Most mid-July films generally fall into one of two categories: family fun, frequently animated, or adult, frequently R-rated comedy, horror, or action movies.
One Year Ago--July 12, 2019:
#1 Movie:
Spider-Man: Far From Home--$45.4 million
New Wide Releases:
Crawl--3/$12 million/$39 million/70/83%/60--In this surprisingly well-received creature feature, Barry Pepper and Kaya Scodelario try to avoid both being eaten by hungry alligators and drowning in their flooding home during a hurricane. Crawl wasn't a huge hit, but it was low-budgeted and turned a tidy profit, and promises to be a cult film for years to come.
Director: Alexandre Aja
Stuber--4/$8.2 million/$22.4 million/94/41%/42--On paper, the odd-couple teaming of Kumail Nanjiani as a hapless Uber driver and Dave Bautista as the tough cop who pretty much kidnaps him to chase after a ruthless drug deal that Bautista has a vendetta against sounds pretty good. In practice, critics complained the film was way too violent and not nearly funny enough. Mira Sorvino played Bautista's boss and Bautista's Guardians of the Galaxy co-star Karen Gillan played his former partner.
Director: Michael Dowse
New Limited Releases:
The Farewell--$17.7 million/104/98%/89--In this affecting dramedy, Awkwafina played an American woman who learns that her grandmother in China does not have much longer to live. She goes for one last visit, along with the rest of the family, but is forbidden to actually tell her grandmother she is dying. This was one of the summer's most acclaimed films, and was a large art-house hit.
Director: Lulu Wang
The Art of Self-Defense--$2.4 million/172/84%/65--Jesse Eisenberg stars in this black comedy as a man who, after surviving an assault, joins a karate dojo and finds himself coming under the spell of its sensei (Alessandro Nivola) whose ideas are rather radical. Despite very good reviews, this was unable to break out.
Director: Riley Stearns
Five Years Ago--July 10, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
Minions--1/$115.7 million/$336.1 million/6/55%/56--The Despicable Me franchise got a prequel spinoff starring the tiny yellow gibberish-speaking sidekicks seemingly designed to wear out their welcome as quickly as possible. This one takes place in 1968, and involves the minions coming under the employee of a glamorous supervillian (Sandra Bullock) who plans to become the Queen of England. The movie actually opened better than Inside Out did, but the Pixar film ultimately made more money, though I don't think anyone at Illumination or Universal was exactly sad over this one's grosses. This was followed by Despicable Me 3, and a direct sequel to this was supposed to be out last week, but has been postponed to next July.
Director: Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin
The Gallows--5/$9.8 million/$22.8 million/96/15%/30--This found-footage horror movie, about a group of high school students whose attempt to re-stage a play during which an actor was really killed onstage twenty years earlier goes horrifically wrong when said dead kid comes back for revenge, starred a bunch of 20-somethings you've never heard of playing high-schoolers, and is so lazy that all the actors have the same first name as their characters. How this ended up getting a summer release, and not, say, straight to DVD in October is a mystery. This was followed by a sequel that sat on the shelf for two years before barely getting released.
Director: Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing
Self/less--8/$5.4 million/$12.3 million/121/19%/34--This sci-fi thriller starred Ben Kingsley as a dying man who, thanks the help of scientist Matthew Goode, transfers his conscious into the body of Ryan Reynolds. Instead of being in an artificially created body, however, Kingsley/Reynolds discovers that his new body actually used to belong to someone else, and that Goode's good doctor isn't quite as goode, er, good as he thought. This one didn't even have the incredible visuals that director Tarsem Singh's previous films were known for.
Director: Tarsem Singh
Baahubali: The Beginning--9/$3.6 million/$6.7 million/142/88%/NA--The most expensive Bollywood movie up to that time, this epic drama is about a man who grew up in a poor village who joins the rebellion against the king of a neighboring country, not realizing that he himself is the true heir to the throne. The film would prove to be a success, having the biggest opening and second highest gross of a film from the Indian subcontinent in North America in 2015. The second half of the two-part epic would be released in 2017.
Director: S.S. Rajamouli
Ten Years Ago--July 9, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
Despicable Me--1/$56.4 million/$251.5 million/7/81%/72--5 years before the Minions got their own movie, they were merely the wacky sidekicks in the first film of the series, about a supervillian (Steve Carrel) whose plans to get revenge on a rival (Jason Segel) leads him to adopt three orphan girls, who he finds himself unexpectedly bonding with. This would end up as the summer's second-biggest animated movie, after Toy Story 3. It would be followed by two sequels and a spin-off prequel, as seen above.
Director: Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud
Predators--3/$24.8 million/$52 million/66/65%/51--The third or fifth Predator film (depending on if you want to count the two Alien vs. Predators), and the first one with them as the only creature since 1990's Predator 2, this one is also the only film in the entire franchise not to take place on Earth. A group of hardened killers, including Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins, and Mahershala Ali, wake up on an alien planet and realize they are being hunted by the predators. Laurance Fishburne played a survivor of a previous hunt who helps the survivors. Despite good reviews and a solid opening, this one faded extremely fast after its first weekend. Even though the ending was deliberately left open-ended, the next film, in 2018, largely ignored the events and characters of this film.
Director: Nimrod Antal
New Limited Releases:
The Kids Are All Right--$20.8 million/114/92%/86--In this well-received dramedy, the two teenage children (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) of a lesbian couple (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) that had used artificial insemination decide to seek out the sperm donor, who turns out to be a carefree store owner (Mark Ruffalo). While at first welcome into the family, actions happen that might just cause a complete breakup. The film would be nominated for four Oscars: Actress for Bening, Supporting Actor for Ruffalo, Original Screenplay, and Best Picture.
Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Expanding:
Cyrus--10/$1.3 million
Fifteen Years Ago--July 15, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--1/$56.2 million/$206.5 million/7/83%/72--Despite the classic status of 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton decided he wanted to do his own version, one that stuck closer to the source material, including using the book's actual title. He recruited frequent leading man Johnny Depp to play Wonka and cast Depp's Finding Neverland co-star Freddie Highmore as Charlie, as well as his then-girlfriend Helena Bonham Carter as Charlie's mother, and David Kelly as Charlie's grandfather. This version largely excised the music from the 1971 version, though it did add an odd subplot about Wonka's childhood and his estranged relationship with his father (Christopher Plummer). The film was a huge hit, and got strong reviews, though its reputation since then has sharply fallen. It would be nominated for one Oscar, for Costume Design.
Director: Tim Burton
Wedding Crashers--2/$32.2 million/$209.3 million/6/75%/64--Two friends (Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn) have discovered that showing up uninvited to glamorous and expensive weddings is an excellent way to pick up women. When they attend the wedding of the daughter of a Cabinet member (Christopher Walken), they find themselves entangled with his other two daughters, one (Ilsa Fisher) who becomes obsessed with Vaughn, and the other (Rachael McAdams) whom Wilson falls for, even though she already has a long-term boyfriend (Bradley Cooper). This raunchy comedy ended up with the strongest legs of the summer, eventually edging past Charlie and the Chocolate Factory despite that film's nearly $25 million head start.
Director: David Dobkin
Twenty Years Ago--July 14, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
X-Men--1/$54.5 million/$157.3 million/8/81%/64--Arguably the first modern superhero movie--and the first major one since 1997's Batman and Robin brought that franchise to an ignoble end, this live-action adaption of the long-running Marvel comic series about mutated humans battling it out with their special powers would launch a 12-movie franchise of sequels, prequels, and spinoffs. The impressive cast for the first one included Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as sympathetic bad guy Magneto (not too many films open revealing that its villain was a Holocaust survivor), Anna Paquin as a young mutant both sides are battling over, James Marsden, Famke Janssen, and Halle Berry as Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm, respectively, Bruce Davidson as a mutant-hating senator and then-little-known Australian actor Hugh Jackman, who landed the part of Wolverine when Dougray Scott ended up trapped on Mission: Impossible 2 and made the most of the career defining role (he'd end up making at least a cameo appearance in 8 of the subsequent 11 movies). If X-Men had flopped, we might not have had Spider-Man in 2002, Batman Begins in 2005, or Iron Man in 2008, which led to the entire MCU.
Director: Bryan Singer
Twenty-Five Years Ago--July 14, 1995:
#1 Movie:
Apollo 13--$15.6 million
New Wide Releases:
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory--2/$12.6 million/$50 million/36/35%/52--This sequel to 1992's Under Siege, the one Steven Seagal vehicle to be well received by critics, jettisoned the things that everyone had liked about the first one--namely bad guy Tommy Lee Jones and Andrew Davis's direction. The result was a rather generic actioner with Seagal accompanying his niece (then 16-year-old Katherine Heigl) on a train that gets hijacked by an evil computer hacker (Eric Bogosian) who plans to use a top secret satellite to blow up Washington DC. The film was a step down from the grosses of Under Siege, but did significantly better than the previous year's On Deadly Ground.
Director: Geoff Murphy
Nine Months--3/$12.5 million/$69.7 million/23/26%/47--Hugh Grant's first big studio movie after the huge success of the previous year's Four Weddings and a Funeral was in this poorly reviewed comedy about a man living in happily unmarried bliss with his girlfriend (Julianne Moore) until she becomes pregnant, to which he reacts the way expectant fathers in silly comedies typically react. Jeff Goldblum played Grant's womanizing best friend, Joan Cusack and Tom Arnold (in his second consecutive remake of a French comedy, after 1994's True Lies) as a married couple with three unruly daughters, and Robin Williams as Moore's eccentric obstetrician. The film was overshadowed by arguably the tabloid story of the summer, when Grant was arrested in late June for soliciting a prostitute.
Director: Chris Columbus
The Indian in the Cupboard--6/$7.7 million/$35.7 million/49/73%/58--This adaption of the kidlit classic is about a boy whose new cupboard magically brings miniature toys to life, though in reality it appears to be bringing humans forward in time and putting them into the bodies of the toys. Among the toys brought to life that way are the titular Indian, a cowboy, and a British army medic (Steve Coogan, who would play a living toy again a decade later in the Night at the Museum films). The film also starred Lindsey Crouse, Richard Jenkins, and a young Vincent Kartheiser.
Director: Frank Oz
Thirty Years Ago--July 13, 1990:
#1 Movie:
Die Hard 2--$14.5 million
New Wide Releases:
Ghost--2/$12.2 million/$217.6 million/2/74%/52--It's probably safe to say that few, if anyone correctly predicted that this genre-spanning romantic fantasy thriller that also had big dollops of comedy would be by far the biggest hit of the summer, beating the season's #2 movie, Total Recall, by nearly $100 million and staying in the Top 10 all the way until December. The film starred Patrick Swazye as a bank employee who is killed in a seemingly random mugging soon after noticing an irregularity in the bank's accounts. As a ghost, he discovers that his death was not as random as it seemed, and is able to communicate with a fake psychic (Whoopi Goldberg) who is startled to discover she actually does have powers, to convince his girlfriend (Demi Moore) that she's in danger, girl. The film ended up picking up five Oscar nomination, including a surprise one for Best Picture, as well as for Editing and Score. Goldberg would win Supporting Actress and the script would be an upset winner for Original Screenplay. A year after this came out, the already iconic pottery wheel scene was parodied by director Jerry Zucker's brother David in Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, using the same pottery wheel.
Director: Jerry Zucker
The Jungle Book--4/$7.7 million/$44.7 million/29/87%/65--Like most Disney classics, this animated adaption of Rudyard Kipling's stories had routinely been re-released every few years, most recently prior to this in 1984. However, with the dawn of the home video age, theatrical re-releases were no longer economically viable, and even though this release almost doubled the gross of the 1984 release, this would be The Jungle Book's final theatrical run, as it would be released on video for the first time in 1991. Disney would remake the film in live action in 1994 (using real animals), and another remake (with CGI animals) in 2016 that stuck closer to the film's story, as well as producing an animated sequel in 2003.
Director: Wolfgang Reitherman
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane--5/$6.4 million/$21.4 million/58/28%/24--Controversial comedian Andrew Dice Clay had dabbled in acting for years, including a small role in Pretty in Pink and a recurring role on the short-lived cult TV series Crime Story, but had never headlined a film before, at least until this comedy. And after this comedy, he would never headline a film again, or at least one that got a theatrical release. Clay played a PI who happens to have the same name as his car, who is investigating the death of rock star Vince Neil and shock jock Gilbert Gottfried, and has no end of potential suspects, including Wayne Newton, Priscilla Presley, and Robert Englund. Ed O'Neill played a cop and Lauren Holly played Clay's loyal assistant. Coming out only a week after Die Hard 2 (which was filmed after this), this marks an extremely rare occasion where a director has films released in back-to-back weeks.
Director: Renny Harlin
Quick Change--7/$4.7 million/$15.3 million/82/82%/56--Three New Yorkers (Bill Murray, Geena Davis, who in three years would become Mrs. Renny Harlin, and Randy Quaid) pull off the perfect bank heist, but discover that escaping the city is much, much more difficult than escaping the bank. Despite the presence of Davis and Murray (who also co-directed, his only such credit), this opened worse than the Andrew Dice Clay vehicle, though this one is still fondly remembered. Jason Robards played the police detective in charge of the robbery investigation, Phil Hartman played the new tenant of Murry's old apartment, and then-unknowns Stanley Tucci played a mobster and Tony Shalhoub played a cab driver.
Director: Howard Franklin and Bill Murray
Thirty-Five Years Ago--July 12, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Back to the Future--$10.6 million
New Wide Releases:
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome--2/$7.3 million/$36.2 million/24/80%/71--The third and (at least until 2015) final part of the Mad Max series has the title character (Mel Gibson) coming into conflict with the ruler (Tina Turner, in a rare acting role) of a small town in the middle of the Austrialian desert, as well as having to save a group of kids from disaster. This was well-received and is easily the highest grosser of the original trilogy, but is today considered the weak link in the series.
Director: George Miller and George Ogilvie
Explorers--6/$3.6 million/$9.9 million/86/77%/58--One would be forgiven for thinking that Steven Spielberg had something to do with this sci-fi fantasy, about a group of teenagers (including then 14-year-olds Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix) who figure out how to build a spaceship. He didn't, being too busy that summer producing The Goonies and Back to the Future, the latter of which probably dealt this film a fatal blow (of course, the fact that this was yet another sci-fi flick in a summer that had already seen Cocoon and D.A.R.Y.L. and Lifeforce probably didn't help). Still, despite its mediocre reception at the time, it is now considered a cult hit.
Director: Joe Dante
Silverado--7/$3.5 million/$32.2 million/28/76%/64--The second western in three weeks, this probably suffered somewhat from competition with Clint Eastwood and Pale Rider, though it did end up doing solid business. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, it starred his two favorite Kevins--Kline and Costner--as two of a four-person team, alongside Scott Glenn and Danny Glover, who attempt to defeat an evil cattle baron and the local sheriff (Brian Dennehy) who protects him. Rosanna Arquette played Kline's love interest, Jeff Goldblum a shifty gambler, Richard Jenkins as a corrupt official, Linda Hunt as a saloon owner, and John Cleese as another sheriff. The film would be nominated at the Oscars for Score and Sound. Despite the back-to-back success of Pale Rider and Silverado, it wouldn't be until Young Guns in 1988 before there was another major studio western.
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Forty Years Ago--July 11, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
How to Beat the High Cost of Living--$7.5 million/71/NA/NA--This unlikely heist comedy starred Jessica Lange and future Kate & Allie co-stars Susan St. James and Jane Curtin as three broke women who come up with an idea to steal a giant ball filled with cash from a local mall in order to solve their financial problems. Despite a decent supporting cast, including Dabney Coleman, Fred Willard, and Eddie Albert, audiences decided that the cost of living was too high to see this film.
Director: Robert Scheerer
New Limited Releases:
The Last Flight of Noah's Ark--$11 million/57/40%/NA--Disney didn't have much faith in this family action film, as it was mostly released as part of a double bill with One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which had already been re-released the previous summer. Elliott Gould and Genevieve Bujold play a pilot and a missionary who end up stranded on a desert island somewhere in the Pacific along with a bunch of animals and stowaway Ricky Schroder, and decide their only chance at rescue is to turn the remains of the plane into a boat and to sail towards civilization. This was better received by critics than Disney's other big summer movie, Herbie Goes Bananas, but not by much.
Director: Charles Jarrott
Used Cars--$11.7 million/56/77%/68--This raucous comedy, Robert Zemeckis's second film, is a long way from the mostly family friendly special effect extravaganzas he'd eventually be known for. Kurt Russell played an unscrupulous used car salesman trying to keep his lot afloat against the equally unscrupulous, if far more successful, lot across the street. Jack Warden had a duel role as Russell's kindly boss and his evil twin brother, who owned the rival lot. This wasn't a big hit at the time, but Zemeckis's eventual reputation helped this eventually to become a cult hit. Executive produced by Zemeckis's friend Steven Spielberg.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Expanding:
The Blue Lagoon
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