million/3/57%/59--Tom Cruise returns to the role of secret agent Ethan Hunt, now with somewhat longer hair, as he chooses to accept a mission of tracking down a former colleague (Dougray Scott) who has stolen both a deadly, lab-created virus, and the cure for it, intending to profit greatly from both. Thandie Newton played Scott's former girlfriend, a thief who Cruise recruits to infiltrate Scott's team. Ving Rhames returns from the first film as Cruise's team member and Anthony Hopkins takes over as the head of Cruise's agency. The film was praised for director John Woo's action set pieces, but the storyline was considered weak. Scott had been signed to play Wolverine in X-Men, but filming on this ran so long that Scott was forced to drop out, so the producers hired little-known Australian actor Hugh Jackman instead.
Director: John Woo
Shanghai Noon--2/$15.6 million/$56.9 million/47/79%/77--In this western action comedy, Jackie Chan played a guard at the Chinese Imperial Palace who travels to 1880s Nevada in pursuit of a kidnapped princess (Lucy Liu), where he reluctantly teams up with an outlaw (Owen Wilson) who had been thrown out of his gang. A then-largely unknown Walton Goggins played the new leader of Wilson's former band. While not a huge success, it did well enough to warrant a sequel in 2003.
Director: Tom Dey
June 2, 2000:
#1 Movie:
Mission: Impossible II--$27 million
New Wide Releases:
Big Momma's House--2/$25.6 million/$117.6 million/17/30%/33--In this goofy action comedy that became one of the summer's bigger surprise hits, Martin Lawrence played an FBI agent who has to pose as an elderly, overweight woman in order to learn how the woman's granddaughter (Nia Long) aided an escaped criminal (Terrance Howard). Paul Giamatti played Lawrence's partner, Anthony Anderson played a security guard who is somehow the only person in the movie to see though Lawrence's not-very-convincing disguise, and Octavia Spencer played a neighbor. Lawrence would don the fat suit again in two unnecessary sequels.
Director: Raja Gosnell
Twenty-Five Years Ago--May 26, 1995:
New Wide Releases:
Casper--1/$16.8 million/$100.3 million/8/47%/49--That would be Casper, the Friendly Ghost, in this live-action version of the old cartoon/comic series. Casper lives in an old mansion with his obnoxious uncles who are determined to keep the living out. However, paranormal investigator Bill Pullman and daughter Christina Ricci move in, at the behest of mansion owner Cathy Moriatry, who hopes to evict the ghosts in order to find a treasure supposedly hidden in the house. Eric Idle played Moriatry's assistant, and a young Devon Sawa had a small part at the end of the film. This was the first film to have a CGI-generated main character.
Director: Brad Silberling
Braveheart--3/$9.9 million/$75.6 million/18/77%/68--Mel Gibson (who had a cameo in Casper) directed his second film, a three-hour epic about 13th century Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace (Gibson), who stages a rebellion against the ruling English after they execute his wife. Patrick McGoohan played evil English king Edward Longshanks, and Sophie Marceau played Edward's daughter-in-law, Princess Isabelle, who (in this version at least) has an affair with Gibson. The film was a solid success, but despite only getting decent, and not rave, reviews, it became an Oscar darling, getting nominated for ten, and winning 5, including Picture and Director for Gibson.
Director: Mel Gibson
Johnny Mnemonic--6/$6 million/$19.1 million/84/13%/NA--Four years before The Matrix, Keanu Reeves starred in his first cyberthriller, one that was considerably more clunky and nonsensical than his 1999 hit. In the far-off year of 2021, Reeves played Johnny, a cybercourier who can upload data directly to a drive in his brain. When he agrees to transport a file larger than his capabilities, he quickly discovers that many people want the info in his head, and are willing to cut his head off to get it. If that wasn't enough, because of the size of the file, he has to get it out within a few days before it kills him--and he doesn't have the password to download the material out of his head. Dolph Lungreen played a hitman chasing after Reeves, Henry Rollins played an underground doctor, and Ice-T played a freedom fighter who was the intended recipient of Reeves's information.
Director: Robert Longo
Mad Love--7/$6.8 million*/$15.5 million/94/28%/NA--Strait-laced high-school senior Chris O'Donnell falls for new girl Drew Barrymore, unaware that she is mentally ill. When she is committed by her parents, he breaks her out and they head toward Mexico, at least until her condition deteriorates. Joan Allen played Barrymore's mother. Critics liked the performances, but the film itself fell flat.
Director: Antonia Bird
*This is the number for the entire 4-day Memorial Day weekend.
Tales From the Hood--9/$3.9 million*/$11.8 million/108/47%/NA--Spike Lee produced this horror anthology (the first to get a wide release since 1990's Tales From the Darkside) that centered around four tales told by a funeral director (Clarence Williams III) to three gangbangers. In them, an activist against police corruption who is executed by rogue cops comes back from the grave for revenge, a young boy discovers that his drawings can work like voodoo dolls against his mother's abusive boyfriend (David Alan Grier), a racist senator (Corbin Bernsen) is beset by dolls inhabited by the spirits of murdered slaves, and a violent gang member is given a chance at redemption. The scariest thing about this is, in twenty-five years, it feels like very little has changed in regards to the first and third stories.
Director: Rusty Cundieff
*This is the number for the entire 4-day Memorial Day weekend.
June 2, 1995:
#1 Movie:
Casper--$13.4 million
New Wide Releases:
The Bridges of Madison County--2/$10.5 million/$71.5 million/21/90%/66--Clint Eastwood (who also had a cameo in Casper) directed this adaption of the runaway bestseller that nearly everyone agreed was one of the rare examples of the movie being much, much better than the book. Eastwood played a National Geographic photographer sent to Iowa to take pictures of covered bridges in the 1960s who meets an Italian war bride (Meryl Streep) whose family has left her to go to the state fair. They subsequently have a passionate affair. Despite the better reviews, the similar box office, and the more Oscar-friendly leads and director, this still ended up with only one Oscar nomination (for Streep, of course) compared to Braveheart's 10.
Director: Clint Eastwood
Fluke--11/$1.4 million/$4 million/157/27%/NA--In this thoroughly depressing-sounding family film a dog (voiced by Matthew Modine) realizes that he used to be human, and seeks to return to his wife (Nancy Travis) and son. This happens after his first owner and best dog friend both die, and Fluke is forced to become a test subject for a cosmetics company. Samuel L. Jackson voiced the other dog, and Eric Stoltz played Modine's former business partner, who Modine suspects might have killed him (again, such a wonderful kids movie!). Apparently, audiences in early summer 1995 wanted ther family movies to be about dead kids, not dead dads and live dogs.
Director: Carlo Carlei
New Limited Releases:
The Glass Shield--$3.4 million/165/65%/NA--This drama about police corruption and racism is about two LA County sheriff's deputies, one black (Michael Boatman) and one female (Lori Petty) who realize their colleagues are racists. They have to work to expose the corruption in the department, including the framing of an African-American man (Ice Cube) for a murder. Elliott Gould played the husband of the murder victim and Michael Ironside and M. Emmet Walsh played two of the corrupt cops. Like Tales From the Hood, this one also sounds like it could be set in 2020.
Director: Charles Burnett
Thirty Years Ago--May 25, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Back to the Future Part III--1/$23.7 million/$87.7 million/11/80%/55--After Part II went from 1985 to 2015 to alternative 1985 to 1955, Part III was content to stay primarily in only one year, 1885, when Hill Valley was still brand new, but the Tannen family was still causing trouble. Michael J. Fox went back in time--again--to rescue Christopher Lloyd after finding evidence that he was going to be killed by Thomas F. Wilson (playing the ancestor of his Biff from the first two movies) and finds himself stranded after blowing the DeLorean's gas line, and like Lloyd, also in Wilson's cross-hairs. Meanwhile, Lloyd finds himself falling for the new schoolmarm (Mary Steenburgen) who shares his interest in science and the works of Jules Verne. Lea Thompson played Fox's great-great grandmother in addition to her usual role as Fox's mom (Fox himself did double duty as his own great-great grandfather). Unfortunately, audiences were getting a bit tired of all the time travel, as Part III ended up underperforming, despite garnering much better reviews than the frenetic Part II.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Fire Birds--5/$6.4 million/$14.8 million/83/10%/NA--This blatant Top Gun ripoff wastes the talents of Tommy Lee Jones and a still-mostly-sane Nicolas Cage, who played an arrogant military helicopter pilot undergoing training in the then-new Apache copters. Jones played Cage's commanding officer, who has the usual mix of respect for his flying abilities and disdain over his attitude, and Sean Young, also mostly pre-crazy, played Cage's ex-girlfriend who, wouldn't you know it, is also training alongside him. It all climaxes with an heroic attack on a South American drug cartel. It's rather telling that this made almost exactly as much as Cage's other summer movie, the David Lynch extravaganza Wild at Heart, which would come out in August.
Director: David Green
June 1, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Total Recall--1/$25.5 million/$119.4 million/7/82%/57--Arnold Schwarzenegger was the top box office draw in 1990, proven by him getting two films into the year's Top 10. This was the first, a hyper-violent action spectacle in which Schwarzenegger played an ordinary construction worker who gets memory implants and suddenly realizes he's a double agent aiding the rebellion on Mars. Sharon Stone played his "wife" and Michael Ironside played the top henchman of Mars's dictator. To this day, this film inspires debate about whether the events in the film were "real" or all in Schwarzenegger's head. It would be nominated for the two Sound awards at the Oscars, and would win a noncompetitive one for its visual effects (the last one of those before the category was permanently made competitive).
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Thirty-Five Years Ago--May 24, 1985:
New Wide Releases:
Rambo: First Blood Part II--1/$25.2 million/$150.4 million/2/36%/47--1982's First Blood, despite being an action movie first and foremost, offered a relatively nuanced look at a Vietnam Vet suffering from PTSD and the heartless authorities who didn't care in the least. All that nuance goes out the window for the sequel, in which Sylvester Stallone's Rambo becomes essentially Superman, returning to Vietnam to basically fight the war all by himself in an effort to rescue POWs still being held captive. Richard Crenna also returned from the first film as Stallone's former commanding officer who recruits him for the mission, and Charles Napier played the cowardly officer in charge, who didn't actually want to save any of the men. This was the first of two Stallone megablockbuster sequels that year. It would get a nomination for Sound Effects Editing at the Oscars.
Director: George P. Cosmatos
A View to a Kill--2/$13.3 million/$50.3 million/13/36%/40--The 7th and final outing for Roger Moore as James Bond finds 007 investigating an American microchip manufacturer (Christopher Walkin, who in theory should have been an awesome Bond villain) whose scheme is to destroy Silicon Valley and claim a microchip monopoly for himself. If that sounds somewhat familiar, that is essentially Lex Luthor's plan in Superman. Tanya Roberts, 28 years Moore's junior, played the Bond Girl, and Grace Jones played Walkin's top henchwoman. At least Duran Duran's theme song, the only Bond song to hit #1 on the Billboard chart, is a good one.
Director: John Glen
Brewster's Millions--3/$9.9 million/$40.8 million/20/35%/37--In what is at least the 7th filmed version of a 1902 novel, Richard Pryor played a washed-up baseball player who get a challenge from his late, multi-millionaire uncle (Hume Cronyn): spend $30 million in 30 days, ending with no physical possessions, and he gets the rest of his uncle's $300 million estate. Fail, and he ends up with nothing. John Candy played Pryor's best friend, who has no idea of the challenge, Jerry Orbach played the manager of Pryor's team, and Rick Moranis reunites with SCTV co-star Candy in a cameo as an obnoxious comedian. Director Walter Hill had previously only made westerns and action movies, and after this would return to making only westerns and action movies.
Director: Walter Hill
May 31, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Rambo: First Blood Part II--$14.8 million
New Wide Releases:
Fletch--2/$7 million/$50.6 million/12/77%/68--Chevy Chase starred in this fondly remembered action comedy as a investigative newspaper reporter prone to adopt all manner of disguises and identities. While undercover as a homeless junkie, he is approached by a millionaire (Tim Matheson) with an offer to kill him because of his terminal cancer. Suspicious, Chase investigates and uncovers a large conspiracy. Joe Don Baker played an LA police chief who does not like Chase and a still-unknown Geena Davis played Chase's colleague. This was followed by a less-successful sequel in 1989.
Director: Michael Ritchie
Forty Years Ago--May 23, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
The Empire Strikes Back--$209.4 million/1/94%/82--Widely considered the best of the original trilogy, which means its widely considered the best of all the Star Wars movies, the second installment of the saga (yeah, yeah, it's actually the fifth, I know) would end its run as the second-highest grossing film of all time, behind only Star Wars, despite the cliffhanger ending that had Harrison Ford frozen in carbonite and Mark Hamill (and audiences) pondering if perhaps the most famous parentage reveal in movie history was actually true. It's easy to forget today, when you can just click onto Return of the Jedi on Disney+ as soon as the credits of this begin to roll, that audiences had to wait three agonizing years to find out what happened next. Despite the reviews and the financial success, Empire wasn't nearly as successful as Star Wars was at the Oscars, getting only three nominations, none of them top-of-the-line, and winning only one competitive award, for Sound (it would also win a special award for its Visual Effects).
Director: Irvin Kershner
The Gong Show Movie--$6.6 million/77/NA/NA--Offering itself up as a sacrificial lamb to Empire was this bizarre passion project/fit of ego by Chuck Barris, the maestro of controversial game shows, of which the most controversial was The Gong Show, a daily low-rent talent competition that enjoyed a brief run of notoriety on NBC's daytime schedule before being dumped for a few years into first-run syndication. The film combined outtakes from the show, including rejected acts, with a storyline following Barris (playing himself) through a "typical" week of producing the show. Not only did the movie star Barris, but was also directed and written by him, and featured five songs he wrote on the soundtrack. Thankfully, this film's disastrous performance with both critics and audiences ensured that Barris, who never directed again and only made one additional movie appearance, wouldn't get around to The Newlywed Game Movie.
Director: Chuck Barris
Gorp--NA/NA/NA/NA--This summer camp-set sex comedy is primarily a ripoff of Animal House rather than the much tamer Meatballs (which didn't open until after this film had finished filming and which coincidentally had a widespread re-release this weekend as well). Mostly a series of barely connected vignettes about the camp's dining hall wait staff as they chase after girls and foster a rivalry with the counselors, this one does feature a pretty good cast of up-and-comers, including Dennis Quaid, Fran Drescher, and Rosanna Arquette, and its director, Joseph Rubin, would go on to have a respectable, if not exemplary, career.
Director: Joseph Rubin
New Limited Releases:
Carny--$1.8 million/104/NA/68--Despite starring recent Oscar nominees Gary Busey and Jodie Foster, this drama about the seedy underbelly of traveling carnivals made little impact. Busey played a longtime carny who begins a relationship with a local girl (Foster, who was only 16 during production and 18 years younger than Busey) at one stop. Bored with her life, Foster decides to join the carnival herself, as the troupe has to negotiate with corrupt local officials and crime bosses.
Director: Robert Kaylor
May 30, 1980:
New Limited Releases:
The Silent Scream--NA/NA/NA/NA--Standard issue slasher film, albeit one with a relatively low body count, about a group of college student roommates who are being stalked and killed by an unknown person. The biggest name in the cast was Yvonne De Carlo, who played the kids' landlord. This one had a troubled production, as most of the original footage was dumped and the film reshot before beginning its relatively limited rollout.
Director: Denny Harris
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