By mid-December, nearly every new movie was either a hopeful holiday blockbuster, an Oscar contender, or both. Of course, some of these movies ended up with the box office and critical equivalents of coal in their stockings.
One Year Ago--December 13, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Jumanji: The Next Level--1/$59.3 million/$320.3 million/10/72%/58--Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was as much of a word-of-mouth hit as a big-budgeted franchise cog starring three well-known movie stars could be. There was no way that this follow-up could match the success of the first film, and it didn't, but it still did quite well. Dissatisfied with his life since their adventure in the last movie, Alex Wolff jumps back into the game, leading friends Ser'Darius Blain and Morgan Turner to follow him, unwittingly sucking in Wolff's grandfather Danny DeVito and his friend Danny Glover in with them. There, the avatars from the previous movie (Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan) are the same, but the players controlling them are different, as they're sent on another adventure to find Wolff and recover another MacGuffin. Also reprising their roles from the first film are Madison Iseman as the other member of the original quartet and Colin Hanks as the first victim of the game. Newcomers including Awkwafina as another playable character in the game, and Bebe Neuworth, briefly reprising her role from the 1995 original.
Director: Jake Kasdan
Richard Jewell--4/$4.7 million/$22.4 million/95/77%/68--Another example how dramatizations of relatively recent news stories rarely score at the box office, this drama about the hero of the Olympic Park bombing in 1996 (Paul Walter Hauser) who is subsequently--and falsely--accused of planting the bomb himself flopped out of the gate, though Christmas week helped it have decent legs. Director Clint Eastwood (who, at 90, has to be one of, if not the oldest, person to direct a major studio film) recruited a strong cast, including Kathy Bates as Hauser's mother, Sam Rockwell as his attorney, Jon Hamm as an FBI agent, and Olivia Wilde as a journalist. The film received quite a bit of criticism for suggesting that Wilde's character slept with her sources, something that the journalist the character was based on (who had subsequently died) had never been accused of in real life. Despite those sour notes and the poor box office, Bates was able to earn a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.
Director: Clint Eastwood
Black Christmas--5/$4.2 million/$10.4 million/119/38%/49--Unlike the 2006 remake of the 1974 slasher flick, one of the first movies in that genre four years before Halloween, this one keeps the idea of a group of sorority girls getting stalked by an unknown killer during the holidays but dumps most everything else, taking the story in a much more feminist (and supernatural) direction. That didn't lead to this getting good reviews, and the film managed to make even less than the 2006 version. Imogen Poots is the best known of the sorority girls, and Cary Elwes played a professor.
Director: Sophia Takal
New Limited Releases:
Uncut Gems--$50 million/56/92%/91--Adam Sandler took a break from making puerile Netflix comedies to remind everyone he's actually a terrific actor when he wants to be in this punchy thriller (his first theatrical release since Pixels) about a gambling addict jeweler (Sandler) who is deeply in debt to people you don't want to be deeply in debt to as he tries to raise the money he needs while attempting to get a valuable opal away from NBA star Kevin Garnett (playing himself). Lakeith Stanfield played a business associate's of Sandler, Idina Menzel played Sandler's estranged wife, Judd Hirsch his father-in-law, Eric Bogosian his brother-in-law and creditor, and John Amos and the musician The Weeknd appears as himself. This proved to be a surprise hit.
Director: Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie
Bombshell--$31.8 million/78/69%/64--Doing a bit better than Richard Jewell, but again proving that not many people want to see dramatizations of recent news stories, this drama about how the women of Fox News took down the network's head Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) for his habit of sexually harassing them featured an impressive cast, including Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, and Margot Robie as a new hire at Fox who runs afoul of Ailes. The film featured a huge cast, many of them playing real-life Fox News figures, including Malcolm McDowell, Alison Janey, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Richard Kind, Stephen Root, and Holland Taylor. The film had had its thunder stolen somewhat by the Showtime miniseries The Loudest Voice, which had aired the previous summer with Russell Crowe playing Ailes and Kidman's longtime friend Naomi Watts as Carlson, but the mixed reviews here probably didn't help. The film still scored three Oscar nominations, as Theron was nominated for Actress and Robie for Supporting Actress, and the Makeup would win.
Director: Jay Roach
Five Years Ago--December 11, 2015:
#1 Movie:
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2--$11.4 million
New Wide Releases:
In the Heart of the Sea--2/$11.1 million/$25 million/95/42%/47--Ron Howard reunited with his Rush star Chris Hemsworth in this seagoing drama that ended up making about as much as Rush, except it cost roughly three times as much to make. Based on a true story, Hemsworth played the first mate on a whaling ship that runs afoul of a gigantic white whale in 1820. Benjamin Walker played the ship's captain, Cillian Murphy played the second mate, a pre-Spider-Man Tom Holland played the cabin boy, Brendan Gleeson played a grown Holland, and Ben Whishaw played Herman Melville, investigating the disaster 30 years later as research for his new book. Intended to be both a holiday blockbuster and an Oscar-bait film, the reviews ensured it would be neither.
Director: Ron Howard
New Limited Releases:
The Big Short--$70.3 million/44/88%/81--Adam McKay, whose previous directorial efforts had all been Will Ferrell vehicles, changed focus dramatically (though not that dramatically, as anyone who saw The Other Guys can attest) with this comedy-drama about the mid-aughts housing bubble and several analysts who realize that banks either don't realize or are deliberately covering up the impending popping, and are able to make millions betting on the upcoming economic collapse. Christian Bale, Steve Carell (who worked with McKay on the Anchorman films), Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt (who had previously starred in Moneyball, also based on a non-fiction book by Michael Lewis) played some of the investors who knew more than the markets. Among the cameo appearances are Carell's Crazy, Stupid, Love co-star Marisa Tomei as his wife, Tracy Letts as an investor, Bale's co-Oscar winner from The Fighter Melissa Leo and Karen Gillam as people working in financial regulations, Max Greenfield and Billy Magnussen as mortgage brokers, and Margot Robie, Selina Gomez, and Anthony Bourdain, who show up as themselves to explain complicated financial transactions. The film would be a surprise hit, and would earn five Oscar nominations, including Picture, Director for McKay, Supporting Actor for Bale, and Editing, and would win for Adapted Screenplay.
Director: Adam McKay
Boy and the World--$0.1 million/370/93%/80--This ambitious animated film, from Brazil, tells the story of a young boy who goes on an often surreal journey, with frequently stunning animation, meeting an older man and a younger man who helps him find his way home. The film symbolically represents much of the history of Brazil, and the destruction that the modern world has visited on the poor and the countryside. It would be nominated for Animated Feature at the Oscars.
Director: Ale Abreu
Ten Years Ago--December 10, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader--1/$24 million/$104.4 million/27/50%/53--Five years after The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was the top film of the holidays, the franchise limped to an end with just the third movie, with four remaining books remaining unfilmed. The now-older Georgie Henley and Skander Keynes are staying the summer with their obnoxious cousin Will Poulter (in only his second movie and first studio film) when the three of them unexpectedly find themselves in Narnia, on board the titular ship, on a journey to find seven lost swords with Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes). There were cameos by William Moseley and Anna Popplewell, as the older siblings, and Tilda Swinton, and Liam Neeson returned as the voice of Aslan. Simon Pegg provided the voice of a mouse.
Director: Michael Apted
The Tourist--2/$16.5 million/$67.6 million/47/20%/37--Johnny Depp's hot streak turned cold starting with this poorly received thriller, in which he played an American teacher whose Italian vacation gets interrupted when Angelina Jolie snags him in a plot to throw both the police and the mob off the trail of her wanted boyfriend. Paul Bettany and Timothy Dalton played cops, and Rufus Sewell played another tourist. Critics found the script muddled (and the twist ending all too predictable), and while the film did OK at the box office, it did underperform.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
New Limited Releases:
The Fighter--$93.6 million/35/90%/79--David O. Russell began a hot streak that would see him get an Oscar nomination for Best Director for three consecutive films, all Best Picture nominees, over the next three years with this biopic of boxer Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his relationship with his drug addicted older brother Dicky (Christian Bale) who served as his trainer. Melissa Leo played Micky and Dickie's mother and manager, and Amy Adams played Micky's new girlfriend, who recognizes the environment as being toxic. Sugar Ray Leonard, who the real-life Dicky fought in the 70s, has a cameo as himself. The film would be a financial success, ending up as the second-highest grossing non-Rocky boxing movie, and would earn 7 Oscar nominations. In addition to the aforementioned nods for Picture and Director, Adams was nominated for Supporting Actress, and the Editing and Original Screenplay were also nominated. Bale would win Supporting Actor, and Leo would beat out Adams for Supporting Actress.
Director: David O. Russell
The Tempest--$0.3 million/264/30%/43--Director Julie Taymor, whose last Shakespeare film adaption had been the visually stunning, hyperviolent Titus in 1999, returned to the Bard with this considerably tamer adaption of one of his final plays. This is most notable for gender flipping the main role, as the stranded sorcerer Prospero becomes the sorceress Prospera, played by Helen Mirren. Taymor surrounded her with a superb cast, including Felicity Jones, Ben Whishaw, Djimon Hounsou, David Strathairn, Tom Conti, Alan Cumming, Alfred Molina, and Russell Brand, but to little avail, as the film got poor reviews and attracted almost no audiences. It was able to pick up an Oscar nomination, though, for Costumes.
Director: Julie Taymor
Frankie & Alice--$0.01 million/470/21%/47--In one of the weirder stories involving the vagaries of independent film distribution, this drama, which starred Halle Berry as a stripper suffering from multiple personalities, got a one-week release in Los Angeles for awards qualification, which worked, as Berry picked up a Golden Globe nomination. Instead of using that as a platform for a wider release in early 2011, the film instead vanished, only to resurface in 2014, when it finally got a proper theatrical release (and made an additional $0.7 million). Why the film, which co-starred Stellan Skarsgard, Phylicia Rashad, and Chandra Wilson, sat on a shelf for the next three and a half years, is a mystery that none of the sources I looked at could explain.
Director: Geoffrey Sax
Expanding:
Black Swan--6/$3.3 million
Fifteen Years Ago--December 16, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
King Kong--1/$50.1 million/$218.1 million/5/84%/81--Widely expected to be the big movie of the holiday season, Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic, his first film since completing the Lord of the Rings trilogy, did very, very well, but wasn't quite the massive blockbuster expected. Maybe it was that three-hour running time, roughly twice the length of the original. At any rate, Jackson's version, which retains the original's 1933 setting, starred Jack Black, in a rare villainous role, as a filmmaker determined to film on a remote, unexplored island, where he and his crew discover the titular creature, along with numerous other giant, prehistoric animals still alive. Naomi Watts stepped into the Fay Wray role (and the Jessica Lange role from the not-well-received 1976 version), as the young actress Black hired to be his leading lady, who forms a bond with Kong, Adrien Brody played the film's screenwriter who falls in love with Watts, Kyle Chandler the vain leading man, and Colin Hanks and Jamie Bell as members of Black's crew. Andy Serkis played the motion-captured Kong as well as a small role as part of the ship's crew. The film would earn four Oscar nominations, winning three of them, for Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects (its loss was for Art Direction).
Director: Peter Jackson
The Family Stone--3/$12.5 million/$60.1 million/43/53%/56--In this comedy-drama, uptight Sarah Jessica Parker arrives to spend Christmas with boyfriend Dermot Mulroney's sprawling, liberal family, but can't help but put her foot in her mouth over and over and over again. Among the family members are Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson as Mulroney's parents, Luke Wilson and Rachel McAdams as two of Mulroney's siblings, and Claire Danes as Parker's sister. Critics liked the performances but were more mixed on the movie itself, and it did decently at the box office, playing well to mid-January.
Director: Thomas Bezucha
New Limited Releases:
The Producers--$19.4 million/116/51%/52--The holiday season's second flop adaption of a blockbuster Broadway musical starring the original leads, at least Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick weren't a full decade older than their characters. This version of Mel Brooks's 2001 show, based on his 1967 movie (for which he won the Original Screenplay Oscar) stars Lane as an unscrupulous Broadway producer who learns, via nebbish accountant Broderick, that by overselling shares in a surefire flop, he can make more money than he would with a hit. Will Ferrell played the not-exactly-former Nazi whose tribute to Adolf is the vehicle Lane and Broderick determine will be their path to utter failure, Uma Thurman played the duo's new Swedish secretary, and Gary Beach and Roger Bart also reprised their Broadway roles as the show's flamboyant, awful director and star and his assistant, and there were cameos from Jon Lovitz, Michael McKean, David Huddleston, Richard Kind, Andrea Martin, John Barrowman, and Brooks himself. Critics felt that, ironically for a show that had started life as a movie, it didn't translate well back to the screen, and even fewer people showed up to see it than Rent.
Director: Susan Stroman
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada--$5 million/165/85%/77--Tommy Lee Jones, who had previously directed a TV movie, made his feature film directorial debut in about the most Tommy Lee Jones way possible, directing this modern western and starring as a rancher on the Mexican border whose best friend (Julio Cedillo), an undocumented immigrant, is killed by a Border Patrol agent (Berry Pepper). Jones, as one does, digs up the body from the local graveyard and kidnaps Pepper to take Cedillo back to his Mexican hometown to be properly buried. Dwight Yoakam played the local sheriff, January Jones played Pepper's wife, and Melissa Leo played a waitress at the local diner. Critics liked the film, and it did decent business on the art house circuit, but it was too strange and surreal to be an awards contender.
Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Expanding:
Brokeback Mountain--8/$2.4 million
Twenty Years Ago--December 15, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
What Women Want--1/$33.6 million/$182.8 million/5/54%/47--Mel Gibson was at the peak of his box office prowess in 2000, with three movies that topped $100 million at the box office, though this romantic comedy made close to what The Patriot and Chicken Run made combined. Gibson played a chauvinistic ad exec who is horrified when his expected promotion went to Helen Hunt (in her third movie of the fall and first massive Christmas blockbuster of the year) who wants to focus his agency on selling more to women. A freak accident leaves Gibson with the ability to hear the thoughts of women, which he uses at first to get some into bed and to steal Hunt's ideas, but since we're actually supposed to like Gibson, he eventually comes around. Marisa Tomei played a barista with a crush on Gibson, Alan Alda played his boss, Ashley Johnson played his daughter, and the various other women in Gibson's life were played by Judy Greer, Sarah Paulson, Lauren Holly, Delta Burke, Valerie Perrine, Loretta Devine, and, in a cameo, Bette Midler. An 8-year-old Logan Lerman, who had made his film debut playing one of Gibson's sons in The Patriot, here played Gibson as a child in a flashback. Critics were decidedly mixed on the movie, but audiences flocked to see it. A gender-flipped remake starring Taraji P. Henson would come out in 2019.
Director: Nancy Meyers
Dude, Where's My Car?--2/$13.9 million/$46.7 million/53/17%/30--This deliberately stupid comedy starred Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott as a couple of Bill and Ted wannabes whose missing car is just the least of their problems. As they try to figure out what had happened the night before, they get drawn into a plot involving aliens and an universe-destroying MacGuffin. Marla Sokoloff and a pre-Alias Jennifer Garner played the boys' girlfriends, Kristy Swanson played a hot girl who inexplicitly likes the boys, and Mary Lynn Rajskub played a member of an alien-loving cult. Critics were appalled that the film ended up being just as dumb as they feared, but the star duo and the meme-worthy title helped make this an unexpected minor hit.
Director: Danny Leiner
The Emperor's New Groove--4/$9.8 million/$89.3 million/26/85%/70--After realizing that their epic animated musical about the Incan Empire wasn't working, Disney refashioned it into a broad comedy about a self-centered young emperor (David Spade) whose evil advisor (Eartha Kitt) turns him into a llama (a better fate than she had planned). To get back to the palace and a chance of being a human again, he has to rely on a peasant (John Goodman) who he wants to evict from his property. Patrick Warburton played Kitt's clueless assistant, and Wendie Malick played Goodman's wife. Critics liked it, but audiences weren't quite sure what to make of this atypical Disney release, which owed a big stylistic debt to the studio's longtime rivals, Looney Tunes. It ended up being the lowest-grossing major Disney animated release since The Rescuers Down Under a decade prior. However, the film would become a cult hit once it hit home video. It would be followed by a straight-to-video sequel and a Disney Channel series. Sting's Original Song, "My Funny Friend and Me", was nominated for an Oscar.
Director: Mark Dindal
New Limited Releases:
Chocolat--$71.5 million/32/62%/64--Lasse Hallstrom, who had directed Miramax's big Oscar movie of 1999, The Cider House Rules, directed this, Miramax's big Oscar movie of 2000. Chocolatier Juliette Binoche arrives in a stodgy French town at the beginning of Lent and opens up a chocolate shop, where she begins to positively affect the lives of the townspeople, much to the chagrin of the town's hidebound mayor (Alfred Molina). Judi Dench played an elderly woman Binoche befriends, Carrie-Anne Moss played her estranged daughter, Lena Olin played an abused woman who starts working at the shop, Leslie Caron played an elderly widow, and Johnny Depp played a nomad who Binoche falls for. Despite mixed reviews, this ended up with five Oscar nominations, including Picture, Actress for Binoche, Supporting Actress for Dench, Adapted Screenplay, and Score.
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Pollock--$8.6 million/138/81%/77--Ed Harris made his directorial debut in this biopic, starring as controversial artist Jackson Pollock, whose "drip technique" was lauded by some and denounced by others. The film covers roughly a decade and a half, from when Pollock first began to be noticed in the art world until his death. Marcia Gay Hardin played his wife, an influential artist in her own right, Jennifer Connelly played another prominent abstract artist whom Pollock had a long-term affair with, John Heard and Val Kilmer as other famous artists, Jeffrey Tambour as an art critic, and Bud Cort as the assistant to Amy Madigan, Harris's real-life wife, who played a wealthy collector. Critics were highly complimentary of the film, and it did well on the art-house circuit. Harris would be Oscar nominated for Actor, and Hardin, in an upset, won for Supporting Actress.
Director: Ed Harris
Twenty-Five Years Ago--December 15, 1995:
New Wide Releases:
Jumanji--1/$11.1 million/$100.5 million/7/55%/39--Years before Dwayne Johnson took over the franchise, Robin Williams starred in the adaption of Chris Van Allsburg's picture book about a magical board game that brings all the creatures of the jungle to life right in your living room--assuming you don't get sucked into the game itself. That's what happened to Adam Hann-Byrd when he starts playing the game in 1969. A quarter-century later, he's finally freed (and is now played by Williams) by kids Kristen Dunst and Bradley Pierce after they find the game in their new home, and the three discover they have to play it to completion, along with Bonnie Hunt, who was the other player that night (she was played by Laura Bell Bundy as a child). Together, they have to complete the game before their small town is overrun by monkeys, lions, deadly flora, and the like. Patricia Clarkson played Hann-Byrd's mother, Bebe Nuwurth played the aunt of Dunst and Pierce, David Alan Grier played a local cop, and Johnathan Hyde played both Hann-Byrd's father and a hunter out for The Most Dangerous Game--Williams. Critics complained that the movie was basically an excuse to show up then-groundbreaking CGI effects (which haven't held up very well), but the film was a big success, grossing more than any other December release that year.
Director: Joe Johnston
Heat--3/$8.5 million/$67.4 million/25/87%/76--Oddly enough, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino had only made one movie together, The Godfather Part II, and because their storylines took place decades apart, they never shared the screen. 21 years later, they finally co-starred for the second time in Michael Mann's sprawling crime thriller, though here they only share two scenes. De Niro played a master thief who gets unwanted attention from the LAPD when a new recruit to his team (Kevin Gage) kills a security guard during an armored car heist. As police detective Pacino and his team, which included Mykelti Williamson, Wes Studi, and Ted Levine, begin to close in, De Niro and his own team, including Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, and Danny Trejo, prepare for a lucrative bank heist. Among the huge cast was Jon Voight, Diane Verona, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd, Dennis Haysbert, William Fincher, Natalie Portman (in her second movie), Tom Noonan, Hank Azaria, Henry Rollins, Tone Loc, Jeremy Piven, and Bud Cort. The film was highly acclaimed and did decently at the box office, and would emerge as a beloved cult film in the years since. De Niro and Pacino would team up again, with many more scenes together, in 2008's Righteous Kill (which isn't worth watching) and 2019's The Irishman (which very much is).
Director: Michael Mann
Sabrina--5/$5.6 million/$53.7 million/33/65%/56--This pleasant remake of the 1954 film starring Audrey Hepburn and unlikely romcom lead Humphrey Bogart, starred Julia Ormand, during the couple of years she was getting leads in major motion pictures, as the title character, the daughter of the chauffeur of a pair of wealthy brothers, one serious (Harrison Ford), one frivolous (Greg Kinnear, only 19 years younger than Ford). When Ormand catches Kinnear's eye shortly after his engagement to Lauren Holly, Ford decides to romance her himself, only to unexpectedly fall in love with her for real. Nancy Marchand played Ford and Kinnear's mother, Richard Crenna and Angie Dickinson played Holly's parents, Dana Ivey played Ford's secretary, and there were early appearances by Paul Giamatti and Margo Martindale as members of the household staff. It did OK at the box office, but not spectacularly well.
Director: Sydney Pollock
New Limited Releases:
Sense and Sensibility--$43.2 million/39/97%/84--Arguably the most prominent of the Jane Austin adaptions that came out in the mid-90s (which included Clueless, Emma, and the miniseries of Pride & Prejudice), this marked the first major American/European film of Ang Lee. Emma Thompson (who also wrote the script) starred as the older and more sensible sister while Kate Winslet (in her third film) played the younger and more impetuous sister. Left penniless by the death of their father (Tom Wilkinson), the two try to find suitable matches for themselves, with potential contenders including the dashing Greg Wise (Thompson's future husband) and frequent Thompson co-stars Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman. Hugh Laurie and Imelda Staunton, who also have numerous shared credits with Thompson, played friends of the sisters. The film would prove to be a surprise commercial hit, and would 7 Oscar nominations, including Picture, Actress for Thompson, Supporting Actress for Winslet, Cinematography, Costumes, and Dramatic Score, and Thompson's Adapted Screenplay would win.
Director: Ang Lee
Thirty Years Ago--December 14, 1990:
#1 Movie:
Home Alone--$11.6 million
New Wide Releases:
Look Who's Talking Too--2/$8.1 million/$47.8 million/24/13%/NA--This insta-sequel to the previous year's smash hit comedy brought back most of the cast and writer/director Amy Heckerling, but whatever inspiration had been there for the first film had vanished. Now married, John Travolta and Kristie Alley (in her third bad comedy of the year) have had another kid, voiced by Roseanne Barr, and there is sibling rivalry between her and the now-toddler voiced by Bruce Willis. Damon Waynes voiced another baby, and Mel Brooks hopefully got paid a decent amount to voice a toilet. Among the actors who actually showed up to set, Olympia Dukakis returned as Alley's mother, and Elias Koteas, still an up-and-comer, joined the cast as Alley's irresponsible brother. Gilbert Gottfried also popped up. Box office wise, this managed to make $100 million less than its predecessor, an impressive feat in the early 90s. Apparently, there was something in the water, as the spin-off TV series, Baby Talk, went through development hell of its own, going through three lead actresses during a year-long run that started a few months after this came out. There would be a third movie, this time with talking dogs, in 1993.
Director: Amy Heckerling
Mermaids--6/$3.5 million/$35.4 million/35/74%/56--Cher's first movie since her Oscar win was in this comedy-drama about a wayward mom and her two daughters (Winona Ryder, also in Edward Scissorhands, and 10-year-old Christina Ricci, in her film debut) who set up shop in a new town in the early 60s, where Cher begins a relationship with a local (Bob Hoskins), while the Catholicism-obsessed Ryder becomes enamored with the local convent's handyman (Michael Schoeffling). Critics generally liked the film, but it underperformed at the box office. Cher wouldn't star in another movie until Faithful in 1996.
Director: Richard Benjamin
Havana--9/$2.2 million/$9.2 million/102/28%/NA--Robert Redford (in his first movie since 1986's Legal Eagles) teamed up with director Sydney Pollack (in his first movie since Out of Africa) for the 7th and final time in this unofficial remake of Casablanca, about an aging gambler who visits the Cuban city on the eve of the Revolution, and finds himself falling for the wife (Lena Olin) of a presumed dead rebel leader (Raul Julia, who was also in The Rookie). Alan Arkin played a casino manager, and Richard Farnsworth played another gambler. Even with Redford, a 2 1/2-hour romantic drama released during the holidays is going to need critical support to draw an audience, and critics largely hated the film. It would be Oscar nominated for its Score.
Director: Sydney Pollack
New Limited Releases:
The Sheltering Sky--$2.1 million/153/50%/NA--Also returning to directing for the first time since his previous movie swept the Oscars, director Bernardo Bertolucci made this drama about an American couple (John Malkovich, Debra Winger) with a fraying marriage who visit the Sahara. Campbell Scott played their travel companion, who Malkovich becomes deeply suspicious of, and Timothy Spall played a young English man they encounter. While critics liked this better than Havana, it still got most negative reviews, and unlike the Pollack film, this never broke out of art houses.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Expanding:
Edward Scissorhands--3/$6.3 million
Thirty-Five Years Ago--December 13, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Rocky IV--$7.2 million
New Wide Releases:
The Jewel of the Nile--2/$6.6 million/$76 million/7/48%/53--Coming out less than two years after Romancing the Stone, this action comedy sequel has Kathleen Turner's romance writer kidnapped by an evil wannabe dictator (Spiros Focas), and her off-again, on-again boyfriend, adventurer Michael Douglas, having to come to her rescue, with the help of swindler Danny DeVito. Holland Taylor also returned from the first film as Turner's agent. The film was a financial success, even slightly outgrossing Stone, but got far worse reviews, and Turner has admitted that she only made it because of a contractual obligation. While there would be no further sequels, Turner, Douglas, and DeVito would reunite in 1989 for the pitch black comedy War of the Roses.
Director: Lewis Teague
Clue--6/$2 million/$14.6 million/57/65%/39--Arguably the most enduring movie of the 1985 holiday season, this comic mystery flopped both critically and commercially in its initial release for a variety of reasons, from slamming door farces being out of style to the then-audaciousness of basing a movie on a board game, to the notorious three separate endings, for which the producers hoped people who go see the film three times for about 5 minutes of different footage each time. Instead, everyone just waited until video, when all three endings were shown back-to-back-to-back. The triple endings, in which a different person (or persons) was responsible for the film's ever-increasing body count, also made it impossible to try to figure out which of the color-coordinated suspects (played by Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Leslie Ann Warren) committed the numerous murders during the main part of the film. Tim Curry (in arguably his 2nd-best-known role) played the harried butler/host, Colleen Camp played the French-accented maid who was more acquainted with several of the guests than she let on, and the the appropriately named punk musician Lee Ving played the soon-to-be-late Mr. Boddy. This was the directorial debut of Jonathan Lynn
Director: Jonahtan Lynn
New Limited Releases:
A Chorus Line--$14.2 million/60/40%/46--Musicals were long out of fashion in Hollywood in 1985, but if any show was going to revive the genre, it would be the adaption of what was then the longest-running show in Broadway history. It didn't. Richard Attenborough, directing his first movie since Gandhi, cast Michael Douglas, busy this week, in the lead (non-singing) role of a director-choreographer interviewing 16 dancers for 8 spots in the chorus of his new musical. The performers discuss (via song) what led them to want to be a professional performer. Critics generally felt that the material didn't translate well to the stage, and fans of the show cringed when several well-loved numbers were dropped (they also weren't thrilled that was is arguably the show's signature song, "What I Did For Love", was assigned to another character). It would end up with one of the more disappointing box office numbers of the holidays. It still earned three Oscar nominations, for Sound, Editing, and Song "Surprise, Surprise".
Director: Richard Attenborough
Forty Years Ago--December 12, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
Popeye--$49.8 million/12/61%/64--The famed spinach-loving sailor man, who had started out in comics before making the leap to a very successful series of animated shorts, moved into live action in the form of Robin Williams, in his first film as a lead, and director Robert Altman, who seemed like an odd choice to direct a musical based on a comic strip. Altman regular Shelley Duvall (who presumably had a better time filming this than her other 1980 film), in her final film with the director, played Olive Oyl. Ray Waltson played Popeye's father, and there were early-in-their careers roles for Bill Irwin and Linda Hunt (both making their film debuts) and Dennis Franz. Also in the cast were Paul Dooley, Richard Libertini, and Donald Moffat. Critics were mixed, and while the film did well box-office wise, there was a general feeling of disappointment that it wasn't the massive blockbuster expected.
Director: Robert Altman
Stir Crazy--$101.3 million/3/67%/56--Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, whose prior teaming in 1976's Silver Streak was one of that year's biggest hits, reteamed for this prison comedy that turned out to be even more successful. Convicted of a robbery they didn't commit, they are sentenced to a penitentiary, where Wilder's previously unknown bullriding skills gets him selected by the warden (Barry Corbin) to participate in the prison rodeo, which might provide an opportunity for escape. Georg Sanford Brown played a fellow prisoner who befriends the duo, JoBeth Williams played a lawyer, Craig T. Nelson (who would co-star with Williams in Poltergeist a year and a half later) played a guard, and Jonathan Banks played another prisoner. This would be one of only three movies to top $100 million at the North American box office in 1980, and the first film directed by an African-American to make that much money.
Director: Sidney Poitier
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