One important thing to remember about dramas released in February, especially dramas that have award magnet casts, and/or are based on a novel or play and/or are a biopic or other retelling of a real event and/or tackle serious themes, is that they will suck. There are exceptions, of course, but generally, serious dramas that come out in February start life as Oscar bait, until the studio execs watch a rough cut and realize that it's too mediocre to have a chance. So they're quietly dropped to die an unmourned death around Valentine's Day.
One Year Ago--February 21, 2020:
#1 Movie:
Sonic the Hedgehog--$26.2 million
New Wide Releases:
The Call of the Wild--2/$24.8 million/$62.3 million/6/62%/47--At least the sixth theatrical version of Jack London's novel (not counting the various made-for-TV adaptions), this concerns a St. Bernard (played by a CGI dog) who is dognapped from California and sent to the Yukon, where he discovers he is right at home. Among his various masters are Bradley Whitford, Omar Sy, Dan Stevens, and Harrison Ford, with Karen Gillen playing Stevens's sister. Reviews were decent, and the film did OK business, but like the earlier Dolittle, cost so much money that even decent business wasn't near enough for the film to break even. At least, unlike the numerous dog movies of 2019, none of the dogs in this one talked.
Director: Chris Sanders
Brahms: The Boy II--5/$5.8 million/$12.6 million/27/10%/29--2016's The Boy had been a minor horror hit, so it makes sense that a sequel would follow. What doesn't is that it took four years to arrive, by which point, the first film had been virtually forgotten. Katie Holmes starred as a woman who moves with her family to a country estate following a traumatic event, where weird things begin happening once her young son (Christopher Convery) digs up an old porcelain doll. In terms of relatively recent evil doll movies, audiences clearly preferred Annabelle, as this became the sixth horror movie to underperform since the beginning of the year.
Director: William Brent Bell
New Limited Releases:
Impractical Jokers: The Movie--$10.7 million/29/35%/39--Feature-length version of the long-running cable prank show, with the show's four leads (Brian Quinn, Joe Gatto, James Murray, Sal Vulcano) pulling practical jokes on each other while on a road trip to Miami to see Paula Abdul (playing herself) in concert. Also appearing was Jaden Smith, Joey Fatone, and, in a wordless cameo, Will Ferrell. The film got poor reviews, but did decent business.
Director: Chris Henchy
My Boyfriend's Meds--$3 million/48/NA/NA--In this Mexican comedy, a guy (Jaime Camil) whose numerous mental issues are kept at bay by his extensive medications, forgets them while visiting a resort with his new girlfriend (Sandra Echeverria), whom he hadn't told about his issues yet. Hijinks ensure. Jason Alexander and Brooke Shields appear (speaking English) as Camil's doctor and another resort guest, respectively. This one did OK business on the Hispanic theater circuit.
Director: Diego Kaplan
Emma.--$10.1 million/31/87%/71--Anya Taylor-Joy, who between this, The Queen's Gambit, and even the surprise box office success of The New Mutants, had a pretty good 2020, starred as the title character in the latest remake of Jane Austin's classic comic novel about a young woman who is so busy meddling in the love lives of her friends, particularly Mia Goth's, that she neglects to notice that she's fallen in love with her brother-in-law (Johnny Flynn). Bill Nighy played Taylor-Joy's father, with supporting work from Josh O'Connor and Rupert Graves. While not a huge smash (as its box office run was cut off by the pandemic), it did well critically and commercially, and was nominated for two Oscars, for Costumes and Makeup.
Director: Autumn de Wilde
Five Years Ago--February 19, 2016:
#1 Movie:
Deadpool--$56.5 million
New Wide Releases:
Risen--3/$11.8 million/$36.9 million/78/53%/51--This Christian drama had a unique approach to the story, focusing not on Jesus or His disciples, but instead on a Roman soldier (Joseph Fiennes) assigned to find the body of Jesus (Cliff Curtis), which has gone missing. Tom Fenton played Fiennes's aide and Peter Firth played Pontius Pilate. The film received decent reviews for a Christian film, and even though it was hardly a blockbuster, it did turn a profit.
Director: Kevin Reynolds
The Witch--4/$8.8 million/$25.1 million/98/90%/83--This horror film, set in 1630s New England, starred Anya Taylor-Joy, making her film debut, as a teenager living in the rural countryside whose family begins to experience strange and disturbing sights and images, of which she quickly becomes the prime suspect. Critics raved about the film, the directorial debut of Robert Eggers, and the film became a minor hit.
Director: Robert Eggers
Race--6/$7.4 million/$19.2 million/110/62%/56--This biopic starred Stephen James as Jesse Owens, the great African-American track athlete, as he prepared for the 1936 Olympics held in Nazi Germany. Jason Sudeikis played a rare dramatic role as Owens's coach at Ohio State, William Hurt played an American Olympic official who encouraged the boycott of the 1936 Games, and Jeremy Irons played Avery Brundage, head of the International Olympic Committee. Critics generally liked the film, but audiences didn't turn out.
Director: Stephen Hopkins
New Limited Releases:
Mei Ren Yu--$3.2 million/180/95%/69--A huge hit everywhere but in the US, this action comedy fantasy with an environmental message starred Chao Dang as a businessman whose new project is, unbeknownst to him, killing the merpeople who live in a nearby bay. When a beautiful mermaid (Jelly Lin) who can pass for human attempts to assassinate him, he falls in love instead. The film was well-received, but didn't earn much business outside of the Chinese expat community.
Director: Stephen Chow (credited as Xingchi Zhou)
Embrace of the Serpent--$1.3 million/226/96%/82--This Columbian drama focused on two trips down the Amazon thirty years apart, to find a rare plant, and the same native shaman (Nilbio Torres in the 1909 sequences, Antonio Bolivar in the 1940 segment) who guides both missions. Shot almost entirely in striking black and white, this earned fantastic reviews and became Colombia's first nominee for Foreign Language Film.
Director: Ciro Guerra
Ten Years Ago--February 25, 2011:
New Wide Releases:
Hall Pass--1/$13.5 million/$45.1 million/70/33%/45--Feeling that their marriages have become stagnant, Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis get their wives (Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate) to give them the titular pass for a week, during which they can have sex with other women. Hijinks ensure. Directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly rounded up a strong supporting cast, including Richard Jenkins, Stephen Merchant, J.B. Smoove, Tyler Hoechlin, and early appearances from Alexandra Daddario and Bo Burnham, but to little effect, as the film was both a critical and commercial failure.
Director: Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly
Drive Angry--9/$5.2 million/$10.7 million/137/47%/44--A film that likely would have been fine with skipping a conventional release and heading straight to weekend midnight runs, this fantasy thriller starred Nicolas Cage as an escapee from Hell, determined to take out a cult leader (Billy Burke) who plans to sacrifice Cage's granddaughter to Satan, while he himself is being pursued by one of Satan's assistants (William Fincher), who is determined to bring Cage--and more importantly, Satan's personal gun, which Cage stole--back with him. Amber Heard played a waitress that Cage picks up along the way, and David Morse played an old friend of Cage's. Reviews were decidedly mixed, and it unfortunately hasn't really developed the cult that the film was clearly developed for.
Director: Patrick Lussier
New Limited Releases:
The Grace Card--$2.4 million/180/36%/43--In this Christian melodrama, a white police officer (Michael Joiner), still bitter about the death of his son nearly two decades earlier, is partnered with an African-American rookie (Michael Higgenbottom), who is a part-time pastor. Given that it's a Christian drama, it's not hard to guess how it ultimately turns out. Louis Gossett, Jr. was the film's big name, playing Higgenbottom's grandfather, a minister who had fought in the Civil Rights movement. The few critics who did review it weren't all that impressed.
Director: David G. Evans
Fifteen Years Ago--February 24, 2006:
New Wide Releases:
Madea's Family Reunion--1/$30 million/$63.3 million/44/26%/45--Any hope that the seemingly out-of-nowhere success of Diary of a Mad Black Woman had been a fluke were dashed when Tyler Perry's follow-up (his directorial debut) opened even stronger. This one largely revolves around a pair of sisters, one (Rochelle Aytes) in an abusive relationship with Blair Underwood, the other (Lisa Arrindale Anderson) can't bring herself to trust her new boyfriend (Boris Kodjoe). Meanwhile, Madea (Perry, in one of three roles) has a new foster kid (Kiki Palmer). Lynn Whitfeld played Aytes and Anderson's conniving mother, Jenifer Lewis played a wedding planner, and Maya Angelou (in her final film appearance) and Cicely Tyson played relatives at the reunion. Like most Perry movies, it opened big and burned out fast, but it proved very profitable, though it would be 2008 before the next Madea movie would appear.
Director: Tyler Perry
Doogal--8/$3.6 million/$7.4 million/167/8%/23--In 2005, a British computer animated children's film called The Magic Roundabout, based on a stop-motion kids show from the 60s and 70s that originated in France (and was seen in the US during the early days of Nickelodeon) was released with a largely British cast, including Robbie Williams, Tom Baker, Jim Broadbent, Joanna Lumley, Bill Nighy, and Ray Winstone. When The Weinstein Company picked the film up for American distribution, the decision was made to replace nearly all of the British cast (even though the performers were fairly well-known in North America) with Americans. The American version, titled Doogal after the lead character, a fluffy dog, now starred Jon Stewart, William H. Macy, Chevy Chase, Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Bill Hader, Kevin Smith, John Krasinski, and that most American of actresses, Judi Dench. The only two members of the British cast who remained were Ian McKellan and Kylie Minouge. Despite the new cast, the film, whose plot had something to do with a group of animals, including the titular Doogal, stopping an evil wizard from starting a new ice age, ended up making probably about as much as it would have with the British cast.
Director: Dave Borthwick, Jean Duval, and Frank Passingham
Running Scared--9/$3.1 million/$6.9 million/174/41%/41--Only a week after starring in the big hit Eight Below, Paul Walker found himself in one of the year's bigger flops with this actioner, filled with double and triple crosses. Walker played a low-level mobster whose gun is stolen by the kid next door (Cameron Bright) who uses it to shoot his abusive stepfather (Karel Roden). Walker has to find the kid and the gun (which could be traced to another shooting) before the cops and other mobsters do. Vera Farmiga played Walker's wife, Chazz Palminteri a corrupt cop, and other cops were played by Michael Cudlitz and John Noble. Its final gross would be only a little more than a quarter of what Eight Below made on its opening weekend.
Director: Wayne Kramer
New Limited Releases:
Tsotsi--$2.9 million/197/82%/70--A young thug (Presley Chweneyagae) discovers a baby in a car he carjacked, which causes his paternal instincts to kick in as he learns to care for the child he inadvertently kidnapped. This South African drama made history by being the first film from that country, and the first non-French language film from Africa, to win the Oscar for Foreign Language film.
Director: Gavin Hood
2005 Academy Award Nominated Short Films--$0.2 million/337/NA/NA--The annual festival of nominated shorts didn't attract a lot of business in its early days. Before being divided up into two programs, both the live action and the animated shorts were presented on the same program, which this year included all 5 animated shorts and 4 of the 5 live action shorts (the only missing short was that year's winner, Six Shooter).
Director: Shane Acker (9), Mark Andrews (One Man Band), John Canemaker (The Moon and the Sun: An Imaginary Conversation), Sharon Colman (Badgered), Sean Ellis (Cashback), Ulrike Grote (The Runaway (Ausreisser)), Anthony Lucas (The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello), Rob Pearlstein (Our Time is Up), Runar Runarsson (The Last Farm (Sioasti Baerinn))
Street Fight--$0.005 million/564/100%/85--In 2002, Newark city councilman and activist Cory Booker, all of 33 years old, decided to take on longtime incumbent mayor Sharpe James, who had held the position since 1986. This documentary followed Booker's ultimately unsuccessful campaign, which was endorsed by figures such as Spike Lee, and the underhanded and frequently illegal tactics that James used to hold onto his power. Even though the film attracted almost no business, it did earn an Oscar nomination for Documentary Feature. In 2006, Booker would succeed the retiring James as Newark's mayor, and from there go on to be elected to the United States Senate.
Director: Marshall Curry
Twenty Years Ago--February 23, 2001:
#1 Movie:
Hannibal--$15.8 million
New Wide Releases:
3000 Miles to Graceland--3/$7.2 million/$15.8 million/112/14%/21--The premise, about a group of Elvis imposters who rob a Vegas casino, seemed clever enough, but the result, in which the hyperviolent Kevin Costner ends up in multistate battle with better-than-the-rest-of-the-bad-guys Kurt Russell over the money, fell utterly flat with both critics and audiences. Courtney Cox played a Vegas woman who gets involved with Russell, Christian Slater, Bokeem Woodbine, and Cox's then-husband David Arquette played the other thieves, Kevin Pollock and Thomas Haden Church played U.S. marshals, Ice-T and Slater's Broken Arrow co-star Howie Long as associates of the criminals, and Vegas regular Paul Anka as a pit boss.
Director: Demian Lichtenstein
Monkeybone--11/$2.7 million/$5.4 million/145/19%/40--Making 3000 Miles to Graceland look like a smash in comparison, this live-action/stop-motion hybrid, the only directorial effort from Henry Selick to not be almost exclusively stop-motion, starred Brendan Frasier as a cartoonist who while in a coma after an accident, finds himself in a surreal world where he has to battle his titular creation (voiced by John Turturro), who wants to possess Frasier's body and escape to the real world. The film featured a number of well-known performers, including Bridget Fonda as Frasier's girlfriend, Dave Foley as his agent, Rose McGowan as a catgirl living in the dream world, Whoopi Goldberg and Giancarlo Esposito as the rulers of the underworld, Esposito's future Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul co-star Bob Odenkirk as a doctor, and other cameos by Chris Kattan, Megan Mullally, Robert Wuhl, and (having a bad week) Thomas Haden Church. Reviews were a bit better than Graceland's, at least.
Director: Henry Selick
Twenty-Five Years Ago--February 23, 1996:
New Wide Releases:
Rumble in the Bronx--1/$9.9 million/$32.4 million/51/80%/61--After years of trying to break into the North American market, Chan finally succeeded with this New York-set (but Vancouver-shot) actioner, in which he played a visitor to the U.S. who runs afoul first of a biker gang, and then a bunch of mobsters. This had opened in Hong Kong over a year before it reached the States, and the American version is 17 minutes shorter than the Hong Kong version. Distributors would rush dubbed versions of Chan's Chinese films into theaters over the next couple of years, none of which did anywhere near as well as this one, until his first American starring role, Rush Hour, opened in 1998.
Director: Stanley Tong
Before and After--7/$4 million/$8.8 million/132/32%/NA--The weekend's first piece of failed Oscar bait starred Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson as a married couple whose world is turned upside down when their teenage son (Edward Furlong) is accused of murdering his girlfriend. Daniel von Bargen played the local sheriff, and John Heard and Alfred Molina played lawyers. Despite the leads, audiences were less interested in the movie than the critics were.
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Mary Reilly--8/$2.9 million/$5.7 million/144/26%/44--The weekend's second piece of failed Oscar bait was, like Before and After, based on an acclaimed novel, had an all-star cast, and was directed by an Oscar nominee from 1990 whose film did not get a Best Picture nomination. Julia Roberts, sporting an Irish accent, played the titular maid who goes to work for scientist John Malkovich, playing Dr. Henry Jekyll, on the verge of perfecting a certain formula. She finds herself oddly attracted to the savage Hyde. A young Michael Sheen, in only his second movie, played a butler, Michael Gambon played Roberts's father, Ciaran Hinds played a friend of Jekyll's, and Glenn Close had a cameo as a madam. This remains Roberts's lowest-grossing wide release.
Director: Stephen Frears
Unforgettable--14/$1.4 million/$2.8 million/171/21%/NA--The weekend's third piece of failed Oscar bait reunites the star and director of The Last Seduction in this sci-fi thriller in which a medical examiner (Ray Liotta) steals a magic formula that allows one to experience other people's memories, in an effort to figure out who murdered his wife. Linda Fiorentino played the scientist who developed the formula, Peter Coyote and Christopher McDonald (also in Happy Gilmore, from the week prior) played cops, David Paymer (also in City Hall, from the week prior) played Liotta's friend, and Kim Cattrall played his sister-in-law. Hopes that director John Dahl would be able to match the quality of Seduction were quickly dashed, and audiences utterly ignored it.
Director: John Dahl
New Limited Releases:
Anne Frank Remembered--$1.3 million/194/97%/NA--The life of the teenage girl, whose diary of the time she spent in hiding from the Nazis, is examined in this documentary that includes interviews with Miep Gies, who hid the Franks and others, and the son of one of the others who was in the attic, as well as the only known film footage of Frank herself. It was narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and diary experts were read by Glenn Close and Joely Richardson. With near unanimous good reviews, it would win the Oscar for Documentary Feature.
Director: Jon Blair
Thirty Years Ago--February 22, 1991:
#1 Movie:
The Silence of the Lambs--$12 million
New Wide Releases:
Scenes From a Mall--6/$3.8 million/$9.6 million/97/32%/NA--Despite everything surrounding him, Woody Allen remains one of our most prolific filmmakers, as he's churned out a new directorial effort virtually every year, up until 2020. 1991 was the rare year there was no new Allen-directed film out (he made up for it with two in 1992), but he still was in a movie, playing his first lead role for another director, specifically in this case Paul Mazursky, since The Front in 1976. He co-starred in this comedy with Bette Midler, playing a married couple who spend their anniversary wandering around a L.A. mall, where they each decide to confess their infidelities to each other. Bill Irwin, a talented clown in real life, played a mime that followed the two around the mall, and there were cameos from director Mazursky and composer Marc Shaiman. Despite the talent in front of and behind the camera, critics were largely unamused, and Allen proved to be about as big of a box office draw as he is in his own movies. He wouldn't work with another director besides himself for a theatrical release until the animated Antz in 1998.
Director: Paul Mazursky
He Said, She Said--7/$2.9 million/$9.8 million/95/31%/NA--In this comedy, Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins play rival political columnists who find themselves falling for each other. The big gimmick was that we saw most scenes twice, once from Bacon's point of view, in scenes directed by Ken Kwapis, and once from Perkins's, in scenes directed by Kwapis's then real-life finacee Marisa Silver (they're still married). Nathan Lane, Anthony LaPaglia, and Sharon Stone had supporting roles. Critics didn't think much of the gimmick, and audiences mostly ignored it.
Director: Ken Kwapis and Marisa Silver
Thirty-Five Years Ago--February 21, 1986:
#1 Movie:
Down and Out in Beverly Hills--$5 million
New Wide Releases:
The Hitcher--8/$2.1 million/$5.8 million/100/62%/32--While driving cross-country, C. Thomas Howell makes the mistake of picking up hitchhiker Rutger Hauer, who turns out to be a complete psychopath, and who proceeds to chase Howell across the country, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Jennifer Jason Leigh played a waitress who helps Howell. Despite the poor box office, this has gotten some critical acclaim over the years. A remake was made in 2007.
Director: Robert Harmon
Forty Years Ago--February 20, 1981:
New Limited Releases:
The Last Metro--$3 million/86/86%/NA--Set during the Nazi occupation of Paris, this Francois Truffaut drama starred Gerard Depardieu as an actor and secret member of the Resistance who joins a theater company run by Catherine Deneuve. She is hiding her Jewish husband (Heinz Bennent) in the basement, and Depardieu, who has fallen for Deneuve, agrees to help keep his presence a secret from the Gestapo. Truffaut's latest was near-universally praised by critics, and became a solid art house hit. The film would get an Oscar nomination for Foreign Language Film.
Director: Francois Truffaut
Expanding:
Melvin & Howard
Raging Bull
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