And we're back! Sorry for the short hiatus. And welcome to the New Year. For years, the first weekend of the year was almost always a complete dead zone in terms of new releases, and even post-Christmas expansions. Then, in the mid-aughts, studios started trying low-budget horror movies in that slot. A cheap horror movie being the first release of the year is now pretty much a tradition.
One Year Ago--January 3, 2020:
#1 Movie:
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker--$34.5 million
New Wide Releases:
The Grudge--5/$11.4 million/$21.2 million/15/21%/41--The first movie of 2020 was a remake/reboot/sequel of the aughts horror franchise, itself a remake of a Japanese horror franchise. Taking place simultaneously with the events from the 2004 film, a woman who visited the cursed house from that movie (Tara Westwood) returns home to the United States, where her house quickly becomes haunted, and her ghost takes up vengeance against all who enter it. Among the victims in this one are Demian Bichir, John Cho, Betty Gilpin, Lin Shaye, Jacki Weaver, and William Sadler. Hopes that this would spark an ongoing renewal were dashed when it opened fairly poorly and ran out of that limited amount of steam almost immediately, failing to double its opening weekend, as well as earning a rare F from CinemaScore.
Director: Nicolas Pesce
Five Years Ago--January 1, 2016:
#1 Movie:
Star Wars: The Force Awakens--$90.2 million
New Limited Releases:
Anomalisa--$3.8 million/156 for 2015/92%/88--Like his fellow highly regarded indie filmmaker Wes Anderson, the ever-experimental Charlie Kaufman decided to use stop-motion animation for this adaption of his own play, about a man (voiced by David Thewlis) who has become convinced that everyone else, including his own family, looks and sounds exactly the same. While on a business trip, he becomes entranced with the one person he meets (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who looks and sounds different than everyone else. Tom Noonan voiced all the other characters. Critics raved about the film, the next-to-last release of 2015 (it opened on December 30; a Chinese film would open stateside the next day), and it would earn an Oscar nomination for Animated Feature.
Director: Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman
Ten Years Ago--January 7, 2011:
#1 Movie:
True Grit--$14.6 million
New Wide Releases:
Season of the Witch--3/$10.6 million/$24.8 million/108/11%/28--Despite its title and its placement in the year-opening horror spot, this was more of a supernatural action-fantasy than a horror film, and it also boasted a much better cast than these things usually have. Nicolas Cage, in one of his last wide-release theatrical starring roles, and Ron Perlman played 14th century knights who are tasked by a cardinal (Christopher Lee) to take a young woman (Claire Foy, in her film debut) suspected of being a witch to a distant monastery. Like most movies that open in this slot, it got awful reviews and burned out quickly.
Director: Dominic Sena
Expanding:
Country Strong--6/$7.3 million
Fifteen Years Ago--January 6, 2006:
New Wide Releases:
Hostel--1/$19.6 million/$47.3 million/67/61%/55--While it would take another couple of years for the tradition to become permeant, the surprising success of this and 2005's White Noise firmly established that audiences were eager for horror the first weekend of the year. And boy howdy, did this one deliver the visceral goods. Three stupid college kids (Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson) traveling through Europe are convinced to go to Slovakia, and then bad things happen. Even though (or maybe because) this was considerably gorier than Saw, which had been the reigning champ of torture porn, it became a moderate, and profitable, hit, and even got somewhat decent reviews. It would be followed by a sequel in 2007.
Director: Eli Roth
Grandma's Boy--13/$3 million/$6.1 million/176/16%/33--Not getting decent reviews, nor a sequel, was this lowbrow, Adam Sandler-produced comedy that made the mistake of opening on a weekend when its potential audience would rather be grossed out by gore rather than (non-blood) bodily fluids. Sandler's friend Allen Covert, whose acting career consists almost entirely of films involving Sandler in some way, made his leading man debut and finale as a video game tester forced to move in with his grandmother (Doris Roberts) and her friends (Shirleys Knight and Jones). Hijinks ensure. Linda Cardellini played his co-worker/love interest, an unknown Jonah Hill played a co-worker, and Nick Swardson, another Sandler friend who he also attempted to turn into a movie star five years later in Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, played another co-worker. In addition, Sandler talked Kevin Nealon, Rob Schneider, and David Spade into doing cameos.
Director: Nicholaus Goossen
New Limited Releases:
BloodRayne--$2.4 million/205/4%/18--For a few years in the mid-aughts, you could expect a bad Uwe Boll video game adaption to come out in January. This was 2006's entry, about a half-vampire/half-human (Kristanna Loken) who has to stop her vampire father (Ben Kingsley, only two years removed from his most recent Oscar nomination) from wiping out the human race. Also hopefully getting decent paychecks to appear were Michael Madsen, Matt Davis, Geraldine Chaplin, Udo Kier, Meat Loaf, Michael Pare, Billy Zane, and Michelle Rodriguez.
Director: Uwe Boll
Expanding:
Casanova--12/$3.8 million
Twenty Years Ago--January 5, 2001:
#1 Movie:
Cast Away--$22.2 million
Expanding:
Traffic--3/$15.5 million
Twenty-Five Years Ago--January 5, 1996:
#1 Movie/Expanding:
12 Monkeys--$13.8 million
Thirty Years Ago--January 4, 1990:
#1 Movie:
Home Alone--$12.6 million
Thirty-Five Years Ago--January 3, 1986:
#1 Movie:
Rocky IV--$7.2 million
New Wide Releases:
Head Office--8/$1.9 million/$3.4 million/123/0%/31--This little-seen satire starred Judge Reinhold as a new employee in a large corporation who keeps getting promoted no matter how poorly he does, which might have something to do with his father (George Coe) being a powerful U.S. Senator. The film had a surprisingly stacked cast, including Eddie Albert, Rick Moranis, Don Novello, Jane Seymour, Wallace Shawn, and Danny DeVito, though outside of Albert (who played the corrupt CEO), most of these appearances were just cameos. Befitting the first film of the year, critics largely panned it.
Director: Ken Finkleman
Forty Years Ago--January 2, 1981:
N/A
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