By mid-April, Hollywood movies tend to start dipping in quality and expectations, as the studios start to set the table for the upcoming summer movie season. One thing that might throw off that calculation, however, is Easter, which tends to attract decent films during whatever weekend it falls on the calendar.
One Year Ago--April 17, 2020:
#1 Movie:
Trolls World Tour
New Streaming Releases:
Endings, Beginnings--45%/42--One of the first films not made primarily for a streaming service to have its entire theatrical run cancelled in favor of a PPV run due to the pandemic, this romantic drama starred Shailene Woodley as a love-cynical 20-something who unexpectedly finds herself falling for two different men, bad boy Sebastian Stan and good boy Jamie Dornan. Wendie Malick played Woodley's mother, and Kyra Sedgwick also appeared. Reviews weren't great, which suggests that, had this gone out in theaters under normal conditions, it might have had a rocky box office run.
Director: Drake Doremus
Five Years Ago--April 15, 2016:
New Wide Releases:
The Jungle Book--1/$103.3 million/$364 million/5/94%/77--Any doubt that there was an audience for live-action (or at least live-action-looking, as nearly everything on screen besides 11-year-old Neel Sethi was CGI) reimaginings of Disney's animated classics was settled with this smash hit redo of the studio's 1967 film, starring Sethi as Mowgli, the only man cub in the jungle (and, for most of the movie, the only human onscreen), who is being stalked by the tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba), and has to rely on Baloo the bear (Bill Murray), Bagheera the panther (Ben Kingsley), and his adoptive mother Raksha the wolf (Lupita Nyong'o). Giancarlo Esposito played another wolf, Scarlett Johansson played a snake, Garry Shandling, in his final role (he had died less than a month earlier) played a porcupine, director Jon Favreau played a hog, fellow director Sam Raimi played a squirrel, and Christopher Walken played King Louie the giant monkey. Reviews were very positive, the film was a huge hit, and the Visual Effects would win an Oscar.
Director: Jon Favreau
Barbershop: The Next Cut--2/$20.2 million/$54 million/64/90%/67--Yet another of 2016's many years later sequels, this comes 12 years after Barbershop 2: Back in Business (and 11 years after spin-off Beauty Shop). Ice Cube, still the owner of the titular shop, does his best to keep the peace in his increasingly troubled neighborhood. Returning from previous films were Cedric the Entertainer, Anthony Anderson, his Black-ish co-star Deon Cole, Eve, Troy Garity, and Sean Patrick Thomas. Newcomers included Regina Hall, as the shop's co-owner, Nicki Minaj, J.B. Smoove, and Common. Reviews were surprisingly excellent, and the film was profitable, though it ended up grossing less than the first two.
Director: Malcolm D. Lee
Criminal--6/$5.8 million/$14.7 million/121/30%/36--This poorly received sci-fi thriller starred Kevin Costner as a death-row prisoner who has the memories of a dead CIA agent (Ryan Reynolds) uploaded into his brain so he can track down a hacker Reynolds hid from a billionaire anarchist (Jordi Mollà) who wants to control all the world's nukes himself. Gal Gadot played Reynolds's wife who finds herself surprisingly bonding with Costner, Costner's JFK co-star Gary Oldman played Reynolds's superior, and another JFK vet, Tommy Lee Jones, played the doctor who invented the memory uploading. Despite the strong cast, critics weren't impressed, and the film failed to catch on.
Director: Ariel Vromen
New Limited Releases:
Fan--$2.3 million/197/79%/NA--Well-received Bollywood thriller about a man (Shah Rukh Khan) who bears a striking resemblance to a star movie actor (also Khan). When the actor makes it clear he wants nothing to do with him, the man plots to destroy the actor's life. This did poorly in India, but was a success in international markets.
Director: Maneesh Sharma
Sing Street--$3.2 million/179/95%/79--This Irish coming-of-age comedy-drama, from the director of Once, tells a somewhat similar story about a young amateur musician who falls in love just as he is planning to move to London. Only in this case, the musician (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is a high school student who starts his new band at least in part to impress a girl (Lucy Boynton), only to discover he has real talent and passion. Aidan Gillen and Maria Doyle Kennedy, as Walsh-Peelo's parents, and Don Wycherley, as the strict headmaster of Walsh-Peelo's school, are probably the most famous cast members. Critics really liked it, but unlike Once, this didn't really break out. Like Once, however, this was adapted into a Broadway musical, whose opening was delayed because of the pandemic.
Director: John Carney
Ten Years Ago--April 22, 2011:
#1 Movie:
Rio--$26.3 million
New Wide Releases:
Madea's Big Happy Family--$25.1 million/$53.4 million/65/38%/45--After 2009's Madea Goes to Jail flirted with $100 million, this next entry in Tyler Perry's seemingly interminable series of films starring himself as his most famous creation returned to the franchise's normal grosses with this melodrama about a relative of Madea (Loretta Devine) who discovers she only has weeks to live, and her three squabbling kids (Shad Moss, Natalie Desselle-Reid, Shannon Kane) are too wrapped up in their own petty issues to notice that Mom is dying. Madea movie regulars Cassi Davis, David Mann, and Tamela Mann (who play father and daughter, despite being married in real life), pop up as well.
Director: Tyler Perry
Water for Elephants--$16.8 million/$58.7 million/57/60%/52--In this 1930's set circus romance, Robert Pattinson played a young veterinary student who is hired by a circus to help take care of the animals, only to fall for the beautiful wife (Reese Witherspoon) of the circus's sadistic ringmaster (Cristoph Waltz). Hal Holbrook played the elderly Pattinson, narrating the story. Critics and audience reaction was mixed.
Director: Francis Lawrence
African Cats--$6 million/$15.4 million/126/73%/61--As the title promises, this nature documentary from Disney focuses on two animal families--a lion pride and a pack of cheetahs. For some reason, Samuel L. Jackson narrated the American release while Patrick Stewart narrated the British version (because Americans were so unfamiliar with Patrick Stewart?). This made about half of what Earth had done two years earlier, though its grosses weren't far off of what Oceans had done the previous spring.
Director: Keith Scholey and Alastair Fothergill
New Limited Releases:
Incendies--$2.1 million/181/92%/80--The final French-language film to date from director Denis Villeneuve, who would move to Hollywood after this, this drama starred Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin and Maxim Gaudette as twins who, upon the death of their mother (Lubna Azabal) learn that no only do they have an older half-brother they didn't know about, but their father, who they both thought was long dead, might still be alive. The film would be highly acclaimed, and had earned an Oscar nomination (for Canada) for Foreign Language Film at the recent ceremony.
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Fifteen Years Ago--April 21, 2006:
New Wide Releases:
Silent Hill--1/$20.2 million/$47 million/69/32%/31--Adaption of the popular horror video game has Radha Mitchell trapped in the abandoned titular town, searching for her young adopted daughter (Jodelle Ferland), who has a mysterious connection to the place. Sean Bean played Mitchell's husband, and Deborah Kara Unger and Alice Krige played residents of the seemingly empty town. Critics were unimpressed, but the film did decently with fans of the game. A sequel was released in 2012.
Director: Christophe Gans
The Sentinel--3/$14.4 million/$36.3 million/88/35%/49--Standard issue thriller in which a veteran Secret Service agent (Michael Douglas) is suspected of being a mole for mysterious assassins who want to kill the President (David Rasche). Kiefer Sutherland played Douglas's former protégé, Eva Longoria Sutherland's partner, Martin Donovan the head of Presidential Security, Blair Brown the National Security Advisor, director Clark Johnson another agent, and Kim Basinger as the First Lady. Critics compared it unfavorably to 24, Sutherland's hit action series, and despite the strong cast, audiences largely stayed away.
Director: Clark Johnson
American Dreamz--9/$3.7 million/$7.2 million/169/38%/45--The second movie of the weekend to involve a potential presidential assassination was this goofy satire set at a hugely popular reality singing competition whose resemblance to a similarly-titled hugely popular reality singing competition I'm sure was just a coincidence. The competition, hosted by rude Brit Hugh Grant (whose resemblance to the chief judge of the real singing competition is, I'm sure, also just a coincidence) is down to two finalists, Mandy Moore and Sam Golzari, who is secretly a terrorist ordered to kill the President (Dennis Quaid, whose resemblance to the then-current U.S. President was, I'm sure, another coincidence) when he serves as a guest judge on the finale. Marcia Gay Harden played the First Lady, Willem Dafoe as the President's Chief of Staff, Chris Klein as Moore's ex-boyfriend, Jennifer Coolidge played Moore's mother, Seth Meyers played Moore's agent, with smaller roles for John Cho, Judy Greer, and Shohreh Aghdashloo. Despite the strong cast and direction from the usually reliable Paul Weitz (who stocked the film with people he had previously directed--Grant in About a Boy, Quaid in In Good Company, and Klein, Coolidge, and Cho in American Pie), critics panned the film and it was completely ignored by audiences.
Director: Paul Weitz
Expanding:
Friends With Money--10/$3.6 million
Twenty Years Ago--April 20, 2001:
#1 Movie:
Bridget Jones's Diary--$10.2 million
New Wide Releases:
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles--4/$7.7 million/$25.6 million/87/11%/37--13 years after Crocodile Dundee II, and five years after Paul Hogan's last lead role (in Flipper, where he played second fiddle to a dolphin), he revived his most iconic character, taking him to L.A. along with then real-life wife Linda Kozlowski (also reprising her role from the first two movies), where they find themselves investigating the death of a newspaper editor. Familiar character actors Jere Burns, Jonathan Banks, Aida Turturro, and Paul Rodriguez co-starred, along with a cameo from Mike Tyson. After 13 years, neither critics nor audiences were interested in welcoming back Crocodile, and Hogan has yet to star, or even appear, in another movie that got a wide American release.
Director: Simon Wincer
Freddy Got Fingered--5/$7.1 million/$14.3 million/117/11%/13--Bizarro MTV comedian Tom Green wrote, directed, and starred in this bizarre, deliberately off-putting comedy, playing a cartoonist who has an extremely contentious relationship with his father (Rip Torn, who hopefully got a nice paycheck from it). Julie Hagerty played Green's mother, Eddie Kaye Thomas his brother (the titular Freddy), Harland Williams as Green's friend, Anthony Michael Hall as the head of an animation studio, with cameos from Shaquille O'Neal, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Green's then-fiancée Drew Barrymore (the two would marry that summer, and then separate before the end of the year). Critics were flabbergasted by the film, with the vast majority hating it. However, there were some even then who liked it, and it has a far better reputation today, with many thinking it is a surreal masterpiece.
Director: Tom Green
New Limited Releases:
The Center of the World--$1.1 million/192/34%/44--A dot-com millionaire (Peter Sarsgaard) hires a Vegas stripper (Molly Parker) to spend three days with him while he's in town. Even though the film basically lifts the premise from Pretty Woman, it takes it in a very different direction. Director Wayne Wang (who made this between the decidedly gentler Anywhere But Here and Maid in Manhattan) rounded up a solid supporting cast, including Balthazar Getty, Pat Morita, and Carla Gugino. Reviews were fairly mixed.
Director: Wayne Wang
Twenty-Five Years Ago--April 19, 1996:
#1 Movie:
Primal Fear--$6.6 million
New Wide Releases:
The Substitute--2/$6.1 million/$14.8 million/101/42%/NA--After his girlfriend (Diane Venora) is attacked, Tom Berenger, a former mercenary, goes undercover at the tough inner-city school she taught at to discover who was behind the assault. As he wins the students over to his side, he runs afoul of the principal (Ernie Hudson) who has secrets of his own. Singer Marc Anthony played a gang leader, Glenn Plummer played another teacher, and William Forsythe and Luis Guzmán also had roles. Critics didn't think much of this rather violent action movie, and even though it did marginal business, it still got two-straight-to-video sequels.
Director: Robert Mandel
Mrs. Winterbourne--6/$3.9 million/$10.1 million/126/10%/35--After surviving a train crash, Ricki Lake (in her first lead role since Hairspray in 1988) is mistaken for a woman who, along with her husband, died in the crash, and is taken to his family's mansion, where she meets his mother (Shirley MacLaine) and twin brother (Brendan Fraser), neither of whom had ever met the deceased's new wife. Loren Dean played Lake's ex-boyfriend, Debra Monk played a detective, and Jane Krakowski also appears. Critics compared it unfavorably to While You Were Sleeping, which opened almost exactly a year earlier, and this ended with a final total just barely above that film's opening weekend.
Director: Richard Benjamin
Celtic Pride--7/$3.8 million/$9.3 million/131/9%/NA--In this woebegone comedy, two massive Boston Celtics fans (Dan Ackroyd, Daniel Stern) accidently kidnap star Utah Jazz player Damon Wayans (in his first flop sports comedy of the spring) on the morning of Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Hijinks ensue. Christopher McDonald played a coach, and Larry Bird, Marv Albert, and Bill Walton cameoed as themselves. Critics and audiences both ignored it. This was an early screenwriting credit for Judd Apatow.
Director: Tom DeCerchio
Thirty Years Ago--April 19, 1991:
#1 Movie:
Out for Justice--$7 million
New Wide Releases:
Mortal Thoughts--2/$6.1 million/$18.8 million/66/57%/65--After the mysterious death of the abusive husband (Bruce Willis) of her best friend (Glenn Headly), a woman (Demi Moore) has to figure out just how much to tell the police detective (Harvey Keitel) interrogating her. This nourish drama got mixed reviews and didn't benefit much from the pairing of then-married couple Moore and Willis, but the budget was low enough that the film turned a profit, and it did do better critically and commercially than the couple's twin disasters of Nothing But Trouble and The Bonfire of the Vanities.
Director: Alan Rudolph
New Limited Releases:
Requiem for Dominic--NA/NA/NA/NA--During the Romanian Revolution (which was actually going on as this docudrama was being filmed in Romania), an expat (Felix Metterer) returns home to discover his childhood friend (August Schmolzer) has been accused of murdering 80 of his co-workers. Along with a journalist (Viktoria Schubert) he seeks to learn the truth about what happened. Even though the film was a Golden Globe nominee for Foreign Language Film, it barely got a U.S. release and has fallen into almost complete obscurity since then.
Director: Robert Dornhelm
Thirty-Five Years Ago--April 18, 1986:
New Wide Releases:
Legend--1/$4.3 million/$15.5 million/56/38%/30--In 1986, Tom Cruise worked with both of the Scott Brothers. Top Gun, directed by Tony, would be the biggest hit of the year and would vault Cruise into superstardom. This other one, directed by Ridley, did not. Cruise played a pure-hearted forest dweller, who, after the Lord of Darknesss (Tim Curry) has his minions kill one unicorn and take another, has to save the world from eternal winter and eternal night. Mia Sara played a princess and his love interest, with David Bennett as an elf and Billy Barty as a dwarf. Critics were mostly only impressed with the Makeup effects (which would be Oscar-nominated), and this was largely out of theaters by the time Top Gun arrived a bit over a month later.
Director: Ridley Scott
Murphy's Law--2/$3.4 million/$10 million/73/40%/NA--Charles Bronson teamed with director J. Lee Thompson for the sixth time in this standard issue thriller in which he played a cop who is suspected in a series of murders actually being carried out by Carrie Snodgress, and has to go on the run to prove his innocence. Kathleen Wilhoite played a petty thief who is the only one who believes Bronson, and Lawrence Tierney played one of Snodgress's victims. This being both a Canon film and a Bronson vehicle, critics were cool toward it, and its gross was a comedown from Death Wish 3 the previous fall.
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Wise Guys--6/$1.3 million/$8.5 million/79/31%/62--This mob comedy, directed by that noted comic genus Brian De Palma, starred Danny De Vito and Joe Piscopo (in his last leading role to date) as a couple of low-level mobsters who find themselves in debt to their boss (Dan Hedaya) to the tune of $250,000. The duo head to Atlantic City to try to figure their way out of the predicament, with each unaware that they had both been ordered to kill the other. Harvey Keitel (also in the still-paying Off Beat) played an old friend of the two, Ray Sharkey, Lou Albano, and Frank Vincent play mobsters, and Patti LuPone played De Vito's wife. The film turned out to have some decent legs, but still underperformed.
Director: Brian De Palma
Forty Years Ago--April 17, 1981:
New Wide Releases:
Caveman--$16 million/46/32%/55--Like all his fellow Beatles, Ringo Starr dabbled in filmmaking both while in the group and after its breakup, mostly taking supporting roles in the 60s and 70s. He finally got his own starr vehicle in 1981, with this wacky comedy in which he played a banished caveman who has a series of adventures with a group of other misfits, including Shelley Long, Dennis Quaid, and Jack Gilford. Critics were generally cool on the film, which relied primarily on sight gags, and the film did marginal business. While Starr never was the lead in another movie, he did meet wife Barbara Bach on set.
Director: Carl Gottlieb
New Limited Releases:
From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China--$1.2 million/98/NA/NA--7 years after Nixon opened up relations with mainland China, and 3 years after the death of Mao Zedong, famed American violinist was invited to become the first western artist to visit the country. This documentary chronicled his visit, including meeting with String students at music conservatories and the concerts he gave. Highly acclaimed, this won the Oscar for Documentary Feature shortly before it was released into American theaters.
Director: Murray Lerner
On the Right Track--NA/NA/NA/NA--13-year-old sitcom star Gary Coleman tried to make the leap to movie stardom with this vehicle, in which he played an orphan living in a train station in Chicago who becomes extremely popular when it's discovered he has a knack for picking winning racehorses. Playing various denizens of the station were Maureen Stapleton, Herb Edelman, and Lisa Eilbacher, with former NBA star Bill Russell, Michael Lembeck (as a friendly cop), and Normal Fell (as the mayor) playing supporting roles, along with 15-year-old Jami Gertz, in her film debut. The few critics who did see the film were mostly underwhelmed, and audiences decided they'd stick to seeing Coleman on Diff'rent Strokes. While he'd star in a number of TV movies in his heyday, he would make only one other feature film during his run of stardom.
Director: Lee Philips
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