Pre-Halloween activities usually put a damper on the box office the weekend before, and with the holiday movie season starting soon, studios don't want to release anything that might do well away from November's big guns. So this week sees a bunch of cheap horror movies and dumps.
One Year Ago--October 25, 2019:
#1 Movie:
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil--$19.4 million
New Wide Releases:
Countdown--5/$8.9 million/$25.6 million/89/26%/31--Despite bad reviews, this low rent supernatural horror flick, which owes a debt to the Final Destination series, became a minor Halloween sleeper hit. A nurse (Elizabeth Lail) downloads an app that supposedly reveals how much time you have left before you die. As it turns out, trying to avoid the activity that would lead to your untimely death gets you killed anyway, as Lail and others who have only a few hours left to live try to figure out how to defeat the demon behind it. The biggest names in the cast, which seems to mostly be made up of people with supporting roles on TV series, are Peter Facinelli and Tichina Arnold.
Director: Justin Dec
Black and Blue--6/$8.4 million/$22.1 million/97/52%/54--Naomie Harris's first lead role since her Oscar-nominated performance in Moonlight was in this standard-issue cop thriller, where she played a rookie New Orleans cop who runs afoul of a conspiracy by fellow cops to murder drug dealers, as well as a drug kingpin who becomes convinced she is responsible for the death of his nephew. Tyrese Gibson played a civilian who becomes her reluctant helper. Like Countdown, this became a minor sleeper.
Director: Deon Taylor
The Current War: Director's Cut--9/$2.6 million/$6 million/133/61%/55--This Oscar-baity recreation of the battle between Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbach) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) over which standard of electricity should be used debuted at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival to mediocre reviews, but was still set for a splashy December release by the Weinstein Company. Then everything blew up. This ended up getting sold off to tiny 101 Studios, which, during the two year delay, allowed director Alfonso Gomez Rejon to do some reshoots and to re-edit the film, resulting in the version that finally opened in the fall of 2019, complete with subtitle that probably confused moviegoers who hadn't been following the ups and downs of this particular project. Reviewers who saw both versions generally conceded the new cut was an improvement, but not enough of one to really make this a good movie. Nicolas Hoult played Nikola Telsa, Matthew McFadyen played J.P. Morgan, Katherine Waterson played Westinghouse's wife, Marguerite, and Tom Holland played a young associate of Edison's.
Director: Alfonzo Gomez Rejon
New Limited Releases:
BTS World Tour: 'Love Yourself: Speak Yourself' (The Final) Soeul Live Viewing--$1.2 million/209/NA/NA--This was not a movie, but actually a live, worldwide broadcast of the South Korean supergroup's next-to-last show of their widely successful tour. However, because of the 14-hour time difference between Seoul and the east coast of the United States, the "live" broadcast was delayed in North America to Sunday afternoon. These numbers are even more impressive compared to the other special events screened that weekend, including a ballet and a Kanye West concert.
Director: None credited
Expanding:
The Lighthouse--8/$3 million
Five Years Ago--October 23, 2015:
#1 Movie:
The Martian--$15.7 million
New Wide Releases:
The Last Witch Hunter--4/$10.8 million/$27.4 million/87/18%/34--Vin Diesel, forever in search of a franchise that does not involve speeding cars and endless talks of family, starred in this supernatural action flick that was literally derived from Diesel's Dungeons & Dragons character. He played an immortal witch hunter who teams with a young, good witch (Rose Leslie) and a priestly assistant (Elijah Wood) to take down an evil warlock bent on resurrecting an even more evil witch. Michael Caine played Diesel's previous, retired assistant, who has been possessed by the evil warlock. If all that sounds incredibly silly, critics agreed, and even Diesel and Halloween couldn't get many people into the theaters.
Director: Breck Eisner
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension--6/$8.1 million/$18.3 million/104/14%/30--The sixth and (to date) final entry in the low-budget haunted house series was the lowest-grossing, even if it had the biggest budget. A family living in a house built on the property where one of the previous films took place discovers an old video camera that they realize can record the evil spirits haunting the house, and who have a strong interest in their young daughter. Like the characters in the previous films, they don't flee in terror, but instead try to fight the demon, with predictable results. Like The Last Witch Hunter, not even Halloween could convince many people to see yet another Paranormal Activity film in theaters.
Director: Gregory Plotkin
Rock the Kasbah--13/$1.5 million/$3 million/7%/29--Bill Murray led an all-star cast in this comedy that played to almost completely empty theaters. He played a rock manager stuck in Afghanistan who stumbles upon a teenage girl (Leem Lubany) with an extraordinary voice, who he tries to get onto the Afghan version of American Idol. Among the other actors who show up are Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel, Scott Caan, and Danny McBride. Director Barry Levinson was a long way from Rain Man.
Director: Barry Levinson
Jem and the Holograms--15/$1.4 million/$2.2 million/181/22%/42--This live-action version of the popular 80s cartoon kept Rock the Kasbah from being the most embarrassing release of the weekend. A teenage girl (Aubrey Peeples) finds herself on the fast track to music superstardom, but is under increasing pressure from her manager (Juliette Lewis) to ditch her sister and friends, who make up her band, and go solo. Meanwhile, her late father's robot is leading her on a scavenger hunt (I'm assuming this makes sense in context). Molly Ringwald played her aunt. The reviews weren't great, but they were probably better than what the film that turned out to be the lowest-grossing wide release of 2015 probably deserved.
Director: Jon M. Chu
New Limited Releases:
Suffragette--$4.7 million/151/73%/66--And the flops kept on coming this weekend with this piece of failed Oscar bait, about the British woman's suffrage movement. Carey Mulligan played a young woman in 1912 London who finds herself getting radicalized by the movement, particularly the brutality that the powers that be use to try to suppress it. Among her comrades in the fight are fellow suffragette Helena Bonham Carter. Ben Whishaw played Mulligan's very unsupportive husband, Brenden Gleeson played a police inspector who tried to convince Mulligan to be an informant, and Meryl Streep had an extended cameo as famed real-life suffragette Emmeline Parkhurst. Despite all the talent, critics found it all rather dull, and audiences exercised their right to go see other films.
Director: Sarah Gavron
Expanding:
Steve Jobs--7/$7.1 million
Ten Years Ago--October 22, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
Paranormal Activity 2--1/$40.7 million/$84.8 million/40/58%/53--Five years before the franchise sputtered to an end with The Ghost Dimension, the Paranormal Activity franchise proved the success of the first film the year before hadn't been a fluke, thanks to the strong performance of its follow-up, which was actually a prequel, explaining why the demon from the first film was stalking Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat. In this one, the demon is stalking Katie's sister (Sprague Grayden) and her newborn son, despite the disbelief of her husband (Brian Boland). The film burned out very quickly, but since it was tied to Halloween and cost only $3 million to make, the studio didn't mind. Paranormal Activity 3 would follow one Halloween later.
Director: Tod Williams
Expanding:
Hereafter--4/$12 million
Fifteen Years Ago--October 28, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
Saw II--1/$31.7 million/$87 million/21/37%/40--The Paranormal Activity and Saw franchises have a lot in common. The originals of both were low budget indie films that became unexpected smashes around Halloween. Both had sequels come out for the next few Octobers that, at first, were huge successes before the box office dropped off with the later films, before the series finally sputtered to an end. The Saw movies, which seemingly relished in torture porn were always far more graphically violent than the Paranormal Activity films, however. Saw II was the box office high water mark of the franchise, once again starring Tobin Bell as the Jigsaw Killer, who has trapped a group of desperate, seemingly disparate people, including Shawnee Smith, in a house filled with gory surprises. Donnie Wahlberg played a cop with a personal connection to one person in the house who is desperately trying to force the killer to reveal its location. Saw III would follow a year later.
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
The Legend of Zorro--2/$16.3 million/$46.5 million/65/26%/47--In this disappointing sequel to 1998's well-regarded The Mask of Zorro, Antonio Banderas redons the mask to take on a European lord (Rufus Sewell) who is plotting to destroy the United States. Catherine Zeta-Jones played Banderas's wife, who, for reasons to convoluted to mention here, finds herself having to romance Sewell. This film gleefully made mincemeat out of history (it takes place in 1850, but the Confederacy has apparently already been established, as has the Transcontinental Railroad, plus the plot involves shipping highly unstable nitroglycerin from California to the Confederate States, which seems like an unnecessarily risky thing to do). This film's underperformance essentially closed the door on this franchise (not that releasing it Halloween weekend was a pretty good indication of the studio's feelings toward it).
Director: Martin Campbell
Prime--3/$6.2 million/$22.8 million/108/50%/58--In this romcom, recently divorced Uma Thurman starts dating the much younger Brian Greenberg. Thurman's therapist (Meryl Streep) thinks the new relationship is a good idea, at least until she realizes that Thurman's boyfriend is her son. Hijinks ensure. Despite the paring of Thurman and Streep, critics were underwhelmed by the comedy, and audiences largely gave it a pass.
Director: Ben Younger
The Weather Man--6/$4.3 million/$12.5 million/138/59%/61--This comedy-drama (emphasis on the drama) starred Nicolas Cage as a weatherman for a Chicago TV station who is undergoing a mid-life crisis--his marriage is on the rocks, the general public seems to hate him, his kids are drifting away, and his father (Michael Caine) is dying. Hope Davis played Cage's wife, and a teenage Nicolas Hoult, in his first major film since About a Boy, played his son. On paper, this looked more commercial than Cage's other fall move, Lord of War, particularly since this one had Gore Verbinski, coming off the first Pirates of the Caribbean, directing. But it only ended up making half as much.
Director: Gore Verbinski
New Limited Releases:
Paradise Now--$1.5 million/197/89%/71--The first Foreign Language nominee at the Oscars from the disputed state of Palestine, this drama focused on two would-be suicide bombers (Kais Nashif and Ali Suliman) who, after their plans are initially foiled, have to decide if they still want to go through with the planned attack. Like anything involving Palestine, this was an extremely controversial nomination, and that's not even taking into account that some felt the film was glorifying suicide bombing.
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Twenty Years Ago--October 27, 2000:
#1 Movie:
Meet the Parents--$15.1 million
New Wide Releases:
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2--2/$13.2 million/$26.4 million/88/14%/15--Before Saw and Paranormal Activity, the low-budget indie horror sensation was The Blair Witch Project, which came from nowhere to be the 10th-highest-grossing movie of 1999. However, unlike Saw and Paranormal Activity, attempts to turn Blair Witch into a franchise crashed and burned immediately with the flop sequel, which weirdly took place in a world where the original movie was, in fact, just a movie (and a hit one at that). Five 20-somethings, led by future Burn Notice star Jeffrey Donovan (largely unknown at the time) go on an expedition to visit the locations of the film, only to have horrific things start happening to them. Is the Blair Witch real after all, or is something else going on? Halloween audiences showed up in smaller numbers than expected to find out, and then the film completely died once the holiday was over. It would take until 2016 for another sequel to arrive (it would flop, too).
Director: Joe Berlinger
The Little Vampire--6/$5.7 million/$13.6 million/121/55%/45--Kids got their own Halloween offering in this horror comedy about an American kid (Jonathan Lipniki) who moves to a castle in Scotland, where he meets and befriends a young vampire (Rollo Weeks), who is being stalked by a famed vampire hunter (future Downton Abbey star Jim Carter) who doesn't care that this vampire clan, like a future clan of sparkly vampires, only drinks animal blood. Richard E. Grant and Alice Krige played Weeks's also-vampire parents, future Chronicles of Narnia co-star Anna Popplewell played his sister, and John Wood played the local nobleman. Carter and Krige would reprise their roles 17 years later for an animated remake.
Director: Uli Edel
Lucky Numbers--7/$4.5 million/$10 million/132/23%/31--Any hopes that John Travolta might have had for a quick bounce back after Battlefield Earth were dashed when this black comedy, based loosely on a real incident, bombed both critically and commercially, despite a solid cast. John Travolta played a weatherman in debt who decides to rig the state lottery, with the help of a strip club owner (Tim Roth) and Roth's girlfriend (Lisa Kudrow), who is the one who pulls the numbers on TV. Documentarian Michael Moore, in a rare acting role, played Kudrow's cousin, who would be the one to actually cash in the winning ticket, Ed O'Neill played the station's manager, Michael Rapaport a hitman who Travolta owed money to, and Bill Pullman as a detective investigating the case. This would be the only film that Nora Ephron directed that she did not also write.
Director: Nora Ephron
New Limited Releases:
Sound and Fury--$0.1 million/300/96%/85--Cochlear implants, a device implanted surgically in the ear to significantly improve hearing, has proven extremely controversial in the Deaf community, with some embracing the idea of being able to fully intergrade into the hearing world and others concerned that the device will destroy the unique Deaf culture. This documentary followed two brothers who find themselves having to debate that question when one of their daughters is born deaf and the other's young deaf child wants the implants. It would be a nominee for Best Documentary.
Director: Josh Aronson
Twenty-Five Years Ago--October 27, 1995:
#1 Movie:
Get Shorty--$10.2 million
New Wide Releases:
Powder--2/$7.2 million/$30.9 million/58/50%/NA--An albino teenager (Sean Patrick Flanery, who was 29 at the time) who has telepathy and the power to generate electricity is sent to a boy's home after his last living relative dies, and is enrolled in high school. Despite (or because of) his powers and his off-the-chart IQ, he is labeled a freak, but does have some adults on his side, including a psychologist (Mary Steenburgen), a teacher (Jeff Goldblum), and the local sheriff (Lance Henriksen). The drama became unexpectedly controversial when it came out that director Victor Salva had served time in prison for molesting the 12-year-old star of his previous movie, and some have interpreted the film's storyline as a veiled defense of his crime. Still, the film became a minor sleeper hit.
Director: Victor Salva
Vampire in Brooklyn--3/$7.1 million/$19.8 million/82/12%/27--Eddie Murphy, whose career had been flailing since his last big success with Coming to America in 1988, reached what was, at the time, it's nadir with this horror-comedy, in which he plays a vampire who arrives in New York to find the daughter of a Caribbean vampire. That turns out to be a cop (Angela Bassett, in her second movie of the month, after Strange Days) who is unaware of her lineage. Critics hated it and, despite the star power and Halloween-timed release, audiences rejected it. Luckily, for Murphy, Bassett, and director Wes Craven, their very next projects (The Nutty Professor, Waiting to Exhale, and Scream, respectively) would be far more successful.
Director: Wes Craven
Copycat--4/$5.2 million/$32.1 million/55/78%/54--An expert on serial killers (Sigourney Weaver), who became agoraphobic after being attacked by one (Harry Connick, Jr.), helps a cop (Holly Hunter, in her first role since her Oscar win) investigate another serial killer, who turns out is replicating the crimes of other serial killers. Dermot Mulroney played Hunter's partner. The thriller got generally good reviews and, after a slow start, proved to have surprisingly solid legs (it easily outgrossed Hunter's other fall movie, which would arrive just a week later).
Director: Jon Amiel
Three Wishes--7/$2.6 million/$7 million/134/13%/NA--Only a month after having a moderate hit with To Wong Foo, Patrick Swazye starred in his second family-aimed flop of 1995, a film that not only failed to outgross Wong Foo's opening weekend over its entire run, but even made less than spring's Tall Tale. He played a mysterious drifter who moves in with a woman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) whose military husband was MIA, and her two children (including Jurassic Park's Joseph Mazzello, in his second flop of the year, after The Cure). This being a family film with that title, said mysterious drifter is also magical. What was not magical were the reviews or box office.
Director: Martha Coolidge
New Limited Releases:
Mighty Aphrodite--$6.5 million/139/78%/59--Woody Allen's annual contribution this year was a comedy starring Allen as a guy who tracks down the biological mother of his gifted adopted son, only to discover that she's a dim, if sweet, hooker (Mira Sorvino). Allen resolves to befriend her and save her from the lifestyle, even though she seems perfectly happy. Helena Bonham Carter played Allen's wife (only thirty years his junior), Peter Weller played a work associate of Carter's who threatens to break up their marriage, and Michael Rapaport played a boxer Allen tried to set up Sorvino with. Befitting the title, the film has an actual Greek chorus commenting on the action, which included F. Murray Abraham, Olympia Dukakis, David Ogden Stiers, and Jack Warden. The film also featured an early bit role for Paul Giamatti and a small role for future Sopranos star Tony Sirico. Critics liked the film, even if they considered it minor Allen, but it got his usual Original Screenplay nomination at the Oscars. More importantly, Sorvino won Supporting Actress, the second consecutive time, after Dianne Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway, that award had gone to someone from a Allen film.
Director: Woody Allen
Leaving Las Vegas--$32 million/56/91%/82--After losing his job and his family due to his chronic alcoholism, a writer (Nicholas Cage) decides to go out to Vegas and literally drink himself to death, preferably as quickly as possible. There he meets and falls for a prostitute (Elisabeth Shue, doing a 180 from the rather wholesome roles she had played up to that point), but is still committed to drinking. Julian Sands played Shue's pimp, Richard Lewis and Steven Weber Cage's LA colleagues, Laurie Metcalf Shue's landlady, Danny Huston a bartender, R. Lee Emory a potential john of Shue's, and small parts from future TV stars Emily Proctor, Carey Lowell, French Stewart, Mariska Hargitay, Shawnee Smith, and Xander Berkeley, and cameos from musicians Julian Lennon and Lew Rawls and director Bob Rafelson. Despite the depressing subject matter, the film won near-unanimous raves from critics, and became a surprise mainstream hit. It would be nominated for four Oscars, Shue for Actress, Mike Figgis for Director, and Adapted Screenplay, with Cage winning Actor.
Director: Mike Figgis
Thirty Years Ago--October 26, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Graveyard Shift--1/$5.1 million/$11.6 million/90/13%/28--Based on a relatively early story by Stephen King, this Halloween-timed horror movie starred David Andrews as a new hire at a textile mill that has a rat problem--namely that the rats and their unseen-until-the-end-of-the-movie leader have developed a taste for human flesh. Brad Dourif played an exterminator. This relatively low-budget film did OK because of the weekend, but like a lot of late October horror movies, lost nearly all of its audience once the calendar turned to November.
Director: Ralph S. Singleton
Sibling Rivalry--2/$4 million/$17.9 million/67/22%/NA--Kristie Alley's post-Look Who's Talking hope that she had captured the movie stardom that had alluded her Cheers predecessor Shelley Long were dashed thanks to her pair of 1990 flops, especially since this farce couldn't even outgross spring's Madhouse. At least, thanks to director Carl Reiner, it had a superb cast. Alley played a woman utterly bored of her marriage to Scott Bakula, so she decides to sleep with a handsome older man (Sam Elliott) she meets in a grocery store. Unfortunately, he dies in the aftermath, and both she and another man (Bill Pullman) think that they killed him. Hijinks ensue. Jamie Gertz played Alley's sister, Carrie Fisher played Bakula's sister and frequent Cheers guest star Frances Sternhagen his mother. Ed O'Neill played an investigating cop who also has a family connection. After this, it would be until 1995 that Alley would star in a non-Look Who's Talking feature film.
Director: Carl Reiner
New Limited Releases:
The Nasty Girl--$2.3 million/148/67%/NA--A German high school student (Lena Stolze) decided to write an essay on her hometown during the Third Reich. Despite the town's reputation as a hotbed of Nazi resistance, she learns that, in fact, that numerous prominent citizens, including many who were still alive, had actually been collaborators. As she spends years digging into the town's true history, she discovers--and overcomes--blockades put up by authorities who are not eager for her to unearth their secrets. This is a fictionalized version of a true story (director Michael Verhoeven had directed a TV documentary about the woman who inspired the film in 1987). Despite mixed American reviews, it was an art house hit, and earned a nomination for Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.
Director: Michael Verhoeven
Expanding:
White Palace--3/$3.5 million
Thirty-Five Years Ago--October 25, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Jagged Edge--$3.2 million
New Wide Releases:
Krush Groove--2/$2.9 million/$11.1 million/75/43%/37--A mere two years after Def Jam Recordings was founded came an official, highly fictionalized movie about its early days, never mind that it was still the label's early days. Blair Underwood made his film debut as Russell Simmons stand-in Russell Walker, who has signed his brother's rap group Run-DMC (playing themselves), but has to figure out how to come up with the money to press some records. Simmons appears, playing a different character, and there are also appearances by Simmons's partner and producer Rick Rubin (playing himself), the Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, Shelia E, New Edition, the Beastie Boys, and LL Cool J (also making his film debut). A then-unknown Chris Rock appeared as an extra. The film wasn't a hit, but did find a small audience, and is remembered today for giving an early look at some of hip-hop's major acts.
Director: Michael Schultz
New Limited Releases:
Twice in a Lifetime--$8.4 million/97/83%/58--On Gene Hackman's 50th birthday, he realizes how stale his marriage to Ellen Burstyn has become when he meets and falls for a vivacious barmaid (Ann-Margret). His decision to leave his wife shocks not only Burstyn but his two daughters (Amy Madigan and Ally Sheedy), as they all have to cope with their new lives. Stephen Lang played Madigan's husband, and Brian Dennehy Hackman's best friend. Despite strong reviews, this didn't have much impact at the box office, though Madigan was Oscar nominated for Supporting Actress.
Director: Bud Yorkin
Forty Years Ago--October 24, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
The First Deadly Sin--NA/NA/63%/NA--Frank Sinatra, whose last movie had been ten years earlier, had his final starring role in this detective thriller, in which he played a cop trying to figure out who has carried out a series of murders using an ice ax. Faye Dunaway played Sinatra's wife, who spends the entire movie in a hospital bed, James Whitmore played the coroner, and Brenda Vaccaro played the wife of a victim. A young Bruce Willis can be briefly seen as an extra walking past Sinatra in what is his feature film debut. It would be another four years before he got an actual speaking role (and credit). After this, Sinatra would only make a cameo as himself in The Cannonball Run II and a handful of TV appearances.
Director: Brian G. Hutton
It's My Turn--NA/NA/NA/NA--The third of Jill Clayburgh's unofficial late 70s/early 80s trilogy of dramedies about women undergoing mid-life relationship changes (after An Unmarried Woman and Starting Over), she played a professor who, after meeting her new stepbrother (Michael Douglas) at her dad's and his mom's wedding, finds herself torn between him and her boring-but-steady longtime boyfriend (Charles Grodin). Daniel Stern played one of Clayburgh's students, and Dianne Wiest made her film debut. Reviews were generally negative, which is why it was probably the least successful of the trilogy. It was directed by a woman (Claudia Weill), which was still fairly rare in 1980.
Director: Claudia Weill
Loving Couples--$2.8 million/97/NA/NA--The first of two flop adultery comedies Shirley MacLaine made that came out in late 1980, this one starred her as a married doctor who begins an affair with a younger patient (future 7th Heaven star and child molester Stephen Collins). When her husband (James Coburn) and his girlfriend (Susan Sarandon) find out, they begin their own affair. Sally Kellerman played another woman who hits on Collins. By the time MacLaine's other adultery comedy, A Change of Seasons, opened in December, this one was already largely forgotten.
Director: Jack Smight
Motel Hell--$6.3 million/78/71%/64--In this horror-comedy out in time for Halloween, renowned stander and walker Rory Calhoun played a farmer and motel owner who has a lucrative business selling smoked meat. What no one knows is that his meat is actually human, which he gets by kidnapping wayward travelers. When a potential victim (Nina Axelrod) begins to fall for Calhoun, that leads to tension with his sister (Nancy Parson), who knows his secret, and his brother (Paul Linke) who is also in love with her and is unaware of his siblings' side business. The gory film got surprisingly good reviews and did OK at the box office.
Director: Kevin Connor
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