One Year Ago--August 23, 2019
New Columns:
Box Office Flashback--The first edition of the column that looks back at what was opening in American theaters that weekend over the last four decades. It began as What's On Tonight & Pop Culture left the soon-to-die Disqus Groups and set up shop at its own URL. The column started just as the summer movie season sputtered out. While a couple of well-remembered films and box office successes opened in this pre-Labor Day frame, the last couple of weekends of August tend to be prime dumping ground.
One Year Ago--August 23, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Angel Has Fallen--1/$21.4 million/$69 million/41/39%/45--After having saved the President from assassination attempts in Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen, Gerard Butler is rewarded by being accused of attempting to assassinate President Morgan Freeman. On the run from the Secret Service and the FBI, he escapes to the backwoods cabin of his survivalist father (Nick Nolte). The success of the first two films ensures a better than average supporting cast for this one, with Danny Huston as Butler's old friend, Jada Pinkett Smith as an FBI agent, and Tim Blake Nelson as the Vice President. As this one did about as well as the first two films, there will probably be yet another sequel.
Director: Ric Roman Waugh
Overcomer--3/$8.2 million/$34.8 million/75/50%/17--Let other Christian moviemakers hire familiar actors to star in their films. The most famous actor director/writer/actor/editor Alex Kendrick has employed was Kirk Cameron, in one film (Fireproof), and his movies (including Facing the Giants, Courageous, and War Room) have almost all been financial successes. Whether they're any good is another story. Kendrick starred as a cross-country coach in his latest, a melodrama about a troubled runner and how she became a Christian. It did very well with its target audience.
Director: Alex Kendrick
Ready or Not--6/$8 million/$28.7 million/83/88%/64--New bride Samara Weaving discovers on her wedding night that her new family (including Adam Brody and Andie MacDowell) are not just eccentric, but also murderous--and she's their target--in this well-received horror comedy. Despite good reviews, business was only so-so, but this seems destined to become a cult classic.
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett
New Limited Releases:
Brittney Runs a Marathon--$7.2 million/129/88%/72--Jillian Bell starred as Brittney, an out-of-shape New York party girl who, ordered by her doctor to get healthy, decides to take up running. Eventually, she feels she is ready to run in the New York Marathon, but injuries and setbacks in her personal life might quash that dream. This Amazon-produced comedy got solid reviews, but was unable to make an impact outside of art houses.
Director: Paul Downs Colaizzo
American Factory--NA/NA/97%/86--In 2010, documentary filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert got an Oscar nomination for their short The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, chronicling the shutdown of an Ohio factory. This feature length documentary is sort of a sequel, as the plant was taken over by a Chinese auto glass manufacturer, leading to a culture class between the American workers and their new Chinese bosses. Like its predecessor, this Netflix-produced film got an Oscar nomination, and indeed won Best Documentary. It also got three Emmy nominations, because somehow docs can be made both for the movies and for TV.
Director: Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
Five Years Ago--August 21, 2015:
#1 Movie:
Straight Outta Compton--$26.4 million
New Wide Releases:
Sinister 2--3/$10.5 million/$27.7 million/86/16%/32--2012's Sinister was a surprise Halloween-season hit, helped by a solid cast led by Ethan Hawke. With several horror movies already set for an October release, this sequel, of which only James Ransone returned from the first film, tried its luck in August. Shannyn Sossaman played the mother of twin boys who move into an old farmhouse, where her sons become the target of the evil spirit responsible for the mayhem in the first movie. This one wasn't nearly as well-received as the first one, and its box office take was only a bit more than half of the original. Still, thanks to a low budget, this proved profitable. There are talks of a future sequel being a cross-over with the Insidious series (the films share the same producers), though nothing concrete has emerged.
Director: Ciaran Foy
Hitman: Agent 47--4/$8.3 million/$22.5 million/97/9%/28--The weekend's second sequel to a somewhat forgotten movie, this one replaced Timothy Olyphant, who had played the title role in 2007's Hitman, with British actor Rupert Friend (the role was supposed to have been played by Paul Walker, but he died before production began). He is tasked with pursuing the daughter (Hannah Ware) of a scientist responsible for creating the super soldiers of the organization that employs Friend. Zachary Quinto played another agent with questionable motives, and Ciaran Hinds played Ware's father. Critics were largely confused. Like Sinister, the future of this franchise may lie in crossovers with other movies also based on video games.
Director: Aleksander Bach
American Ultra--6/$5.5 million/$14.4 million/113/43%/50--Clearly hoping to follow in the footsteps of Pineapple Express, a previous August action comedy about stoners named after a particular strain of weed, this unfortunately fell well short, despite a fine cast. Jesse Eisenberg played a pothead convenience store clerk who is inexplicably targeted for assassination by a CIA agent (Topher Grace)--inexplicable until he single-handedly fights off the agents sent to kill him. Eisenberg's Adventureland co-star Kristin Stewart played his girlfriend, who has secrets of her own, with Connie Brittian, Tony Hale, Bill Pullman, and Walton Goggins as other agents, and John Leguizamo as Eisenberg's dealer.
Director: Nima Nourizadeh
New Limited Releases:
Grandma--$7 million/140/91%/77--An older woman (Lily Tomlin) is visited by her estranged granddaughter (Julia Garner) who needs money for an abortion. Tomlin doesn't have, so the two of them spend the day calling on friends and acquaintances trying to raise money for the procedure. This comedy-drama managed to attract a truly impressive cast, including Marcia Gay Hardin as Tomlin's daughter and Garner's mother, Sam Elliott as Tomlin's ex-husband, Judy Greer as her ex-girlfriend, Laverne Cox as a tattoo artist who is friends with Tomlin, and Elizabeth Pena, in one of her final films, as another friend. Despite the cast and solid reviews, this didn't break out.
Director: Paul Weitz
Ten Years Ago--August 20, 2010:
#1 Movie:
The Expendables--$17 million
New Wide Releases:
Vampires Suck--2/$12.2 million/$36.7 million/83/4%/18--As the title suggests, the primary target for this Friedberg/Seltzer spoof is the Twilight series (specifically, the first two movies), scenes of which, in typical Friedberg/Seltzer fashion, usually just remake the source material, except with some sort of "funny" twist. The jokes usually don't go much deeper than the character names (Edward Sullin instead of Edward Cullin, Jacob White instead of Jacob Black, and Becca Crain instead of Bella Swan--the latter being the only one that makes you think for even a nanosecond). A few familiar faces, like Diedrich Bader, Ken Jeong, and Dave Foley showed up to collect paychecks. Despite a decent box-office (which probably has more to do with the popularity of Twilight than anything else), this would be the final Friedberg/Seltzer film to get a theatrical release to date.
Director: Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer
Lottery Ticket--4/$10.7 million/$24.7 million/106/35%/50--The good news: Bow Wow has won over $300 million in the lottery. The bad news: it's the beginning of a holiday weekend, the claims office won't be open until Tuesday, and everyone in the neighborhood knows he won. That's the premise of this comedy, which doesn't live up to the promise of its terrific cast, which includes Brandon T. Jackson as Bow Wow's best friend, Ice Cube as a friendly neighbor, Loretta Divine as Bow Wow's grandmother, Keith David as a loan shark, and Terry Crews, Mike Epps, and Leslie Jones in supporting roles.
Director: Erik White
Piranha 3D--6/$10.1 million/$25 million/105/74%/53--Blood and guts enter the third dimension in this gory horror comedy with an absurdly overqualified cast. A loose remake of Joe Dante's 1978 creature feature about the titular killer fish (itself largely a spoof of Jaws), this version starred Elisabeth Shue as the sheriff of a resort town who discovers that the lake the town is on the shore of is about to be overrun by the prehistoric fish, released from the cave they've been breeding in for millions of years by an earthquake, just as thousands of college students show up for spring break. Adam Scott played a seismologist who realizes the danger, Ving Rhames was Shue's deputy, Christopher Lloyd a local fish expert, Jerry O'Connell a guy who makes Girls Gone Wild-reminiscent videos, and Richard Dreyfuss as an unfortunate fisherman. Despite solid reviews and the then-popularity of 3D, the film only did modest business, though it was followed by a barely-released sequel.
Director: Alexandre Aja
The Switch--7/$8.4 million/$27.8 million/98/52%/52--Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman (who had previously co-starred in The Break-Up, and would go on to star together in Office Christmas Party and the two Horrible Bosses) play platonic best friends in this romcom. When she decides she wants to get pregnant via a sperm donor, she decides to use college professor Patrick Wilson. However, after drunkenly spilling Wilson's contribution down a sink, Bateman secretly substitutes his own. After meeting her again several years later, Bateman realizes just how much he and her son are alike. Jeff Goldblum played Bateman's friend, and Juliette Lewis played Anniston's. This mild comedy has the distinction of being the final film Disney would release under the Miramax banner.
Director: Josh Gordon and Will Speck
Nanny McPhee Returns--8/$8.4 million/$29 million/97/76%/52--While the 2005 family comedy Nanny McPhee wasn't a huge hit in the US (where it opened in early 2006), it did quite well in the rest of the world, resulting in this sequel, which takes place some 70 years after the first film. During World War II, magical Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) shows up at the farm of Maggie Gyllenhaal, struggling with her three children (including Asa Butterfield) and two cousins while her husband is away in the army. Rhys Ifans played Gyllenhaal's gambling addicted brother-in-law, and Thompson's Harry Potter co-stars Ralph Finnes and Maggie Smith also appear. This did good business overseas--though not nearly as good as the first film's--but was largely an afterthought in the US.
Director: Susanna White
Fifteen Years Ago--August 26, 2005:
#1 Movie:
The 40-Year-Old Virgin--$16.3 million
New Wide Releases:
The Brothers Grimm--2/$15.1 million/$37.9 million/73/38%/51--It was not a good sign when an expensive period fantasy starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger and directed by Terry Gilliam was dumped in late August. Damon and Ledger played the titular brothers, who in this very fictionalized film are con men monster hunters who discover that magic is indeed real when they have to fight an evil queen (Monica Bellucci) who is kidnapping peasant girls to steal their youth. Jonathan Pryce played a magic-disbelieving general who tasks the brothers with stopping the kidnappings and Lena Headey played a peasant girl who might be the next victim. For a late summer dump, it did all right business, but it did not become profitable.
Director: Terry Gilliam
The Cave--6/$6.2 million/$15 million/133/12%/30--A generic monster movie, this thriller followed a rapidly dwindling team of scientists exploring a cave buried underneath an old European abbey, which contains some sort of creature that is stalking and picking them off one by one. Cast members in this one included Morris Chestnut, Piper Perabo, Daniel Dae Kim, and in her second movie of the weekend, Lena Headey. That this one ended up in a late-August slot is quite understandable.
Director: Bruce Hunt
Undiscovered--20/$0.7 million/$1.1 million/212/8%/29--2005's lowest grossing wide release managed the rather impressive feat of making less than half of the gross of the year's second-lowest grossing wide release, Supercross (which was largely ignored the previous weekend). Pell James (who was much more memorable in a bit role in Broken Flowers) played an aspiring model and Steven Strait (who was also much more memorable in a supporting role in Sky High) played her love interest, a struggling musician. Musician Ashlee Simpson, playing James's best friend, made her film debut 3 weeks after her sister Jessica did in The Dukes of Hazzard. This one has an interesting supporting cast, including Peter Weller, Carrie Fisher, Stephen Moyer, Kip Pardue, and future Sinister 2 star Shannyn Sossamon. Maybe some of them should have been on the poster.
Director: Meiert Avis
Twenty Years Ago--August 25, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Bring It On--1/$17.4 million/$68.4 million/37/63%/52--Who would have thought that a relatively low-budget cheerleading comedy opening in late August would end up being a huge sleeper hit and one of the most enduring movies of 2000? Kristen Dunst played the captain of a rich suburban cheerleading squad who discovers that their previous captain had stolen their award-winning routine from an inner city squad, led by Gabrielle Union. Dunst finds herself having to try to mollify Union's understandable anger while finding a new routine in time for nationals. Eliza Dushku played a new squad member, and Jessie Bradford played Dushku's brother, who takes a shine to Dunst. This was followed by five straight-to-video/DVD sequels (with none of the original cast) and a Broadway musical partially written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Director: Peyton Reed
The Art of War--2/$10.4 million/$30.2 million/83/16%/30--Not even Wesley Snipes could drum up much interest in this noisy action flick, as Snipes played a UN spy who finds himself framed for the assassination of the Chinese ambassador. As there always is in films like these, there's a much larger conspiracy at work. Donald Sutherland played the secretary-general of the UN, Anne Archer Snipes's superior, and Michael Biehn his teammate. Followed by two straight-to-DVD sequels, though only the first one starred Snipes.
Director: Christian Duguay
The Crew--8/$4.1 million/$13 million/124/20%/37--Four retired mobsters (Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, Seymour Cassel, Dan Hedaya) in Miami find themselves in a complicated scheme involving two faked murders, a real house fire, drug smuggling, and kidnapped cops, all so they don't lose their apartments to yuppies. Despite a solid cast (which included Jennifer Tilly, Lainie Kazan, Jeremy Pivin, and Carrie-Anne Moss), this wan comedy came and went almost immediately.
Director: Michael Dinner
Twenty-Five Years Ago--August 25, 1995:
#1 Movie:
Mortal Kombat--$10.3 million
New Wide Releases:
Desperado--2/$7.9 million/$25.4 million/66/63%/55--Robert Rodriguez attracted a lot of attention in 1992 for his Spanish-language action movie, El Mariachi, which he shot for only $7,000 (after picking the movie up for distribution, Sony would spend another $200,000 on post-production work). This English-language sequel, his second feature film, had a comparatively huge $7 million budget and well-known actors. Antonio Banderes takes over the role of the nameless Mariachi-turned-hitman, who continues his quest to take down the criminal organization from the first movie. Salma Hayek played a local store owner who is attracted to Banderes, even though she's also in the employ of the criminals. Steve Buscemi played an ally of the Mariachi, Cheech Marin played a bartender, Danny Trejo played a rival hitman, the star of the first film, Carlos Gallardo, played a friend of the Mariachi, and there's a cameo by Quintin Tarantino. Rodriguez would wrap up the trilogy in 2003 with Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Lord of Illusions--5/$4.8 million/$13.3 million/102/63%/NA--Scott Bakula, in a rare lead movie role, played a PI investigating a cult whose long-dead leader (Daniel von Bargen) may not be quite as dead as thought, and a stage magician (Kevin J. O'Connor) whose illusions may involve real magic. Famke Janssen played the wife of the stage magician, who has her own past with the cultists. This was the third and, to date, final film directed by horror novelist Clive Barker, and was based on one of his own short stories. Barker has remained involved in filmmaking as a writer and producer.
Director: Clive Barker
The Amazing Panda Adventure--11/$2.4 million/$7.5 million/132/20%/NA--"Amazing" might have overstated the case of this family film, that sees pre-teen Ryan Slater (Christian's brother) travel to China to visit his father (Stephen Lang), and while there, has to join a Chinese girl (Yi Ding) to transport a stolen panda cub back to a reserve, while outsmarting a couple of poachers. Not even a new Bugs Bunny cartoon before the movie (the not-exactly-fondly-remembered "Carrotblanca") proved to be any sort of draw.
Director: Christopher Cain
New Limited Releases:
Beyond Rangoon--$5.8 million/144/39%/NA--Patricia Arquette starred as an American visiting Burma/Myanmar in 1988, just as a popular uprising against the military government gets underway. Arquette, a doctor, finds herself involved with the anti-government protesters, which puts her life in considerable danger. Frances McDormand played Arquette's sister. While the film was not a commercial success (and received decidedly mixed reviews), its existence did draw attention to the ongoing human rights abuses in the country, and pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi cited the film as one of the reasons she was released from house arrest shortly after it came out.
Director: John Boorman
The Show--$2.7 million/173/80%/NA--This Russell Simmons-produced documentary, chronicling what was going on both on-stage and behind the scenes at a major hip-hop concert in Philadelphia, featured interviews with many of the then-current top stars of the genre, including The Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, LL Cool J, and the members of Run-DMC. It marked the directorial debut of former actor Brian Robbins, whose career would largely involve helming mediocre family movies.
Director: Brian Robbins
Thirty Years Ago--August 24, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Darkman--1/$8.1 million/$33.9 million/36/84%/65--After failing to get the rights to Batman (which, of course, had been turned into a blockbuster the previous summer) or The Shadow (which would be adapted into an Alec Baldwin flop in 1994), director Sam Raimi decided to just create his own superhero. The result was this violent actioner, in which Liam Neeson played a scientist working with artificial skin who is attacked and left for dead by a vicious mobster (Larry Drake). Using his technology and scientific knowledge, he is able to disguise himself as anyone he wants as he takes down the mobster's men. Frances McDormand played Neeson's girlfriend, an attorney who was the real target of Drake. Critics were generally positive, and the film was a moderate late-summer hit. There would be two straight-to-video sequels, neither of them featuring either Neeson or McDormand.
Director: Sam Raimi
Men at Work--7/$3.2 million/$16.3 million/73/30%/34--Emilo Estevez, who was already in the still-playing Young Guns II, both directed and starred in this action comedy, along with his brother Charlie Sheen (whose other summer movie, Navy Seals, had largely completed its run). The duo play garbagemen who come across a dead body on their route, which leads them to a larger conspiracy involving toxic waste and a corrupt businessman. It didn't make much of an impact.
Director: Emilo Estevez
The Witches--10/$2.2 million/$10.4 million/98/93%/NA--Anjelica Huston starred in this adaption of Roald Dahl's novel about a group of child-hating witches who plot to turn the children of England into mice, and the heroic kid-turned-mouse and his grandmother who plan to stop them. Rowan Atkinson played the manager of the hotel the witches were meeting at, Brenda Blethyn the mother of another child turned into a mouse, and Jane Horrocks, who would play Blethyn's daughter eight years later in Little Voice, as the one good witch (a character not in the novel). The film wasn't a success in theaters, but would become a cult hit. A remake with Anne Hathaway and Octavia Spencer is scheduled for next year.
Director: Nicolas Roeg
New Limited Release:
Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection--$6.7 million/112/11%/NA--1986's The Delta Force didn't really make enough to justify a sequel, but it did well on home video, so here we are. Instead of a cast of Chuck Norris and a bunch of familiar character actors, this time around there's just Chuck Norris, who is trying to bring down a vicious South American drug lord (Billy Drago). Richard Jaeckel would be the only other familiar name in the cast, playing a DEA agent. There would be another sequel, but it would be without Norris, and would go straight to video.
Director: Aaron Norris
Pump Up the Volume--$11.5 million/92/81%/77--A shy high school student (Christian Slater) transforms at night to the host of a pirate radio show, encouraging his fellow teenagers to rebel against conformity and stand up for themselves. The show becomes so popular that eventually the authorities are called in to try to shut it down. Samantha Mathis played another student who figures out Slater's identity, Seth Green played a student, and Ellen Greene a teacher. Again, this wasn't a big hit initially, but became a cult hit on video.
Director: Allan Moyle
Dreams--$2 million/155/65%/NA--Legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, known for his epics, decided to try something different with this late-career film, making a series of vignettes, all based on one of his dreams. These tales were generally not light-hearted, but instead dealt with weighty themes like war, death, and nuclear fallout. Several prominent American filmmakers were involved in the production. Steven Spielberg helped secure financing and served as an executive producer, George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic worked on the film's effects, and Martin Scorsese appeared in one segment as Vincent Van Gogh.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Thirty-Five Years Ago--August 23, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Back to the Future--$6.9 million
New Wide Releases:
Teen Wolf--2/$6.1 million/$33.1 million/26/44%/25--Michael J. Fox shot this independently-produced horror comedy (with the emphasis on comedy) before he made Back to the Future, but tiny Atlantic Releasing decided to hold off on distribution until after the release of the time travel adventure. Good call. While this film wasn't a huge blockbuster, it undoubtedly made more than if it had been released earlier, and did well enough to establish that Fox was indeed a movie star (and gave him the rare distinction of headlining both the #1 and #2 movies of the weekend). Fox played a seemingly ordinary teenage kid who discovers, to his horror, that lycanthropy runs in his family when he changes into a werewolf. However, he discovers that his wolf-like qualities helps both his popularity and his basketball skills. The film would be followed by a sequel without Fox (Jason Bateman, the brother of Fox's Family Ties co-star Justine Bateman, would play Fox's equally cursed cousin), a Saturday morning cartoon series, and, a quarter-century later, a hit MTV series that borrowed the title and the basic premise, but emphasized the horror over the comedy.
Director: Rod Daniel
Ghostbusters--9/$2.1 million/$9.4 million/88/97%/71--By 1985, the prevalence of the VCR, along with video stores seemingly popping up in every shopping center, had largely ended Hollywood's practice of theatrically re-releasing hit titles one to three years after their initial release. However, re-releases weren't quite dead yet, as both Return of the Jedi and E.T. had had successful follow-up runs already that year. Ghostbusters coming back, however, seemed to be primarily for petty reasons. For most of the second half of 1984, the horror comedy had reigned as the year's highest grosser. However, December release Beverly Hills Cop had taken advantage of the lack of competition after the New Year to ultimately beat out Ghostbusters as the highest-grossing film released in 1984. This re-release made just enough money for Ghostbusters to pass Beverly Hills Cop on the chart and regain its title as 1984's highest-grossing release.
Director: Ivan Reitman
New Limited Releases:
Godzilla 1985--$4.1 million/122/20%/31--Technically, this is the American release of The Return of Godzilla, which had opened in Japan the previous year and was the first new Godzilla movie that Toho had made since 1975. However, it was so altered from the Japanese version that IMDB essentially treats them as two separate films, each with its own listing. Other than being considerably shorter than the Japanese version, the American version adds several scenes set at the Pentagon, as well as scenes featuring Raymond Burr, reprising his role from 30 years earlier when, as a largely unknown actor, he had shot scenes for the American release of the original Godzilla (he would land the lead in Perry Mason shortly thereafter). With largely terrible reviews and far too much competition in the genre market, this was largely ignored, and no Toho movie got wide American distribution until Godzilla 2000.
Director: Kojo Hasimoto (Japanese footage) and R.J. Kizer (American footage)
Better Off Dead--$10.3 million/82/77%/51--Warner Bros. didn't seem to have any clue what to do with this quirky teen comedy, as they kept it in limited release for weeks before finally giving it a wide release in October. John Cusack played a sad sack teen who decides to end it all after getting dumped by his girlfriend, only to not even be able to commit suicide successfully. Of course, that's before he meets the new French foreign exchange student. The film was not successful at the time, but over the years became a cult hit.
Director: Savage Steve Holland
Forty Years Ago--August 22, 1980:
New Limited Releases:
Battle Beyond the Stars--NA/NA/45%/NA--This Roger Corman-produced space epic, written by John Sayles, obviously owes its existence to Star Wars. However, its plot is drawn from Seven Samurai and its first American remake, The Magnificent Seven. Richard Thomas plays a young resident of a farming planet that comes under attack from a brutal warlord. He is able to recruit several mercenaries, including George Peppard and Robert Vaughn (who also co-starred in The Magnificent Seven), to try to take on the warlord. It wasn't a major hit, but there were enough people out there looking for another space fix after The Empire Strikes Back that it ended up being nicely profitable.
Director: Jimmy T. Murakami
The Big Red One--$7.2 million/76/90%/77--While Roger Corman was trying to replicate Star Wars, Mark Hamill was looking to get away from the franchise, and a low-budget World War II drama from veteran director Samuel Fuller seemed to be a good way to do so. Based on Fuller's own experiences during the war, the drama starred Hamill as a private in the 1st Infantry Division under the command of Lee Marvin, as they spend three years fighting their way across Europe, including participating in D-Day and liberating a concentration camp. The film got good reviews when it was released, and its reputation has only grown over time. After Fuller's death, the film had 47 minutes restored to be a more accurate representation of his vision.
Director: Samuel Fuller
Expanding:
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