The intersting thing about the mid-August blockbuster is that they tend to be, for lack of a better word, more quirky than the films opening up a month or two earlier. They also are frequently of a higher quality than your typical June release. The drought is coming, but not this week.
One Year Ago--August 16, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Good Boys--1/$21.4 million/$83.1 million/35/80%/60--In the summer's second "Superbad but with..." comedy, three nerdy tweens (Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, Brady Noon) set up to replace Tremblay's father's drone, only to go on a wild adventure involving high school girls, molly, sex dolls, frat houses, and parties where kissing might happen. Will Forte, playing Tremblay's drone-deprived father, is probably the most recognizable adult in the film. This didn't get nearly the acclaim Booksmart did when it opened in May, but made a lot more money, though well short of what Superbad did in 2007. Like Booksmart (whose star, Beanie Feldstein, is Jonah Hill's sister), this one has a direct connection to that earlier comedy, being produced by Seth Rogan.
Director: Gene Stupnitsky
The Angry Birds Movie 2--4/$10.3 million/$41.7 million/67/73%/60--The mobile game Angry Birds was a genuine phenomenon when it debuted in 2010, but its popularity had cooled off considerably by the time The Angry Birds Movie finally rolled out in 2016. Despite the fact that the film had underperformed, a sequel followed three years later. Even though Angry Birds 2 got far better reviews than its predecessor, the animated comedy, in which the birds and their sworn enemies the pigs are forced to team up when both their islands come under attack by an eagle with a grudge, flopped. The film did have a strong voice cast, though, including Tiffany Haddish, Rachel Bloom, Awkwafina, Peter Dinklage, Tony Hale, and no less than six Saturday Night Live cast members (Jason Sudeikis, Leslie Jones, Bill Hader, Pete Davidson, Maya Rudolph, and Beck Bennett).
Director: Thurop Van Orman and John Rice
47 Meters Down: Uncaged--7/$8.4 million/$22.3 million/96/44%/43--The first 47 Meters Down was a surprise hit the summer of 2017, so hence the sequel, which brings on an entirely new cast, including movie star offspring Corinne Foxx and Sistine Rose Stallone, to be menaced by hungry sharks. John Corbett, as the father of two of the girls, is the best-known cast member. Proving that a lot more people were interested in seeing Mandy Moore potentially get eaten than Sylvester Stallone's daughter potentially get eaten, this one fell well short of its predecessor.
Director: Johannes Roberts
Blinded By the Light--10/$4.3 million/$11.9 million/89%/71--The summer's second movie about a young British man of Southern Asian descent whose life is profoundly affected by the music of a beloved artist, this differs from Yesterday by both being a period piece (set in 1987), and by being considerably more realistic and serious than that fantasy. A teenager (Viveik Karla, making his film debut) of traditional Pakistani parents becomes a fan of Bruce Springsteen while struggling to connect with his rigid, traditional father. Despite excellent reviews, this pretty much fell through the cracks.
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Where'd You Go, Bernadette--11/$3.5 million/$9.2 million/124/50%/51--On paper, this comedy-drama seemed pose to be an Oscar player. Cate Blanchett being directed by Richard Linklater in an adaption of a highly acclaimed bestseller. Then it got bounced around the schedule before essentially getting dumped in mid-August. Blanchette played the titular Bernadette, whose vanishing leads her daughter to try to learn more about her and figure out where she might have disappeared to. Kristen Wiig played an obnoxious neighbor, Billy Crudup played Bernadette's husband, and the film also co-starred David Paymer, Megan Mullany, Judy Greer, and Laurence Fishburne.
Director: Richard Linklater
New Limited Releases:
Mission Mangal--$3.7 million/159/60%/NA--2013's Mars Orbiter Mission, in which India became only the fourth country in the world to put a satellite in orbit around Mars (and the first to do so on their first try) was justly celebrated in that country. This film largely threw out the actual history of the mission in order to make essentially an underdog sports comedy, as a team of misfits and rejects, working with an absurdly low budget, pulled together to achieve the impossible.
Director: Jagan Shakti
Five Years Ago--August 14, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
Straight Outta Compton--1/$60.2 million/$161.2 million/19/89%/72--This biopic of the revolutionary rap group NWA, chronicling the group's rise and fall, starred Jason Mitchell as Easy-E, Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre, and O'Shea Jackson, Jr. as his own father, Ice Cube. Paul Giamatti played their sleazy manager. The film was a surprise late summer hit, both critically and commercially, and reigned as the highest-grossing musical biopic until Bohemian Rhapsody took the title in 2018. The Original Screenplay would be nominated for an Oscar.
Director: F. Gary Gray
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.--3/$13.4 million/$45.5 million/61/67%/56--In the 1960s, in the wake of the humongous success of the James Bond film series, networks rushed to come up with their own spy shows. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. premiered in 1964. only a little over a year after Dr. No's American release, and became an instant hit. However, it would be a later spy show, Mission: Impossible, that would have a longer run, linger longer in the cultural memory, and launch a long-running film series, of which the fifth entry made more in its third weekend than the long-delayed adaption of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. did on its first. Unlike the modern day-set Impossibles, U.N.C.L.E. is set during the 1960s, as CIA agent Henry Cavill and KGB agent Armie Hammer are forced to work together to stop a group of Nazis from launching a stolen nuclear warhead. Alicia Vikander played the daughter of a scientist kidnapped by the Nazis. Despite decent reviews and the sequel hook at the end, the dismal box office makes a second Man unlikely.
Director: Guy Ritchie
Ten Years Ago--August 13, 2010
New Wide Releases:
The Expendables--1/$34.8 million/$103.1 million/28/42%/45--Sylvester Stallone gathered some of his friends together for this old-fashioned, 80s-style, hard-R action flick, and the result was a new franchise and Stallone's biggest hit as a leading man since Rocky IV, nearly a quarter-century earlier. Stallone lead a team of mercenaries, including Jason Statham, Jet Li, and Terry Crews, who are hired by Bruce Willis to take down a Latin American dictator, who is being controlled by a rogue CIA agent (Eric Roberts). Dolph Lundgreen played a former member of the team turned adversary, Mickey Rourke had a cameo as a friend of Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was still governor of California during filming, has a quick cameo (his part would be considerably larger in the sequels).
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Eat Pray Love--2/$23.1 million/$80.6 million/42/36%/50--This adaption of the hugely popular memoir starred Julia Roberts as a recently divorced woman who decides to travel around the world to figure out who she is, spending time in Italy, India, and Indonesia. Javier Bardem and James Franco play boyfriends of Roberts, Viola Davis played her best friend, Richard Jenkins another friend, and Billy Crudup her ex-husband. Reviews were marginal, but the popularity of the book, Roberts's star power, and the gorgeous places she traveled to helped make this a moderate hit.
Director: Ryan Murphy
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World--5/$10.6 million/$31.5 million/92/82%/69--A slacker (Michael Cera) finds his life has turned into an actual video game when his attempts to date Mary Elizabeth Winstead leads to him having to battle her seven evil exes in order to win her heart, including Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman, and Cera's former Arrested Development girlfriend Mae Whitman. Brie Larson played Cera's ex, Kieran Culkin his roommate, Aubrey Plaza a friend, and Anna Kendrick his sister. This adaption of the comic book series seemed tailor made to be the cult hit it became, though the film seems to be extremely polarizing--people either love it or hate it. One of the few movies filmed in Toronto that's actually set in the city.
Director: Edgar Wright
New Limited Releases:
Animal Kingdom--$1 million/193/94%/83--An orphaned Australian teenager moves in with his grandmother (Jacki Weaver), only to discover her sons (including Ben Mendelsohn) are all hardened criminals, and that no one in the family is innocent. Joel Edgerton played Mendelsohn's best friend and partner, and Guy Pierce played a cop trying to get the kid out before it was too late. While the film didn't make much of a box office impact in the United States, it did garner excellent reviews, and Weaver, who had been largely unknown outside of Australia, got a Supporting Actress nomination at the Oscars. An American-set TV series followed.
Director: David Michod
Fifteen Years Ago--August 19, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
The 40-Year-Old Virgin--1/$21.4 million/$109.5 million/19/85%/73--Steve Carell knocked his first leading movie role out of the park in this comedy about, well, read the title. When his co-workers (including Paul Rudd and, in his first major film role, Seth Rogan) find out, they decide to help him finally get lucky, just as he meets a nice divorcee (Catherine Keener). The film, the directorial debut of Judd Apatow, has an extremely strong supporting cast, including Jane Lynch as Carell's boss, Elizabeth Banks and Leslie Mann as other romantic prospects for Carell, Kat Dennings as Keener's daughter, little-knowns Jonah Hill and Kevin Hart as customers in the store Carell worked at, Stormy Daniels--yes, that Stormy Daniels--as a porn star Carell fantasizes about, and Carell's The Office co-stars Mindy Kaling, Jenna Fischer, and Phyllis Smith in cameos.
Director: Judd Apatow
Red Eye--2/$16.2 million/$57.9 million/44/79%/71--Rachel McAdams finds herself seated next to charming stranger Cillian Murphy on a red-eye flight. Unfortunately, that's not a coincidence, as he turns out to be a terrorist, forcing her to participate in an operation involving a guest at the hotel she is a manager at. Brian Cox played McAdams's father. This thriller ended up being much better received than the year's other airplane thriller, Flightplan, which would open a month later (though that film, with a much bigger star in Jodie Foster would easily outgross Red Eye).
Director: Wes Craven
Valiant--8/$5.9 million/$19.5 million/115/32%/45--Disney released, but did not make, this British animated film about carrier pigeons during World War II. Ewan McGregor, as a new recruit who finds himself thrust into the midst of the action, led a surprisingly excellent voice cast, including Tim Curry as the Nazi falcon trying to intercept the pigeons' messages, Hugh Laurie as the commanding pigeon, Ricky Gervais as a pigeon who signs up to escape some thugs, and John Cleese as another pigeon being held as a POW. Even with the Disney imprint, kids proved to be mostly uninterested in pigeons.
Director: Gary Chapman
Supercross--15/$1.3 million/$3.1 million/180/5%/26--Pretty much for fans of off-road motorcycle racing only, this film wedges a melodrama about two brothers (Steve Howey and Mike Vogal) in between the racing action. This is notable primarily for featuring early performances by Sophia Bush and Channing Tatum, as well as a rare acting gig for then-17-year-old Aaron Carter.
Director: Steve Boyum
Twenty Years Ago--August 18, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
The Cell--1/$17.5 million/$61.3 million/40/45%/40--A psychologist (Jennifer Lopez) is convinced by an FBI agent (Vince Vaughn) to literally enter the mind of a comatose serial killer (Vincent D'Onofrio) to try to figure out where his latest victim, who is likely still alive, is being held. There, she encounters wondrous and vivid images, as well as personifications of D'Onofrio's gentle, innocent side, as well as his monstrous side. Critics were generally blown away by the visuals, but were largely unimpressed by the storyline, which recycled yet another plot about a genius killer who sets ridiculously elaborate traps for his victims. The feature directorial debut by Tarsem Singh, the film was a surprise late summer hit and would receive an Oscar nomination for its Makeup.
Director: Tarsem Singh
The Original Kings of Comedy--2/$11.1 million/$38.2 million/63/83%/73--Spike Lee was probably a tad overqualified to direct this stand-up movie featuring two comedians who, at the time, were well-known for their sitcom work (Steve Harvey and D.L. Hughley) and two others who, thanks in large part to this film, would become much better known (Bernie Mac and Cedric the Entertainer). It remains the second-highest grossing comedy concert film, topped only by 1987's Eddie Murphy: Raw, and spawned an entire cottage industry of [Blank] of Comedy films and specials, almost none of which had any connection to the original.
Director: Spike Lee
Godzilla 2000--11/$4.4 million/$10 million/133/57%/41--Only two years after the big-budgeted, Hollywood-produced Godzilla crashed and burned, Toho Studios, the traditional home of the giant lizard, began production on a considerably lower-budget movie that would ignore all continuity of the series except for the very first Godzilla movie from 1954. Here, Godzilla fights a UFO. The indifferent US reaction would mean that Godzilla would stay off American movie screens until the next American Godzilla in 2014.
Director: Takao Okawara
Twenty-Five Years Ago--August 18, 1995:
New Wide Releases:
Mortal Kombat--1/$23.3 million/$70.5 million/22/47%/58--The martial arts fighting game Mortal Kombat had caused a sensation when it came out in 1992, mainly because of the game's "fatalities" moves, in which the winner could end the fight by doing something hyperviolent (or at least as hyperviolent as early 90s game graphics would permit) to the loser. Given that the film was PG-13, Mortal Kombat the movie cut way down on the violence, while retaining the game's plot of a martial arts tournament in which the fate of Earth itself hanging in the balance. Christopher Lambert played a god who handpicked three fighters, including Bridgette Wilson, to save the planet from the evil Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and his minions. In the then-burgeoning field of movies based on games, Mortal Kombat got surprisingly decent reviews, and would the the genre's highest grosser until Pokemon: the First Movie, and the highest-grossing live-action title until Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. A sequel, with an almost completely different cast, would follow in 1997.
Director: Paul Anderson
The Baby-Sitters Club--9/$3.4 million/$9.7 million/120/67%/NA--Ann M. Martin's book series The Baby-Sitters Club may have been beloved by elementary school-aged girls since the mid-80s, but the 1990 TV series adaption was short-lived, and no one showed up to see the feature film (which had no common cast or crew members with the series) despite decent reviews. The film showcased the various difficulties each member of the club (the most familiar member today being Rachel Leigh Cook) had in their personal lives during the summer between 8th and 9th grade, as they ran a day camp for their charges. Ellen Burstyn played an annoyed neighbor and Bruce Davidson played one of the girls' father. Any hopes for a sequel were scrapped when the film flopped, and it would take until this summer when a new, well-received adaption premiered on Netflix.
Director: Melanie Mayron
New Limited Releases:
The Usual Suspects--$23.3 million/75/89%/77--In retrospect, making this twisty thriller a hit was probably a bad idea, as it was the breakout film for both director Bryan Singer and star Kevin Spacey. Spacey played a physically disabled lowlife who was the sole conscious survivor of a massacre on a shipping boat, explaining to the skeptical detective in charge (Chazz Palminteri) exactly what led to the night before, a tale involving the gang of thieves Spacey ran with, including Stephen Baldwin, Benicio Del Toro (in what was also his breakout role), Kevin Pollock, and former cop Gabriel Byrne, a mysterious lawyer (Pete Postlethwaite), Byrne's unsuspecting girlfriend (Suzy Amis), and a Turkish crime lord named Keyzer Soze who may or may not exist. The film would go 2-for-2 at the Oscars, winning for its Original Screenplay and Supporting Actor for Spacey.
Director: Bryan Singer
Thirty Years Ago--August 17, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
The Exorcist III--1/$9.3 million/$26.1 million/48/59%/48--17 years after the original had simultaneously thrilled and repulsed audiences (and 13 years after the first sequel was a much-derided flop) came this rather moody follow-up, with George C. Scott (taking over the role played by the late Lee J. Cobb in the first film) investigating a series of murders that fit the M.O. of a long-deceased serial killer (Brad Dourif), and which might have to do with a mysterious, amnesic patient at a mental institution (Jason Miller). Reviews were mixed, and while the film did better than Exorcist II, it still wasn't a big hit. There would be a pair of competing prequels 14 years later.
Director: William Peter Blatty
My Blue Heaven--4/$6.2 million/$23.6 million/53/71%/35--Steve Martin is no one's idea of a Italian gangster, but that's what he plays in this broad comedy. Specifically, he played a former gangster, now in the witness protection program in a white bread suburb, where he quickly gets up to his old tricks. Rick Moranis played the FBI agent forced to play babysitter for Martin, and Joan Cusack played the local DA who finds herself endlessly frustrated by the way Martin is able to wiggle out of his crime spree. William Hickey, Carol Kane, and Daniel Stern also appear. Despite much worse reviews, this ended up slightly outgrossing competing mob comedy The Freshman. It also served as an unofficial sequel to Goodfellas, which opened a month later (Nora Ephron, this film's screenwriter, was married at the time to Goodfellas screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi).
Director: Herbert Ross
Taking Care of Business--7/$3.6 million/$20 million/64/29%/NA--The year's second "Con artist poses as rich guy's housesitter" comedy (after the already forgotten Opportunity Knocks) starred Jim Belushi as a convict who sneaks out of prison a couple days early to go to the World Series, only to discover ad exec Charles Grodin's lost personal organizer, which he uses to stay at Grodin's boss's house and impress Grodin's client (Mako). Meanwhile, without his organizer, Grodin finds his entire life falling apart. Hector Elizondo played the prison warden, Veronica Hamel Grodin's wife, and Star Trek: The Next Generation vets Gates McFadden and John DeLancie as fellow executives. This would be the first produced screenplay of J.J. Abrams.
Director: Arthur Hiller
Wild at Heart--10/$2.9 million/$14.6 million/84/65%/52--David Lynch had become the toast of TV earlier in the year thanks to Twin Peaks, which, along with the presence of Nicolas Cage, might explain why this blackly comic noir is his biggest hit outside of the Oscar-nominated The Elephant Man and the big budgeted Dune. Cage and Laura Dern play lovers driving cross-country, while hitmen hired by Dern's crazed mother (Diane Ladd, Dern's real life mother) track them down. Willem Dafoe played a particularly nasty pursuer, while Lynch regulars Harry Dean Stanton, Sherilyn Finn, and Grace Zabriskie also appeared. Ladd would earn an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress.
Director: David Lynch
Thirty-Five Years Ago--August 16, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Back to the Future--$7.3 million
New Wide Releases:
Volunteers--2/$5.2 million/$19.9 million/45/58%/55--The second broad comedy of the summer for both Tom Hanks and John Candy (who had co-starred together in the previous year's Splash). Hanks played a rich college graduate who, after being cut off by his father, decides that joining the Peace Corps is a better option than having to face his gambling debt. He ends up in Thailand with Candy and Hanks's future real-life wife Rita Wilson, where they find themselves in the crosshairs of both local communists and a drug kingpin. The comedy would outgross Hanks's The Man With One Red Shoe (which was already largely out of theaters), but finish below Candy's Summer Rental (which had just opened the week before).
Director: Nicholas Meyer
The Return of the Living Dead--4/$4.4 million/$14.2 million/59/90%/66--A chemical spill brings the undead back to life, to the chagrin of a couple of warehouse workers and a group of punks, in this well-received horror comedy. Credited as being the first movie to suggest that zombies are after brains in particular, this one not only became a cult hit, but might be the most influential zombie film not directed by George Romero (incidentally, this easily outgrossed Romero's Day of the Dead that summer). Followed by a sequel in 1988.
Director: Dan O'Bannon
Year of the Dragon--5/$4.1 million/$18.7 million/47/56%/58--Michael Cimino's first film since the ill-fated Heaven's Gate was this cop drama about a NYPD captain (Mickey Rourke) who makes it his personal mission to take down a vicious Chinese triad gang lord (John Lone). The film received mixed reviews but has become a cult classic. The screenplay was co-written by Oliver Stone, a year before his directorial breakout with Platoon.
Director: Michael Cimino.
New Limited Releases:
The Bride--$3.6 million/126/25%/30--Sting had his first, and to date, last starring vehicle with this remake of The Bride of Frankenstein. Playing Dr. Frankenstein, he takes the title of the original film literally, and ends up going for the Bride (Jennifer Beals) himself, while his first creature (Clancy Brown) finds himself part of a traveling circus. Gerarldine Page played Sting's housekeeper, and Cary Elwes and Timothy Spall have small roles.
Director: Franc Roddam
Forty Years Ago--August 15, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
Smokey and the Bandit II--$66.1 million/8/14%/41--Even though Burt Reynolds was one of the top box office draws in 1977, everyone was still caught off-guard by how huge the original Smokey and the Bandit was, as it ended up being that year's second-highest grossing film. Naturally, there would be a sequel, and like a lot of sequels, this one basically replicated the first one, only bigger. This time, instead of having to transport beer from Texas to Georgia, the route is reversed, as Reynolds and Jerry Reed have to take, of all things, a pregnant elephant from Florida to Texas. Sally Field, in her first release since her Oscar win, also returns, as she and Reynolds had broken up (in the movie and real life) and use the trip to slowly come back together (movie only). Jackie Gleason, as the obsessed Texas sheriff determined to catch Reynolds, also returns, destroying plenty more cop cars along the way. Reynolds's friend Dom DeLuise joined the cast as an Italian gynecologist who agrees to become an ad hoc vet for the elephant. While this would somewhat outgross The Blues Brothers, the summer's other tribute to vehicular destruction, that film would be the one much more fondly remembered. A third sequel, without either Reynolds or Field, would come in 1983.
Director: Hal Needham
New Limited Releases:
Middle Age Crazy--NA/NA/NA/NA--1980 had quite a number of movies about mid-life crises and adulterous affairs and marriages falling apart and coming back together. This was yet another one, with Bruce Dern growing tired of his life as he hit 40, so he changes his wardrobe, buys a sports car, and dumps wife Ann-Margaret for a younger girl, before going back to her at the end. If you missed this one, don't worry, more of these types of films would come before the end of the year.
Director: John Trent
The Octagon--$19 million/37/33%/48--Grindhouses were still doing big business in 1980, showing plenty of chop-socky flicks, many of which's titles and/or lead actors made reference to Bruce Lee. The Octagon seemed to be an attempt to do a version of those films for the suburban multiplexes, as its lead was white guy Chuck Norris (still early in his leading man career) who has to fight off hordes of ninja terrorists who are under the command of Norris's estranged half-brother. Longtime character actor Lee Van Cleef hopefully got a decent paycheck as a mercenary who recruits Norris.
Director: Eric Karson
Expanding:
Xanadu
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