January continues to mostly be home to dumps, but a few hits, and even a couple of blockbusters, poke their heads up amid the muck.
*-4 day totals
One Year Ago--January 17, 2020:
New Wide Releases:
Bad Boys For Life--1/$62.5 million/$206.3 million/1/77%/59--Will Smith capped an up-and-down few months which saw flops Gemini Man and Spies in Disguise sandwiched in between this and fellow huge hit Aladdin by uniting with Martin Lawrence (in his first starring role in a film since Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son in 2011), for the first Bad Boys since the summer of 2003. The perpetually single Smith and the happily married (and now a grandfather) Lawrence leave yet another trail of destruction through greater Miami as they investigate murders committed by a mother/son pair of drug kingpins (Kate del Castillo, Jacob Scipio) who have a very personal vendetta against Smith. Joe Pantoliano returns from the previous films as Smith and Lawrence's constantly exasperated captain, and Theresa Randle also returns as Lawrence's wife. Newcomers include Vanessa Hudgens as a young cop, and DJ Khaled as a butcher. Michael Bay, who directed the first two films, hands over the reins to Belgian duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (who were in elementary school when the first one came out in 1995, and who are credited by their first names only), but still has a cameo. For a January release of a threequel, critics were surprisingly kind, especially given how harshly they reviewed the second entry 17 years earlier. With the pandemic shutting down theaters only two months after this opened, this became the first highest grosser of the year to be released in January, as well as the lowest-grossing highest grosser since Toy Story in 1995.
Director: Adil and Bilall
Dolittle--3/$21.8 million/$77.1 million/4/14%/26--After graduating from the MCU, Robert Downey, Jr. decided to follow in the footsteps of Rex Harrison and Eddie Murphy by playing the vet who could talk to the animals. In this one, set in Victorian England, he goes on a journey to get the medicine necessary to cure the queen (Jesse Buckley), which requires him to avoid his arch-rival Michael Sheen and encounter angry father-in-law Antonio Banderas (who had been nominated for an Oscar four days before this opened). Jim Broadbent played an advisor to the queen. Voicing various animals were Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, John Cena, Kumail Nanjiani, Octavia Spencer, Tom Holland, Craig Robinson, Ralph Fiennes, Selena Gomez, Marion Cotillard, and Will Arnett. Critics ripped the film to shreds, but with the remaining Christmas family films having mostly played out by then, this did decent business, though nowhere near enough to cover its insane price tag.
Director: Stephen Gaghan
New Limited Releases:
Weathering With You--$7.8 million/36/91%/72--Japanese animator Makoto Shinkai followed up his smash hit Your Name with another tale of star-crossed teens. A runaway (Brandon Engman in the English dub) meets and eventually falls for an orphan (Ashley Boettcher) who has the ability to briefly stop the incessant rain that is drowning Tokyo, but they eventually learn that such a gift comes with a steep price. Lee Pace voiced the man who befriends the boy and gives him a job, Alison Brie voiced his niece and other employee, and Riz Ahmed voiced a cop. The film ended up being 2019's highest grossing film in Japan, and did well on the art house circuit in North America.
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Expanding:
Jojo Rabbit--15/$1.5 million
Five Years Ago--January 15, 2016:
New Wide Releases:
Ride Along 2--1/$35.2 million/$91.2 million/33/14%/32--This sequel to the surprise 2014 smash reunited Ice Cube and Kevin Hart as a tough detective and his klutzy future brother-in-law respectively, as this time they're undercover in Miami working to take down a gangster (Benjamin Bratt). Olivia Munn played a Miami cop that Cube and Hart work with, Ken Jeong played a computer hacker, Tika Sumpter played Hart's fiancée, Sherri Shepard played Sumpter's friend, and Tyrese Gibson played Cube's partner. Critics largely dismissed it as a rehash of the first film (which they didn't like much, either), but it was a solid success, even if it did finish well off the pace of the first one.
Director: Tim Story
13 Hours--4/$16.2 million/$52.9 million/65/51%/48--January continued to be a good month to release military-themed movies with this re-enactment of the tragic insurgent inversion of an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 that left four Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador, dead. John Krasinski and James Badge Dale played two of the members of the private security force responsible for evacuating the survivors while waiting for reinforcements. This ran into some mild controversy over its historical accuracy, which seemed to accept the more conservative explanation as to why help was so slow. This would be one of two non-Transformers movies Michael Bay would direct during the decade those films were being made. It would be the first Oscar nominee released in 2016, being nominated for its Sound Mixing roughly a year after its release.
Director: Michael Bay
Norm of the North--6/$6.8 million/$17.1 million/115/7%/21--January is also a good moth to release cheap animated movies in the hopes of luring families who hadn't gone see anything since Christmas. This offering, in which a talking polar bear (Rob Schneider) tries to defeat an evil developer (Ken Jeong, in his second film of the weekend) who wants to build condos in the Arctic, didn't prove appealing to either families or critics. It did have the usual B-level voice cast of animated films like these, including Heather Graham, Colm Meaney, Bill Nighy, Loretta Devine, and Gabriel Iglesias.
Director: Trevor Wall
Ten Years Ago--January 21, 2011:
New Wide Releases:
No Strings Attached--1/$19.7 million/$70.7 million/52/49%/50--The first of two 2011 movies about friends whose casual sexual relationship begins to mean something more that starred a cast member of Black Swan and a cast member of That 70s Show who is now married to the other movie's cast member of That 70s Show, this one came in with a better pedigree, but ended up with worse reviews than Friends With Benefits, which would open almost exactly six months later in July. This one did outgross Friends, however. Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher are the couple in this one, with Kevin Kline playing Kutcher's dad, and supporting work from Cary Elwis, Greta Gerwig, Lake Bell, Ludacris, Mindy Kaling, Abby Elliott, and Nasim Pedrad. This was a bit of a change of pace for Ivan Reitman, who hadn't directed an R-rated movie since Stripes in 1981.
Director: Ivan Reitman
Fifteen Years Ago--January 20, 2006:
New Wide Releases:
Underworld: Evolution--1/$26.9 million/$62.3 million/47/17%/36--The second of the Matrix-But-With-Vampires-And-Werewolves franchise has series star Kate Beckinsale as a vampire and Scott Speedman as a half-werewolf going on the run from an ancient vampire (Tony Curran) who, with his werewolf twin brother (Brian Steele) plans to rule the world. Derek Jacobi played an even more ancient vampire, and Bill Nighy reprises his role from the original as yet another vampire. Critics were largely confused, but it became an even bigger hit than the original. Three more sequels would follow.
Director: Len Wiseman
End of the Spear--8/$4.7 million/$12 million/149/41%/45--In this Christian drama, based on a true story, Chad Allen starred in a duel role as a missionary in Ecuador who gets killed while trying to make contact with an isolated tribe, and his son who, years later, befriends a tribesman (Louie Leonardo) who, unbeknownst to him, participated in his father's murder. This ran into some controversary with some groups upset that the lead role was played by the openly gay Allen. Given how hit and miss Christian movies can be, it's hard to know if the controversary affected the box office.
Director: Jim Hanon
New Limited Releases:
Pizza--$0.005 million/555/31%/42--This little-seen comedy starred Kylie Sparks as an unpopular teenager who, on her 18th birthday, befriends a pizza delivery guy (Ethan Embry) who seems content to drift into middle age. With this low-budget indie, director Mark Christopher was a ways away from his last movie, 54, but he was still able to secure a supporting cast with numerous familiar faces, including Julie Hagerty, Miriam Shor, Judah Friedlander, and Jesse McCartney.
Director: Mark Christopher
Expanding:
The New World--9/$4.3 million
Twenty Years Ago--January 19, 2021:
#1 Movie:
Save the Last Dance--$15.4 million
New Wide Releases:
The Pledge--11/$5.8 million/$19.7 million/102/78%/71--Jack Nicholson, who five years earlier, had starred in Sean Penn's previous dour drama The Crossing Guard, returned to star in this dour drama, where he played a retired cop who has pledged to find the killer of a young girl. Penn was able to sign a particularly fine cast for the film, including Patricia Clarkson as the dead girl's mother, Benicio del Toro as a suspect, Aaron Eckhart and Sam Shepard as cops, Helen Mirren as a doctor, Tom Noonan as another suspect, Vanessa Redgrave as the girl's grandmother, Michael O'Keefe as the girl's father, other supporting roles for Mickey Rourke, Lois Smith, and Harry Dean Stanton, and Penn's then-wife Robin Wright Penn as a woman Nicholson begins a relationship with. Unlike most January dumps, this picked up solid reviews, and its possible that, had the film opened a month earlier, Nicholson would have been a serious contender for a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars. However, it and Nicholson were long forgotten by the time the nominations for 2001 were announced (Penn, ironically enough, would get a Best Actor nomination himself for I Am Sam).
Director: Sean Penn
New Limited Releases:
Scottsboro: An American Tragedy--$0.006 million/344/67%/74--This documentary, which got a limited release before PBS aired it nationwide in April, chronicled the case of the Scottsboro Boys, a group of nine African-American teenagers who, in 1931, were accused of raping two white women in Alabama. At that place and that time, no actual proof other than the accusation was needed to ensure that they would be convicted and sentenced to death. After an unusual amount of publicity, and two decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the verdict, they were finally, quietly released, though the rest of their lives would be greatly affected by the injustice. Andre Braugher narrated, and among those voicing the people involved were Stanley Tucci and Frances McDormand. The film would be nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars.
Director: Barak Goodman and Daniel Anker
Expanding:
Snatch--4/$8 million
Twenty-Five Years Ago--January 19, 1996:
New Wide Releases:
From Dusk Till Dawn--1/$10.2 million/$25.8 million/61/62%/48--George Clooney, then on his second season of ER, landed his first lead in a major film with what starts out as a crime drama, with Clooney and Quentin Tarantino, in arguably his most successful acting role outside his own movies, as criminal brothers who carjack Tarantino regular Harvey Keitel's RV and force him to take them to Mexico, where they're expecting to meet contact Cheech Marin (who also played a border guard and a third role) at a strip club. Needless to say, bad (and supernatural) things happen. Juliette Lewis played Keitel's daughter, Salma Hayek played a stripper, Danny Trejo, played a bar employee, Fred Williamson played a bar patron, Tarantino regular Michael Parks played a Texas Ranger, Kelly Preston played a news reporter, and John Hawkes played a clerk. Critics generally liked the film, and audiences turned it into a minor hit. It would be followed by two direct-to-video sequels and a TV series. Counting his segment in Four Rooms, this would be the third film directed by Robert Rodriguez to open in less than six months. It would be the first of three movies he'd do with Clooney, the second of ten he'd do with Trejo, the fourth of seven he'd do with Hayek, and the second of nine he'd do with Marin.
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Expanding:
Mr. Holland's Opus--2/$9.3 million
Sense and Sensibility--10/$3.3 million
Thirty Years Ago--January 18, 1991:
#1 Movie:
Home Alone--$11.1 million*
New Wide Releases:
Flight of the Intruder--5/$5.7 million*/$14.6 million/84/25%/NA--Given the prevalence of both Vietnam movies and Top Gun rip-offs during the late 80s, its surprising that it took until 1991 to get a Top Gun ripoff set during Vietnam. Brad Johnson played a Navy bomber who, frustrated with restrictions over what they can blow up, convinces his new navigator (Willem Dafoe) that they should illegally bomb Hanoi. Lots of things go boom. The film has an impressive supporting cast, including Danny Glover as their commanding officer, Rosanna Arquette (the only major female character) as a Navy widow, Tom Sizemore as another flyer, and supporting roles for Dann Florek (then starring on the first season of Law & Order), Ving Rhames, John Corbett, in his first credited movie role, David Schwimmer, in his film debut, and future senator Fred Thompson. Critics were decidedly unimpressed, and the film made almost exactly what 1990's Top Gun ripoff Fire Birds made.
Director: John Milius
White Fang--6/$5.6 million*/$34.8 million/38/65%/62--This somewhat loose adaption of Jack London's much-filmed classic novel starred Ethan Hawke as a young gold prospector in turn-of-the-century Yukon who befriends the titular wolfdog, eventually coming into ownership of him. Klaus Maria Brandauer played Hawke's friend, Seymour Cassel played a dog sled driver, and James Remar played a dogfight coordinator who owned White Fang for a time. Even though critics complained that Disney sanded down the harsher edges of London's novel, they still mostly liked the film, at it was a decent early-year hit for the company. A sequel would follow in 1994.
Director: Randal Kleiser
New Limited Releases:
Eve of Destruction--$5.5 million/121/20%/NA--This low-budget sci-fi actioner most likely blew most of its budget hiring Gregory Hines, who plays an army colonel who has to stop an intelligent, human-looking robot (Renee Soutendijk) implanted with a nuclear bomb, who has gone haywire. Soutendijk has a duel role as the robot's inventor. The few critics who showed up weren't impressed.
Director: Duncan Gibbins
Once Around--$14.9 million/81/70%/NA--Director Lasse Hallstrom, who had come to prominence thanks to his hit Swedish coming-of-age comedy My Life as a Dog, made his American debut with this romantic comedy-drama about a single woman (Holly Hunter) who falls for and marries the older Richard Dreyfuss (reuniting with his Always co-star), a brash chain smoker who horrifies her close-knit family. Danny Aiello and Gena Rowlands play Hunter's parents, Laura San Giacomo her sister, and Griffin Dunne her ex-boyfriend. Critics liked the movie, which seemed out of place in January, raising the possibility that it was originally planned for late 1990.
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Taxi Blues--NA/NA/83%/NA--This Russian comedy-drama starred Pyotr Mamonov as a saxophonist who stiffs the fare of taxi driver Pyotr Zaychenko. Zaychenko tracks him down and holds his sax hostage until Mamonov can pay him. While working off the debt, the two make a connection. This was well-received and did well box-office wise throughout the world.
Director: Pavel Lungin
Expanding:
Green Card--8/$3.7 million*
Hamlet--9/$3.4 million*
Thirty-Five Years Ago--January 17, 1986:
New Wide Releases:
Iron Eagle--1/$6.1 million/$24.2 million/41/20%/41--1986's other movie about a cocky fighter pilot, this one would make only a fraction of what Top Gun made, but would get three sequels out a quarter of a century before Top Gun got its first one. Jason Gedrick is the son of an Air Force pilot (Tim Thomerson) who gets shot down and captured by a (fictional) hostile Middle Eastern country. When the U.S. goverment won't mount a rescue mission, Gedrick decides to go himself, with the help of a veteran Air Force pilot (Louis Gossett, Jr.) and a couple of stolen Air Force jets. David Suchet played the defense minister of the hostile country, and Melora Hardin and Shawnee Smith played friends of Gedrick. Critics howled, but the film was a moderate box office success and, as noted, would be followed by three sequels.
Director: Sidney J. Furie
Troll--9/$2.6 million/$5.5 million/103/30%/30--Arguably the first Gremlins ripoff to hit theaters, this horror comedy concerned a teenager (Noah Hathaway) named Harry Potter (yes, really) who has to save his sister (Jenny Beck) from the titular troll (Phil Fondacaro, who also plays a neighbor), who is attempting to destroy humanity and wants Beck to be his princess. Michael Moriatry and Shelly Hack played Hathaway's parents, June Lockhart played a witch who assists Hathaway in his quest, and Sonny Bono, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (in her film debut. Her second film, opening three weeks later, was the far more respectable Hannah and Her Sisters), and her real-life future husband, Brad Hall, played neighbors who get possessed by the troll. Even though it was not a success during its theatrical run, it became a cult hit on video, leading to an unrelated, incredibly bad movie about evil goblins being named Troll 2 a few years later.
Director: John Carl Buechler
New Limited Releases:
The Clan of the Cave Bear--$2 million/149/10%/34--Daryl Hannah, who had jumped to stardom after Splash, certainly chose an interesting project for her next starring role: a largely dialog-free drama in which she played a caveman. Hannah (whose character was played as a child by Emma Floria and as a teenager by Nicole Eggert) is an orphaned Cro-Magnon who is adopted into a tribe of Neanderthals, specifically by medicine woman Pamela Reed, who raises Hannah and teaches her the ways of the tribe. She also becomes a skilled fighter, even though it was taboo for women to hold weapons. The film was a critical and commercial bomb, but the Makeup got an Oscar nomination a year later, making this the earliest 1986 release to get a nomination.
Director: Michael Chapman
Expanding:
Runaway Train--8/$2.6 million
Forty Years Ago--January 16, 1981:
New Limited Releases:
Bye Bye Brazil--NA/NA/NA/NA--This Brazilian comedy-drama concerns a troupe of entertainers who travel from town to town in rural Brazil, only to discover that modern life has made them passé and no one has the money to pay them anyway. The film was highly acclaimed and did well on the American art-house circuit.
Director: Carlos Diegues
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