With the Oscars traditionally held either in March, or just before or after March, one wouldn't think that potential Oscar contenders would be released during the month, given it would be a full year before the ceremony where they would be honored. But Oscar contenders abound in the month, which be the best month to release a potential Oscar film outside of the end of the year.
One Year Ago--March 6, 2020:
New Wide Releases:
Onward--1/$39.1 million/$61.6 million/7/88%/61--Probably the movie already in release that lost the single most potential grosses to the pandemic, the fact that this is the one Pixar theatrical release to not hit $100 million obviously needs a big asterisk. That said, it was looking to be one of the lower-grossing titles anyway, as it got surprisingly weak reviews for an original title from the studio. Taking place in a world filled with characters from your average fantasy flick--all living normal suburban lives, two elf brothers (Tom Holland, Marvel's Peter Parker and Chris Pratt, Marvel's Peter Quill) go on a quest to retrieve a magical stone that can (briefly) bring their deceased father back to life, while their mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), her centaur cop boyfriend (Mel Rodriguez), and a legendary monster-turned-theme restaurant owner (Octavia Spencer) in hot pursuit. Tracey Ullman played a pawn shop owner, Lena Waithe played a cop (the first openly LGBT character in Pixar history), and John Ratzenberger continued his streak of appearing in every Pixar movie, this time voicing a construction worker. Even though the film was somewhat of a critical disappointment, it still got an Oscar nomination for Animated Feature.
Director: Dan Scanlon
The Way Back--3/$8.2 million/$13.6 million/24/83%/66--In this drama, recovering alcoholic Ben Affleck played an alcoholic former high school basketball star who reluctantly agrees to take over as head coach for his alma mater, which has fallen on hard times. While the film seems to be heading down the road of an inspirational sports movie, it's not quite that easy. Affleck got some awards buzz for his performance, but the pandemic wiped out a chance for this to become a sleeper hit.
Director: Gavin O'Connor
New Limited Releases:
First Cow--$0.1 million/181/95%/89--In this highly acclaimed drama, a cook (John Magaro) and a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) in 1820s Oregon team up to steal the milk from the only cow in the area to make biscuits that become hugely popular. Unfortunately, it's only a matter of time before the cow's owner (Toby Jones) figures out why his cow doesn't seem to be producing much milk. Rene Auberjonois had a small role in his final film. Thanks to nearly across-the-board raves, this one seemed poised to become an art-house hit.
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Bacurau--$0.06 million/199/93%/82--This genre-shifting Brazilian film concerns the weird and frequently violent goings-on in the small titular town after the local matriarch dies. Sonia Braga played the town doctor and Udo Kier played a mysterious foreigner. This one was probably too weird to break out.
Director: Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonça Filho
Expanding:
Emma.--6/$4.8 million
Five Years Ago--March 4, 2016:
New Wide Releases:
Zootopia--1/$75.1 million/$341.3 million/7/98%/78--Disney, which usually uses March to release a big live-action movie, went with an animated release for the first time since 2011's Mars Needs Moms. The results were much better this time around, as the animated comedy proved to be the first of the studio's three giant animated smashes of 2016. In a world where animals had learned to (sort of) live in harmony with each other, Gennifer Goodwin played the first rabbit cop on the titular city's police force, only to be regulated to menial jobs. When she more or less forces herself onto a big case, she teams with a reluctant con artist fox (Jason Bateman) and uncovers a massive conspiracy. Idris Elba voiced the police chief, J.K. Simmons the city mayor, Jenny Slate the assistant mayor, Bonne Hunt and Don Lake as Goodwin's parents, Tommy Chong as a hippie yak, Shakira (who also performs the movie's closing credits song) as a pop star gazelle, Kristen Bell as a sloth, Octavia Spencer as the wife of one of the victims, and Alan Tudyk as a con artist weasel named Duke Weaselton. A year after the film was released, it would win the Oscar for Animated Feature.
Director: Byron Howard, Rich Moore, and Jared Bush
London Has Fallen--2/$21.6 million/$62.5 million/51/28%/28--A sequel to the surprise hit thriller Olympus Has Fallen from 2013, this one has terrorists launching an all-out assault on London just as world leaders have arrived for a funeral. It's up to Secret Service agent Gerard Butler (in his second movie in two weeks, after Gods of Egypt) to once again save President Aaron Eckhart while stopping the attack. Morgan Freeman played the vice president, Angela Basset played the head of the Secret Service, Robert Forster the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Jackie Earle Haley as a White House staffer, and Melissa Leo as the Secretary of Defense. Despite the absurdly stacked cast for a movie like this, critics still ripped it to shreds. Still, it did decent business (though falling well short of Olympus), enough that a third entry in the franchise, Angel Has Fallen, was released in 2019.
Director: Babak Najafi
Whisky Tango Foxtrot--4/$7.5 million/$23.1 million/101/67%/57--Tina Fey (in her last major role in a live-action film to date), played real-life Afghanistan war correspondent Kim Barker in this comedy-drama. Going for what she thinks will be a short assignment early in the war to boost her career, she ends up staying for several years. Margot Robbie and Martin Freeman played fellow journalists, Alfred Molina as the Afghanistan Attorney General, Billy Bob Thornton as an American general, and smaller roles from Christopher Abbot, Josh Charles, Nicholas Braun, Cherry Jones, and Sterling K. Brown. Reviews were mixed, and the film was considered a disappointment.
Director: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
New Limited Releases:
The Other Side of the Door--$3 million/185/37%/41--This low-budgeted horror flick, dumped by the studio, starred Sarah Wayne Callies as a mother grieving for her late son. She is given the chance to say goodbye to him one last time, but has to follow specific instructions. She doesn't, of course, and, well, it's a horror film. You can guess what happens. Jeremy Sisto played her husband. Luckily, this was low-budgeted enough that it actually made back its production costs.
Director: Johannes Roberts
Ten Years Ago--March 11, 2011:
New Wide Releases:
Battle: Los Angeles--1/$35.6 million/$83.6 million/37/36%/37--Standard issue alien invasion flick has a group of Marines, including Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Ne-Yo, Lucas Till, and Noel Fisher, fighting the invasion through L.A., with Bridget Moynahan, Michael Pena, and Joey King as civilian survivors. Critics thought it was fairly cliched, but it did decent business.
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Red Riding Hood--3/$14 million/$37.7 million/80/10%/29--The second fairy tell reimagining in two weeks, at least this one can brag that it outgrossed Beastly, even if that film somehow got better reviews. Amanda Seyfried played the titular Red Riding Hood, whose sister is killed by a werewolf. Seyfried comes under suspicion when its revealed she can communicate with the beast. Virginia Madsen and Billy Burke played her parents, Julie Christie her grandmother, Lucas Haas a priest, and Gary Oldman a famous monster hunter.
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Mars Needs Moms--5/$6.9 million/$21.4 million/116/37%/49--Audiences finally seemed to tire of Robert Zemeckis's motion-capture animated projects, as this sci-fi adventure released by Disney (which he produced but didn't direct) became one of the biggest bombs in studio history. Martians kidnap an Earth woman (Joan Cusack) to extract her "momness" for the robots that raise Martian young, while her young son (Seth Dusky voice, Seth Green motion-capture) stows away on the spaceship and attempts to save her with the help of another human on the planet (Dan Fogler, also in theaters in the flesh in Take Me Home Tonight). Mindy Sterling played the ruler of Mars. Critics, who had never really warmed to the animation process, were as underwhelmed as audiences were, and this is, to date, Zemeckis's last motion capture project.
Director: Simon Wells
New Limited Releases:
Jane Eyre--$11.2 million/136/84%/76--Charlotte Brontë's much-filmed novel (which, in the preceding 15 years had been adapted into a TV movie, a TV miniseries, and another theatrical film) got yet another remake, this one starring Mia Wasikowska as Jane and Michael Fassbender as the mysterious Mr. Rochester, with Judi Dench as Rochester's kind housekeeper, Sally Hawkins as Jane's cruel aunt, Imogen Poots as the woman Rochester is pursuing, and Jamie Bell as a pastor who is interested in Jane. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga emphasized the gothic trappings of the novel in this adaption, which critics appreciated. The film became a hit on the art house circuit, and its Costumes would be Oscar nominated.
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Fifteen Years Ago--March 10, 2006:
New Wide Releases:
Failure to Launch--1/$24.4 million/$88.7 million/21/24%/47--Perhaps the quintessential Matthew McConaughey romcom, he plays a guy in his mid-30s who still lives at home with his parents (Terry Bradshaw and Kathy Bates). Desperate to get him out, they hire a woman (Sarah Jessica Parker) who specializes in helping men grow up by pretending to date them. However, she soon realizes that her feelings for McConaughey are real. Bradley Cooper and Justin Bartha, who would reteam for The Hangover three years later, played his best friends, Zooey Deschanel played hers, with Patton Oswalt and Stephen Tobolowsky in small roles.
Director: Tom Dey
The Shaggy Dog--2/$16.3 million/$61.1 million/48/26%/43--In this loose remake of Disney's 1959 classic, Tim Allen played a lawyer who, in a convoluted series of events, gets bitten by a 300-year-old sheepdog, which somehow causes him to turn into a dog (though he can change back). Eventually, this puts him in the crosshairs of an evil genetic scientist played by Robert Downey, Jr. (it says a lot about the state of his pre-MCU career that he was playing the bad guy in a Tim Allen Disney vehicle). Kristin Davis played Allen's wife, Spencer Breslin and Zena Grey his kids, Danny Glover his boss, Philip Baker Hall Downey's boss, and Jane Curtin as a judge. Reviews were predictably terrible, but the film did decent business.
Director: Brian Robbins
The Hills Have Eyes--3/$15.7 million/$41.8 million/74/52%/52--A family on a road trip to California end up stuck in the New Mexico desert, at the mercy of violent mutants who aren't particularly welcoming to visitors. Among the potential victims are Aaron Stanford, Kathleen Quinlan, Vinessa Shaw, Emile de Ravin, Dan Byrd, and Ted Levine, with Billy Drago playing one of the mutants. French director Alexandre Aja, renowned for his gory flicks, made his American debut with this remake of Wes Craven's 1977 film (Craven served as a producer on this one). True to form, the first cut got an NC-17 because of the violence.
Director: Alexandre Aja
Twenty Years Ago--March 9, 2001:
#1 Movie:
The Mexican--$12.2 million
New Wide Releases:
15 Minutes--2/$10.5 million/$24.4 million/91/32%/34--This sleazy thriller, essentially a low-rent version of Natural Born Killers with a much better cast than it deserves, concerns two Eastern European goons (Karl Roden and Oleg Taktarov) who film their NYC crime spree, hoping that the footage will make them famous. On their trail is cop Robert De Niro and arson investigator Edward Burns. Showing up in supporting roles is Kelsey Grammer as the host of a tabloid show, Avery Brooks as a cop, Melina Kanakaredes as a reporter and De Niro's girlfriend, Vera Farmiga (in her fourth movie) as a murder witness, Kim Cattrall as the tabloid show's producer, David Alan Grier as a mugger, 11-year-old Anton Yelchin (in one of his first film appearances) as a kid rescued from a fire by Burns, and Charlize Theron (who had played De Niro's wife the previous fall in Men of Honor) as a madam. Critics hated it, and despite the numerous famous faces in the cast, audiences largely ignored it.
Director: John Herzfeld
Get Over It--7/$4.1 million/$11.6 million/125/44%/52--Yet another generically-titled teen comedy from the late 90s/early aughts (see also: She's All That, Can't Hardly Wait, Bring It On, Drive Me Crazy, Whatever It Takes, Sugar & Spice), this one, one of the more forgettable entries in the genre, starred Ben Foster as a high school student who, in an effort to win back his longtime girlfriend (Melissa Sagemiller), joins the school play she's starring in with her new boyfriend (Shane West), oblivious that the sister (Kristen Dunst) of his best friend (Colin Hanks) is a much better match. Like 15 Minutes, this has a way overqualified cast, including Swoosie Kurtz and Ed Begley, Jr. as Foster's parents, Zoe Saldana and Mila Kunis as other girls at the school, Carman Electria as a dominatrix, briefly famous singer Sisqó as another one of Foster's friends, musicians Vitamin C and Coolio as themselves, and Martin Short as the drama teacher. And like 15 Minutes, the numerous famous faces didn't help with critics or audiences.
Director: Tommy O'Haver
Twenty-Five Years Ago--March 8, 1996:
New Wide Releases:
The Birdcage--1/$18.3 million/$124.1 million/9/81%/72--Americans just couldn't get enough of La Cage aux Folles, turning the original French farce into the highest-grossing foreign language film in American history, a title it kept for over a decade, then making the Broadway musical adaption a long-running smash. Finally, the story returned to movie screens in an American-set, English language version, and it became a huge hit all over again. Robin Williams played the owner of a popular Miami drag club, partnered with Nathan Lane, the club's star performer. When their college-aged son (Dan Futterman) announces his engagement to the daughter (Calista Flockhart) of a very conservative Ohio senator (Gene Hackman), who, by the way, is on his way to Miami to meet his future in-laws, Williams has to figure out how to pass off his decidedly unconventional family as "normal". Dianne Weist played Hackman's wife and Flockhart's mother, Hank Azaria played Williams and Lane's houseboy, Christine Baranski played Futterman's biological mother, and Grant Heslov and Tom McGowan played tabloid reporters following the senator to Florida. The film, which marked the first time that Mike Nichols had directed a script by his old comedy partner Elaine May, got excellent reviews. Until Bohemian Rhapsody dislodged it in 2017, it was the highest-grossing film with a LGBTQ lead character. The Art Direction would be nominated for an Oscar.
Director: Mike Nichols
Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco--2/$8.6 million/$32.8 million/49/53%/NA--The family comedy Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, about two dogs and a cat lost in the wilderness making their way back home, had been a surprise hit for Disney in 1993. Three years later, came the sequel, in which the animals have to make their way home in the wilderness of the big city. Robert Hays, as the owner of the animals, returns from the first film, as do Sally Field as the voice of the cat and Michael J. Fox as the voice of one of the dogs. The other dog was voiced by Ralph Waite, replacing the late Don Ameche. Also voicing animals was Sinbad, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Tommy Lasorda, Al Michaels, and Bob Uecker. The film didn't do as well as the first one, but it did decent business.
Director: David R. Ellis
Hellraiser: Bloodline--5/$4.5 million/$9.3 million/130/27%/21--The fourth and final entry in the horror franchise (until it was revised as a series of straight-to-video movies a few years later) takes place in three different time periods, revealing numerous facts about the series mythology. Doug Bradley returned for his fourth go-around as the demonic Pinhead, with the only other cast member of note being 22-year-old Adam Scott, in only his second film. Like many horror movies, it fell off rapidly after its opening weekend.
Director: Alan Smithee (Kevin Yagher and Joe Chappelle)
If Lucy Fell--12/$1.3 million/$2.4 million/176/18%/NA--Actor/director Eric Schaeffer was briefly a hot commodity. This film put a swift end to that. He and Sarah Jessica Parker play roommates and platonic friends who agree to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge on her 30th birthday if they haven't found love by then. Gee, who do you think they'll end up with? Elle Macpherson and Ben Stiller (who would star in a much better comedy two weeks later) played the false suitors, with James Rebhorn (in his third movie of the spring, after White Squall and Up Close & Personal), Dominic Chianese, and 11-year-old Scarlett Johansson in supporting roles.
Director: Eric Schaeffer
New Limited Releases:
Fargo--$24.6 million/67/94%/85--The Coen Brothers had the biggest hit of their career, both critically and commercially, up to that point with this black comedy about a hapless car salesman (William H. Macy) whose plot to have his wife kidnapped and his rich father-in-law (Harve Presnell) pay out the ransom goes horribly, disastrously, bloodily wrong, especially after small town police chief Frances McDormand, whose cheery disposition and thick Minnesota accent conceals a razor-sharp mind, begins investigating. Peter Stormare and Coen regular Steve Buscemi played the violent thieves Macy hired to carry out the kidnapping, and John Carrol Lynch played McDormand's husband. This would be the critical smash of the spring, and would be well-remembered when Oscar nominations were announced 11 months later, as the film would be nominated for 7, including Picture, Supporting Actor for Macy, Director for Joel Coen (at the time, Joel took sole directing credit and Ethan sole producing credit), Cinematography, and Editing, and winning two, for Original Screenplay and Actress for McDormand. An FX series, retaining the atmosphere, if not the characters and storyline of the movie, would premiere in 2014 (though in 1997, there would be an unsuccessful first attempt to turn it into a series, with a then-unknown Edie Falco in McDormand's role).
Director: Joel Coen (and Ethan Coen)
The Star Maker--$0.4 million/239/75%/NA--Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore returned to the world of movies for the first time since Cinema Paradiso in this drama about a con-man (Sergio Castellitto) in post-World War II Sicily who claims he's making screen tests for the Roman movie studios--for which, of course, one has to pay to get. He develops a conscience when he finds himself falling for the innocent Tiziana Lodato, just as the authorities are beginning to catch onto his scheme. While nowhere near as successful as Paradiso in the United States, the film got good reviews, and a few weeks before it opened in America, got an Oscar nomination for Foreign Language Film.
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Chungking Express--$0.6 million/222/89%/77--This romantic comedy-drama from Hong Kong tells two intertwined stories about two lovelorn cops (Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro) who each have encounters with mysterious women (Brigitte Lin and Faye Wong) who may or may not be right for them. This one of the very few films released in the U.S. by Quentin Tarantino's short-lived distribution company.
Director: Kar-Wai Wong
All Things Fair--$0.01 million/298/NA/NA--During World War II in Sweden, a 15-year-old boy (Johan Widerberg, who was 21 during production) begins an affair with his 37-year-old teacher (Marika Lagercrantz). When he falls for one of his classmates (Karin Huldt), however, Lagercrantz does not take the rejection well. Despite the rather controversial storyline, the film, like The Star Maker, had been nominated for the Foreign Language Film Oscar a few weeks before its American release. This would be the final film for acclaimed Swedish director Bo Wilderberg (father of star Johan), who would die in 1997.
Director: Bo Wilderberg
Thirty Years Ago--March 8, 1991:
#1 Movie:
The Silence of the Lambs--$8.9 million
New Wide Releases:
New Jack City--2/$7 million/$47.6 million/26/77%/61--Journeyman actor Mario Van Peebles proved, for at least one movie, to be a stylish director in his feature film directing debut, which also vaulted Wesley Snipes, in his first lead role, to superstar status. He played a vicious drug lord in Harlem whose rise to the top is complicated by disloyal and drug addicted gang members, the mob, and undercover cops, led by Ice-T, also in his first lead role. Judd Nelson played Ice-T's partner, and Van Peebles played their captain. Allen Payne played Snipes's second-in-command, Bill Nunn played Snipes's bodyguard, Bill Cobbs played an elderly man out for revenge on Snipes, cameos by musicians Keith Sweat and Flavor Flav, and Chris Rock, in his first major role, played a drug-addicted informant. After a slow start, the film, which got solid reviews, proved to be a sleeper hit.
Director: Mario Van Peebles
The Hard Way--3/$6.3 million/$25.9 million/49/77%/NA--In this rather meta action-comedy, Michael J. Fox played a spoiled Hollywood actor who, to prepare for his next role, decides to trail tough NYPD cop James Woods, much to Woods's chagrin, as he thinks Fox will complicate his search for a serial killer (Stephen Lang). Annabella Sciorra played Woods's girlfriend, Delroy Lindo, Luis Guzman, and LL Cool J (playing someone other than himself for the first time) as other cops, Penny Marshall as Fox's agent, 11-year-old Christina Ricci, in her second film, as Sciorra's daughter, and small roles from Lewis Black, Kathy Najimy (in her film debut), Bill Cobbs (in his second movie of the weekend), Michael Badalucco, and Yasiin Bey, aka Mos Def, in his film debut (billed under his birth name of Dante Smith). Despite decent reviews, the film proved a bit too meta for audiences.
Director: John Badham
New Limited Releases:
La Femme Nikita--$5 million/123/89%/56--This stylish French actioner put director Luc Besson on the American radar. Anne Parillaud played a junkie cop killer who is forcibly recruited into a shadowy government agency, where she is trained to be an assassin. Tchéky Karyo played her handler, Jeanne Moreau played a trainer, and Jean Reno played a cleaner. This would be the second-highest-grossing foreign language film of the year in North America, and would get an American remake (Point of No Return) in 1993, followed by two separate TV series.
Director: Luc Besson
Open Doors--$0.1 million/224/NA/NA--This Italian drama starred Gian Maria Volontè as a judge in 1930s Sicily who is presiding over the open-and-shut case of a man (Ennio Fantastichini) who murdered three people after being fired from his job. Even though Fantastichini is clearly guilty, and everyone, including him, supports his execution, Volontè decides to take his time, and try to understand the crime. When it was released a few weeks after being nominated for Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.
Director: Gianni Amelio
Ju Dou--$2 million/146/100%/NA--A young woman (Gong Li) forced into marriage with a much older, cruel man (Li Wei), begins an affair with his nephew (Li Baotian). When she becomes pregnant with Baotian's baby, they have to conceal the true paternity from Wei. The third collaboration between Gong Li and director Yimou Zhang, this, like Open Doors, had just been nominated for Foreign Language Film shortly before its American release, the first film from China to be so nominated. Unlike Open Doors, it would become an art-house hit.
Director: Yimou Zhang
Building Bombs--NA/NA/NA/NA--Jane Alexander narrated this documentary, which got a limited theatrical release in the wake of its Oscar nomination for Documentary Feature, which chronicled the dangerous mismanagement of a nuclear processing center in South Carolina.
Director: Mark Mori and Susan Robinson
Thirty-Five Years Ago--March 7, 1986:
#1 Movie:
Pretty in Pink--$4.9 million
New Wide Releases:
Highlander--7/$2.5 million/$5.9 million/98/69%/24--New York antique dealer Christopher Lambert is actually an immortal, who can only be killed by being decapitated by another immortal. Unfortunately for him, the other last remaining immortal (Clancy Brown) is evil, having long ago killed his mentor (Sean Connery), and as the tagline says "there can be only one". Roxanne Hart played the modern woman investigating him, and Jon Polito and Alan North played cops. Despite the poor reviews and box office, this because a huge cult hit on video, and would eventually launch an expansive franchise.
Director: Russell Mulcahy
New Limited Releases:
Nomads--$2.3 million/144/30%/NA--Pierce Brosnan's first lead movie role was in this horror film that also marked the directorial debut of John McTiernan. Brosnan played an anthropologist who realizes that the mysterious punks who vandalized his house were actually demonic spirits, and that they are coming after him next. Leslie-Anne Down played a doctor who gets drawn into the case, and musician Adam Ant and cult actress Mary Woronov played two of the spirits. The film didn't attract much business and has largely been forgotten, but it did attract one important fan--Arnold Schwarzenegger, who liked McTiernan's direction so much that he hired him to helm Predator.
Director: John McTiernan
A Room With a View--$21 million/44/100%/83--The filmmaking team of Merchant Ivory would begin their profitable association with the works of British novelist E.M. Forster, with this, the first of three Forster adaptions they would make over the next six years, two of which would be showered with Oscar nominations. Helena Bonham Carter, making her film debut, played a young Englishwoman in the early part of the 20th century who, while on holiday in Italy, meets another Brit (Julian Sands) and the two find themselves attracted to each other. However, she is already engaged back home to the rather pompous Daniel Day-Lewis (in one of two films he co-starred in that day). When Sands's father (Denholm Elliott) moves near Carter's home back in England, she has to figure out who she wants. Maggie Smith played her aunt, Judi Dench played a novelist, Simon Callow played a minister, and Rupert Graves played Carter's brother. The film would be a mainstream hit, and would be nominated for 8 Oscars, including Picture (the second Foster adaption, after A Passage to India, to be nominated in three years), Director for James Ivory, Supporting Actor for Elliott, Supporting Actress for Smith, and Cinematography. It would win three, for Art Direction, Costumes, and Adapted Screenplay (with February release Hannah and Her Sisters winning Original Screenplay, that meant that both Screenplay winners at the 1987 Oscars were released before the 1986 Oscars were held). Carter would also appear in Merchant Ivory's other two Forster adaptions, 1987's Maurice and 1992's Howards End.
Director: James Ivory
Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation--$8.5 million/78/NA/NA--Quickie sequel (actually a prequel) to the first Care Bears Movie from only a year prior, which for a while was the highest-grossing non-Disney animated movie ever. This tells the origin story of the Care Bears and their cousins, a variety of different animals, as they battle the villainous Dark Heart over the soul of a young girl. Needless to say, the few critics who did review this were unimpressed, and it made only a fraction of what the first Care Bears movie made. Nevertheless, a third entry in the franchise came out in 1987.
Director: Dale Schott
Salvador--$1.5 million/156/89%/69--Oliver Stone's third directorial effort, and the first to get critical acclaim, starred James Woods as a photojournalist in El Salvador in 1980, where he realizes just how savage and dangerous the military government is--and how the US government is backing the wrong side. James Belushi played his friend, John Savage played another photojournalist, and Cynthia Gibb played a nun. Even though the film was a box office flop, and even though Stone's other film from 1986 garnered far more attention then this got, this was still nominated for two major Oscars, Actor for Woods and Original Screenplay.
Director: Oliver Stone
My Beautiful Launderette--$2.5 million/138/98%/75--In the first major film from director Stephen Frears, Gordon Warnecke starred as a young, closeted Pakistani living in London who is given a rundown laundromat owned by his uncle (Saeed Jaffrey) to manage. He eventually becomes reacquainted with a punk gang member (Daniel Day-Lewis, in a very different role from A Room With a View) he used to know who is also closeted, and the two begin both a professional and personal relationship as they rehab the laundromat. This comedy-drama got stellar reviews, even if its box office wasn't much to write home about, and along with Room, helped make Day-Lewis a rising star. The film would be nominated against Salvador for its Original Screenplay at the Oscars.
Director: Stephen Frears
Broken Rainbow--NA/NA/NA/NA--For those who thought that the forced relocation of Native Americans had died out in the early part of the 20th century, came this documentary about the removal of Navajo from their land in Arizona in 1974, in favor of a coal mining company. Martin Sheen narrated, and Burgess Meredith read historical documents. Unlike many of the films it opened against, which would be competing in the Oscars a year later, this was nominated for--and won--Documentary in the Oscars that aired three weeks after it opened.
Director: Victoria Mudd
Forty Years Ago--March 6, 1981:
New Wide Releases:
All Night Long--$4.5 million/82/33%/NA--Yet another comedy centering on adultery, this one did feature the unlikely romcom duo of Gene Hackman and Barbra Streisand. She played a married woman having an affair with Hackman's teenage son (Dennis Quaid). When Hackman tries to persuade her to end the relationship, he falls for her as well. Diane Ladd played Hackman's wife, and William Daniels played Hackman's boss. Despite starring two of the biggest names in Hollywood, this didn't fare much better than any of the adultery comedies that had come and gone in 1980.
Director: Jean-Claude Tramont
American Pop--NA/NA/61%/57--Ralph Bakshi, the bad boy of American animation, made this more personal epic, covering ninety years and four generations of the same musically talented family, whose talent tends to be obscured by tragedy. The film featured numerous musical numbers, running the gamut of American pop music from the early part of the 20th century to the then-present day (the music rights kept the film from a home video release for almost two decades). Among the better-known members of the voice cast is future Night Court star Richard Moll, character actor Vincent Schiavelli, and punk rocker Lee Ving.
Director: Ralph Bakshi
New Limited Releases:
Eyewitness--$6.4 million/75/75%/61--Janitor William Hurt is rather obsessed with TV reporter Sigourney Weaver, whom he gets to meet when he discovers a dead body. Pretending to know more about the case than he actually does, in order to keep her interested in him, he unwittingly also fools the real killers, who decide that both of them know too much. This thriller, which reunited director Peter Yates and screenwriter Steve Tesich from the very different Breaking Away, had an impressive cast, including Christopher Plummer as Weaver's boyfriend, James Woods as Hurt's co-worker, Pamela Reed as Woods's sister, and Steven Hill and Morgan Freeman and policemen. Despite decent reviews, and this being Weaver's first film since Alien, it underperformed.
Director: Peter Yates
La Cage aux Folles II--$7 million/73/60%/NA--The Birdcage was a huge hit, but other than some suggestions here and there, no one involved seemed interested in doing a sequel. Fifteen years earlier, the French had no such constraint. The sequel to the huge 1978 smash had nightclub owner Ugo Tognazzi and his longtime partner, female impersonator Michel Serrault on the run after getting inadvertently caught up in an international spy ring. Critics liked Serrault's performance and found the film funny, though most thought it was inferior to the original. While this wasn't nearly the sensation the first one was, it still did very strong business for a foreign language film in the United States. A third and final entry in the series would come in 1985.
Sphinx--$2 million/92/NA/NA--The second movie in four months (after October's already forgotten The Awakening) to suggest that a career investigating Egyptian tombs was not a good idea, this starred Leslie-Anne Down as an Egyptologist whose discovery of an undisturbed ancient tomb sets off what could be an ancient curse--or perhaps black marketers hoping to claim the treasures within for themselves. The decidedly non-Egyptian Frank Langella played a Egyptian cultural minister, the decidedly non-Egyptian John Gielgud played a shady antiquities dealer, John Rhys-Davies (who would be in a far more popular adventure film about ancient treasures a few months later) played a black marketer, and Victoria Tennent (also in The Dogs of War) played a wealthy British woman. Critics admired the Egyptian location shooting, but hated pretty much everything else, and this ended up disappearing about as fast as The Awakening did.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Expanding:
The Dogs of War
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