Mid-to-late March has its hits, of course, but this time period feels a bit like a holding pattern, with studios more or less cleaning off the shelfs. The films aren't dumps, but even the hits probably wouldn't thrive in more competitive parts of the year.
One Year Ago--March 20, 2020:
#1 Movie:
Onward
By this weekend, theaters had closed en masse all across North America, leaving only a handful of screens, mostly at drive-ins, still playing movies. Even at the height of lockdown, there were still a small number of theaters keeping moviegoing alive. While studios largely stopped reporting grosses for the films that were in release when the curtain came down (and, because of the lack of new product, would play at open theaters for months and months), Deadline and Indiewire were able to get estimates of what the top films are. I'll be relying on those reports for the #1 Movie slot until August, when Box Office Mojo and The Numbers, generally the two primary sites for box office information, begin reporting accurate numbers again. I'll continue to list and talk about the handful of movies (mostly indies) that do get theatrical releases, and also will discuss the films that were supposed to hit theaters but got rerouted to streaming. I'll also highlight re-releases, but won't give those full write-ups like I do with re-releases in other years.
Five Years Ago--March 18, 2016:
#1 Movie:
Zootopia--$37.2 million
New Wide Releases:
The Divergent Series: Allegiant--2/$29 million/$66.2 million/47/11%/33--The third and, as it turned out, final entry in America's favorite Hunger Games clone not named Maze Runner had the all-powerful teenagers (Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Zoë Kravitz) escape from the clutches of the evil rulers of Chicago and discover the reason the world is the way it is, but can the seemingly benevolent leader of the outside group (Jeff Daniels) be trusted? Of course he can't! This features the usual strong supporting cast that this franchise has boasted, including Maggie Q, Mekhi Phifer, Daniel Dae Kim, Bill Skarsgård, Octavia Spencer, Rebecca Pidgeon, and Naomi Watts. When this ended up grossing roughly half of what Insurgent had grossed a year earlier, the fourth and final entry in the franchise was downgraded to TV, then cancelled entirely, even though this movie ended on a cliffhanger.
Director: Robert Schwentke
Miracles From Heaven--3/$14.8 million/$61.7 million/52/45%/44--A week after The Young Messiah had crashed and burned, and a week before Easter, Christian audiences came out in force for this drama (from the production team of the similar Heaven is For Real, which had been a surprise hit two years earlier) starring Jennifer Garner and Martin Henderson as the parents of a young girl (Kylie Rogers) whose chronic and severe digestive condition was somehow miraculously cured after she fell into and was trapped inside a hollow tree. John Carroll Lynch played the family's pastor, Eugenio Derbez played her doctor, and Queen Latifah played a friend Garner makes during her daughter's treatment. Getting better reviews than films like this usually get, it was easily the year's biggest Christian hit.
Director: Patricia Riggen
The Bronze--25/$0.4 million/$0.6 million/268/36%/44--Melissa Rauch starred in this comedy (which had by far the worst box office performance of any wide-release film in 2016) about a washed up Olympic gymnastics bronze medalist who reluctantly agrees to train one of America's top prospects (Haley Lu Richardson) for the upcoming next Olympics. Thomas Middleditch played Rauch's assistant coach and potential love interest, Gary Cole played her father, Cecily Strong played Richardson's mother, Craig Kilborn played an announcer, and Sebastian Stan played the Team USA coach. Reviews were a bit better than the box office, but not much better.
Director: Bryan Buckley
New Limited Releases:
Kapoor & Sons--$2.6 million/191/100%/NA--This soapy Bollywood family drama starred Sidharth Malhotra and Fawad Khan as estranged brothers, both living abroad, who return home after their grandfather (Rishi Kapoor) has a heart attack. There, their old rivalry and resentments resurface, as they also discover that the marriage of their parents (Ratna Pathak Shah and Rajat Kapoor, apparently no relation to Rishi) is on the rocks as well. This proved to be a moderate hit in the North American market.
Director: Shakun Batra
Midnight Special--$3.7 million/172/83%/76--This well-received sci-fi thriller starred Michael Shannon as the father of a boy (Jaeden Lieberher) with extraordinary powers who is being pursued by both the government and a cult leader (Sam Shepard). Kirsten Dunst played Lieberher's mother, Joel Edgerton Shannon's friend who helps him escape, and Adam Driver as a NSA agent. Despite the solid reviews, the film wasn't a commercial hit.
Director: Jeff Nichols
My Golden Days--$0.3 million/319/90%/87--This French drama starred Mathieu Amalric as a man who, after living abroad for many years, finds himself reminiscing about his adolescence upon his return to France, particularly the love affair between his teenage self (Quentin Dolmaire) and his first serious girlfriend (Lou Roy-Lecollinet). This served as both a sequel and a prequel to director Arnaud Desplechin's 1996 comedy-drama My Sex Life or How I Got Into an Argument, also starring Amalric.
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Ten Years Ago--March 25, 2011:
New Wide Releases:
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules--1/$23.8 million/$52.7 million/66/47%/51--The second adaption of the hugely popular kid-lit series, coming almost exactly a year after the first, sees the titular wimpy kid (Zachary Gordon) dealing with 7th grade, a new crush (Peyton List the younger), and his bully of an older brother (Devon Bostick). Rachael Harris and Steve Zahn returned as the boys' parents. This opened slightly better than its predecessor, but ended up having much worse legs, ultimately grossing almost $12 million less. A third and final film with this cast would follow in 2012.
Director: David Bowers
Sucker Punch--2/$19.1 million/$36.4 million/89/22%/33--Speaking of bad legs, Zack Snyder's elaborate fantasy about a mental patient (Emily Browning) who concocts multiple fantastic backstories in her mind as she copes with the circumstances, wasn't even able to double its opening weekend gross, his second consecutive live-action film (after Watchmen) to accomplish that disastrous feat. Abbie Cornish (also in Limitless), Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, and Jamie Chung play other patients who play a role in Browning's fantasy, with Watchmen vet Carla Gugino as a psychiatrist, Jon Hamm as a surgeon, Scott Glenn as a heroic figure who kept popping up in the various fantasies, and Oscar Isaac as an evil orderly. Critics weren't at all impressed with the film, but for Snyder, the DCU was just around the corner.
Director: Zack Snyder
New Limited Releases:
Potiche--$1.6 million/188/83%/68--When, in 1970s France, the arrogant owner (Fabrice Luchini) of an umbrella factory is taken hostage by his workers, his seemingly simple-minded wife (Catherine Deneuve, who of course had her breakthrough role in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) is forced to take the reins--and quickly discovers she's a far better boss than her husband. Gérard Depardieu, making his eighth film with Deneuve, played the local mayor and her former flame. The comedy did well on the art house circuit, and got warm reviews.
Director: François Ozon
Fifteen Years Ago--March 24, 2006:
New Wide Releases:
Inside Man--1/$29 million/$88.5 million/22/86%/76--Spike Lee made, for him, a rare mainstream film with this thriller about a New York bank heist organized by Clive Owen, which involves him and his team taking the various patrons and employees of the bank hostage while police detectives Denzel Washington and Chiwetel Ejiofor try to figure out exactly what he wants. It perhaps has something to do with the bank's owner and founder (Christopher Plummer) who hires "fixer" Jodie Foster to ensure that his secrets are kept. Willem Dafoe played a police captain. Lee would have an excellent 2006, directing both this (still by far his highest-grossing film) and the highly acclaimed HBO documentary When the Levees Broke, about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans.
Director: Spike Lee
Stay Alive--3/$10.7 million/$23.1 million/109/10%/24--A clever, if predictable, premise is the best thing this standard-issue PG-13 horror film had going for it, as a group of young adults, including Jon Foster, Frankie Muniz, Sophia Bush, Milo Ventimiglia, and Adam Goldberg begin playing a new online game, only to discover to their horror that when their characters die in the game, they die for real. Wendell Pierce played a detective investigating the deaths. The film had an OK start, but like most poorly reviewed horror movies, burned out quickly.
Director: William Brent Bell
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector--8/$6.9 million/$15.7 million/132/5%/21--In his first narrative film, blue collar comedian Larry the Cable Guy managed to do something that such nobodies as John Wayne or James Stewart had never accomplished--get his name inserted into the title of a starring vehicle. He played...well, read the title. Mostly an excuse for gross-out gags and lowbrow humor, the film finds him trying to solve a series of restaurant poisonings. Somehow, a decent number of respected character actors (David Koechner, Tony Hale, Tom Wilson, Joanna Cassidy, and Joe Pantoliano) found their way into this.
Director: Trent Cooper
New Limited Releases:
American Gun--$0.02 million/476/39%/48--This drama, whose anti-gun message probably helped attract a solid cast for a low-budget indie, tells three stories--about the mother (Marcia Gay Harden) of a school shooter, an inner-city high school principal (Forest Whitaker), and the owner of a gun shop (Donald Sutherland). Among the supporting cast are Amanda Seyfried, Nikki Reed, Tony Goldwyn, Linda Cardellini, Dean Norris, and Melissa Leo. The critics who did see the film were mostly unimpressed, and it did poor business.
Director: Aric Avelino
Twenty Years Ago--March 23, 2001:
New Wide Releases:
Heartbreakers--1/$11.8 million/$40.3 million/60/54%/47--Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt are mother-daughter con artists in this comedy, trying to set up rich tobacco executive Gene Hackman for a big payday, but complications arise when a former mark (Ray Liotta) turns back up and Hewitt falls for a bartender (Jason Lee). Anne Bancroft, in her final live-action theatrical film, played an IRS agent, Jeffrey Jones played a hotel manager, Nora Dunn a housekeeper, Ricky Jay an auctioneer, Sarah Silverman and Zach Galifianakis (in his first wide release film) as friends of Lee, and Carrie Fisher as a divorce attorney. Despite the loaded cast, reviews were mixed and box office was so-so.
Director: David Mirkin
The Brothers--2/$10.3 million/$27.5 million/83/63%/50--This dramady, labeled by some as a male Waiting to Exhale, follows four friends (Morris Chestnut, D.L. Hughley, Bill Bellamy, and Shemar Moore) as they struggle with the women in their lives. That includes Gabrielle Union, Tatyana Ali, Jenifer Lewis, Tamala Jones, Marla Gibbs, Julie Benz, and Vanessa Bell Calloway. Clifton Powell played Chestnut's father. The film got mixed reviews (and comparisons to films like The Wood and The Best Man), but made a profit.
Director: Gary Hardwick
Say It Isn't So--10/$2.9 million/$5.5 million/144/9%/21--In this rather tasteless comedy, young lovers Chris Klein and Heather Graham are shocked when they learn that the adopted Klein's birth parents happen to also be Graham's parents (Sally Field and Richard Jenkins). Luckily, it turns out there had been a mistake, and Klein sets out to stop Graham from marrying a jerk (Eddie Cibrian). Among the actors who probably needed to have a serious talk with their agents after this came and went were Orlando Jones, Jack Plotnick, Julie White, Lin Shaye, and Sarah Silverman, put to much better use in Heartbreakers. Oddly, audiences didn't seem interested in a wacky incest comedy.
Director: J.B. Rogers
Twenty-Five Years Ago--March 22, 1996:
#1 Movie:
The Birdcage--$13.3 million
New Wide Releases:
Diabolique--3/$5.5 million/$17.1 million/95/18%/NA--In this misguided American remake of the classic 1955 French thriller, Sharon Stone (in one of two flops she'd star in that spring) and Isabelle Adjani play teachers at a second rate school who are the mistress and wife, respectively, of headmaster Chazz Palminteri (in one of three flops he'd star in that spring), who is abusive toward both of them. They conspire to murder him and make it look like an accident, but when the body disappears, they wonder if he somehow survived, has returned as a ghost, or if someone is just toying with them. Among the supporting cast was Spalding Gray, Shirley Knight, Adam Hann-Byrd, Donal Logue, Jeffrey Abrams, better known today by his initials, J.J., and Kathy Bates. Critics thought it was a pale retread of the French original.
Director: Jeremiah Chechik
Girl 6--7/$2.5 million/$4.9 million/150/33%/44--Spike Lee, because he's Spike Lee, was able to attract top-notch talent to this low-budget comedy-drama about a timid actress (Theresa Randle) who becomes empowered by her job as a phone sex operator. Among the supporting cast was Isaiah Washington, Jenifer Lewis, Debi Mazar, Peter Berg, Michael Imperioli, Naomi Campbell, Gretchen Mol, Richard Belzer, and Lee himself, with cameos from Madonna, John Turturro, Ron Silver, Halle Berry, and Quentin Tarantino. In addition, Prince wrote the film's music. Despite all this talent, critics thought it was arguably the worst Lee film to date, and it couldn't even double it's small opening weekend gross.
Director: Spike Lee
Race the Sun--13/$1.1 million/$2 million/185/22%/NA--Halle Berry did not have a good weekend, as not only did Girl 6 crash and burn, but so did this inspirational comedy-drama about a team of high school kids (including Casey Affleck and Eliza Dushku) who build a solar-powered car and enter it in a big competition in Australia. Berry played their science teacher and sponsor, and Jim Belushi played the shop teacher who helped build the car. Steve Zahn had a small part as a competing racer, and Joel Edgerton made his film debut in a small role. This would end up as the smallest-grossing wide release film of 1996. At least Berry's Executive Decision was doing well.
Director: Charles T. Kanganis
New Limited Releases:
Flirting With Disaster--$14.7 million/102/87%/81--This comedy, the second film by David O. Russell, starred Ben Stiller as a new father who decides to seek out his birth parents, much to the chagrin of his adoptive parents (Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal). Along with his wife (Patricia Arquette) and an adoption agency employee (Téa Leoni), he eventually makes his way to his biological parents in New Mexico (Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin), who turn out to be LSD manufacturers. Richard Jenkins and Josh Brolin play gay ATF agents who end up tagging along on the trip. The film would end up doing very well on the art-house circuit after getting rave reviews.
Director: David O. Russell
Expanding:
Fargo--6/$2.8 million
Thirty Years Ago--March 22, 1991:
New Wide Releases:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze--1/$20 million/$78.7 million/13/35%/45--Sequel to the seemingly out-of-nowhere smash that had opened almost exactly a year earlier sees the Turtles once again fighting the evil Shredder (François Chau), this time over the last of the formula that led to their mutation. Distinguished character actor David Warner presumably picked up a nice paycheck playing the scientist responsible for creating the ooze to begin with, and rapper Vanilla Ice, whose "Ice Ice Baby" had been a huge hit the year before, pops up as himself, rapping while the Turtles take out some enemies on the dance floor. While a hit, this has a pretty dramatic decline boxoffice-wise from its predecessor, which might explain why it took two years for Part III to come out.
Director: Michael Pressman
New Limited Releases:
Defending Your Life--$16.4 million/71/97%/63--After dying in a car accident, Albert Brooks (who also directed) discovers that the first stop in the afterlife is an Earth-like city, where he will stand trial to determine if he's ready to move on, or has to get reincarnated back to Earth. While there, he meets another recently deceased woman (Meryl Streep) and falls in love with her, though she's likely moving on and he's likely not. Rip Torn played his attorney, Lee Grant played the opposing attorney, and Buck Henry played another afterlife lawyer. Even though the film wasn't a big hit, it was Brooks's highest-grossing film as a director to that point.
Director: Albert Brooks
Thirty-Five Years Ago--March 21, 1986:
New Wide Releases:
Police Academy 3: Back in Training--1/$9.1 million/$43.6 million/17/40%/33--For the third year in a row, mid-March marked the release of yet another Police Academy movie, which in only two years had gone from being boob-filled and R-rated to PG-rated family fun. Coming back for this one, which involved the graduates attempting to keep the academy open in the face of budget cuts, were series regular Steve Guttenberg, Bubba Smith, David Graf, Michael Winslow, Tim Kazurinsky, Bobcat Goldthwait, and George Gaynes. This opened about the same level as Police Academy 2 had opened a year earlier, but ended up grossing over $10 million less, and made only a bit more than half of what the first film had done. Nevertheless, three more sequels would come out over the next three years.
Director: Jerry Paris
Sleeping Beauty--5/$2.6 million/$15.1 million/58/89%/85--Disney's re-release of its 1959 classic would prove to be the lowest-grossing of the studio's various animated releases and re-releases in 1986, but would still outgross all other animated films that year, as well as most of the studio's releases during 1985. The film would inspire the two Maleficent movies starring Angelia Jolie.
Director: Clyde Geronimi (uncredited: Les Clark, Hamilton Luske, and Wolfgang Reitherman)
Just Between Friends--9/$1.4 million/$6.4 million/95/33%/NA--In this rather soapy drama, Mary Tyler Moore and Christine Lahti meet and become close friends, with the two of them not realizing that Moore's husband (Ted Danson) is also Lahti's boyfriend. Sam Waterston played a family friend. Despite the strong cast (including Danson's first major film role since the beginning of Cheers), the film got mostly negative reviews and was largely ignored by audiences.
Director: Allan Burns
Expanding:
Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation--7/$2.5 million
Forty Years Ago--March 20, 1981:
New Wide Releases:
The Final Conflict--$20.5 million/36/30%/34--They grow up so fast! The third entry in The Omen series had 33-year-old Sam Neill, in his first American movie, take over the role of Antichrist Damien (who was played by a teenager in the previous film, just three years earlier). Now the American ambassador to the UK, he attempts to stop the Second Coming of Christ while a priest (Rossano Brazzi) hopes to put an end to him once and for all. The series had never been a critical favorite, but this got the worst reviews so far, and ended up making only a fraction of what the original had made in 1976. This would be the last theatrically released entry until the 2006 remake of the original, but a sequel to this did air on TV in 1991. Not to be confused with the time travel film The Final Countdown, which had opened the previous summer.
Director: Graham Baker
New Limited Releases:
Cheaper to Keep Her--NA/NA/NA/NA--This little-seen comedy (which had been knocking around theaters around the country for at least six months before it finally was playing in enough cities to list here) starred country singer Mac Davis as a recently divorced private investigator who sets his sights on the lawyer (Tovah Feldshuh) who uses him to track down divorced men who don't keep up their financial obligations to their exes and children. The supporting cast included Jack Gilford, Priscilla Lopez, Rose Marie, and Ian McShane. The few critics who did see it by and large panned it.
Director: Ken Annakin
The Day After Trinity--NA/NA/NA/NA--This documentary examined the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the nuclear scientist who was the head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, where the atomic bomb was developed during World War II. It was a nominee for Documentary Feature at the Oscars the following weekend.
Director: Jon Else
The Postman Always Rings Twice--$12.4 million/59/79%/61--This adaption of James M. Cain's much-filmed novel noir (most famously in 1946) starred Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange as lovers who conspire to kill her much older husband (John Colicos). Of course, this wouldn't be a noir if things didn't go very wrong. Michael Lerner played a lawyer, Nicholson's then real-life girlfriend Anjelica Huston played another woman Nicholson gets involved with, Christopher Lloyd (who co-starred with Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) had a small role as a salesman, and future UFC champ Chuck Liddell, who was around 10 when the film was made, appeared uncredited as an extra. Though its reputation is improved today, at the time, it was regarded as a critical and commercial disappointment. This would be the fourth of six movies Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson would make together. The screenplay would be the first produced one by David Mamet.
Director: Bob Rafelson
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