The weekend right before or right after the 4th of July more or less kicks off the second half of the season, which is why there are usually several blockbusters out this weekend. Summer movies roll on!
One Year Ago--July 3, 2020:
#1 Movie:
Ghostbusters
New Theatrical Releases:
Relic--$1.1 million/67/92%/77--This Australian horror movie stars Emily Mortimer who, along with teenage daughter Bella Heathecote, travel to the home of Mortimer's mother (Robyn Nevin), who has dementia. While there, they realize that Nevin's condition seems to be directly linked to her increasingly rotting house. Solid reviews suggest this could be a future cult hit.
Director: Natalie Erika James
The Outpost--$0.2 million/153/92%/71--Well-received war drama, based on the Battle of Kamdesh, chronicles the events of a 2009 firefight between the Americans stationed at a small base in northeastern Afghanistan and the numerous Taliban fighters who attack the base. Among the American solders are Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, and Orlando Bloom. A longer cut, with 12 additional minutes, would be released later in 2020 for Veteran's Day.
Director: Rod Lurie
New Streaming Releases:
Hamilton--97%/90--The plan was to release this filmed version of the beloved stage musical theatrically sometime in 2021. However, the pandemic prompted Disney to scrap the theatrical release and send it straight to Disney+ a year early. Filmed in June 2016, before the members of the original cast began to depart, it captures the Tony-nominated performances of the show's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, as founding father Alexander Hamilton, Phillipa Soo as his wife, Eliza, Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Jonathan Groff as King George III, and the Tony-winning performances of Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Hamilton's sister-in-law Angelica, and Daveed Diggs in the duel role of the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson. The show also starred Anthony Ramos, Okieriete Onaodowan, and Jasmine Cephas Jones. Oddly, it was entered into the film categories at the Golden Globes, but was declared ineligible by the Oscars for being a filmed show, so it instead was entered into competition at the Emmys.
Director: Thomas Kail
New Re-Releases:
Ghostbusters--$0.6 million/92
Five Years Ago--July 1, 2016:
#1 Movie:
Finding Dory--$41.8 million
New Wide Releases:
The Legend of Tarzan--2/$38.5 million/$126.6 million/23/35%/44--Essentially a sequel to the previous Tarzan movies/stories, this one has Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) and Jane (Margot Robbie) returning to Africa after having settled in England, where they have to protect the apes and the native tribes from an evil colonist (Christoph Waltz) who has designs on enslaving the local population to put them to work mining diamonds. Samuel L. Jackson, Djimon Hounsou, Jim Broadbent, Ben Chaplin, and Simon Russell Beale co-star. Critics found the film derivative, and while it did OK at the box office, it didn't make back its production budget.
Director: David Yates
The Purge: Election Year--3/$31.5 million/$79.2 million/38/56%/55--The third entry in the popular horror franchise about trying to survive the one legally-sanctioned lawless night of the year, this one follows a presidential candidate (Elizabeth Mitchell) who is determined to end the Purge once and for all, and what happens after she is forced to go on the run on Purge Night after the current US government sees her as a threat. Frank Grillo, Mykelti Williamson, and Raymond J. Barry co-star. This got decent reviews for the franchise, and would end up as the highest domestic grosser of the series. Two more sequels and a TV series would follow.
Director: James DeMonaco
The BFG--4/$18.8 million/$55.5 million/59/74%/66--A young girl (Ruby Barnhill) in London discovers and is captured by a giant (Mark Rylance), who turns out to be the one giant who does not eat humans. Together, the two of them come up with a plan to put a permanent stop to the other giants' nightly devouring of children. Penelope Wilton, Rebecca Hall, and Rafe Spall appear in person, while Jemaine Clement and Bill Hader, like Rylance, play giants via motion capture and voice work. Reviews were decent for this Roald Dahl adaption, but this turned out to be a rare financial misfire for director Steven Spielberg, as this would be his lowest-grossing film since Munich, and lowest-grossing non-R-rated film since Always (the film did better internationally).
Director: Steven Spielberg
New Limited Releases:
Our Kind of Traitor--$3.1 million/183/72%/57--An ordinary British couple (Ewan McGregor and Naomie Harris) find themselves part of an international plot to expose corrupt British politicians and their ties to the Russian mob after they befriend a Russian (Stellan Skarsgård) with intimate details of those connections. Damian Lewis and Jeremy Northam co-star. This John le Carré adaption got decent reviews, but proved to be no match for the summer box office.
Director: Susanna White
Life, Animated--$0.3 million/324/94%/75--This documentary, released with the blessing of (but not by) Disney, this documentary chronicles the journey of Owen Suskind, an autistic child who uses his love of Disney animated movies to learn to communicate with his family. Even though it failed to make much of a box office impact, it got mostly strong reviews and would be nominated for an Oscar for Documentary Feature.
Director: Roger Ross Williams
Ten Years Ago--July 8, 2011:
#1 Movie:
Transformers: Dark of the Moon--$47.1 million
New Wide Releases:
Horrible Bosses--2/$28.3 million/$117.5 million/23/69%/57--In this all-star black comedy, a trio of friends (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day) plot to murder their bosses (Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, and Jennifer Aniston, respectively) instead of maybe quitting and finding a new job. Things, of course, go awry. Jamie Foxx, Donald Sutherland, and Julie Bowen co-star. Critics were mixed-to-positive on the comedy, and audiences turned it into a solid summer hit. A sequel would follow in 2014. This would be the third of five movies that Bateman and Aniston would make together, and the second of (a mostly different) five that Sudeikis and Aniston would both appear in.
Director: Seth Gordon
Zookeeper--3/$20.1 million/$80.4 million/40/14%/30--Kevin James plays the titular zookeeper, who discovers he can talk to the animals when they decide to help him try to get back together with his ex (Leslie Bibb), even though new zoo vet Rosario Dawson is right there. Joe Rogan, Nat Faxon (also in Bad Teacher), Ken Jeong (also in The Hangover Part II and Transformers: Dark of the Moon), and Donnie Wahlberg co-star. Providing the animal voices are Nick Nolte, Sylvester Stallone, Judd Apatow, Jon Favreau, Faizon Love, Maya Rudolph, Don Rickles, Cher, and Adam Sandler, who also produced. Despite awful reviews, this became a moderate hit.
Director: Frank Coraci
New Limited Releases:
Project Nim--$0.4 million/261/97%/83--Very well-received documentary about the experiment at Columbia University in the 70s to determine if a chimpanzee raised mostly with humans could learn some aspects of human speech. The movie primarily focuses on the sad fate of the chimp involved after the end of the experiment. Despite strong reviews, this did only minor art house business.
Director: James Marsh
Fifteen Years Ago--July 7, 2006:
New Wide Releases:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest--1/$135.6 million/$423.3 million/1/53%/53--This very busy follow-up to the smash 2003 film sees Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow enslaved by Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), while Will (Orlando Bloom) seeks the titular chest, which hold's Nighy's heart, in order to free his father (Stellan Skarsgård) from Jones's servitude. Meanwhile, Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) tries to find Jones's compass to free her and Bloom from the legal consequences of their actions in the first film. Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce, and Mackenzie Crook return from the first film, joined this time by Tom Hollander and Naomie Harris. As lavish as this film was, critics were considerably less impressed with this than the first one, but audiences turned out in droves, making it by far the highest-grossing film of 2006, making nearly $175 million more than second place Night at the Museum, as well as the highest-grossing film of the franchise. It would be nominated for four Oscars, for Art Direction, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing, and would win for Visual Effects. The sequel, which would resolve this film's cliffhanger, would open the following May.
Director: Gore Verbinski
New Limited Releases:
A Scanner Darkly--$5.5 million/179/68%/73--Richard Linklater directed this adaption of Phillip K. Dick's dystopian sci-fi number, filming the live actors and then using rotoscoping to turn the footage into animation. Keanu Reeves stars as an undercover cop trying to track down the source of a highly addictive drug that is ensnaring the population, only to become addicted himself, which may or may not be the plan of his superiors. Robert Downey, Jr., Woody Harrelson, Rory Cochrane, and Winona Ryder co-star. Critics liked the visuals, but were mixed on everything else, and despite the big names involved, it didn't do much business in mainstream theaters.
Director: Richard Linklater
Twenty Years Ago--July 6, 2001:
New Wide Releases:
Cats & Dogs--1/$21.7 million/$93.4 million/24/54%/47--The third family-friendly talking animal movie of the summer, and the second in three weeks, this spy spoof starred the voice of Tobey Maguire as a Beagle puppy who gets involved in the never-ending war between the titular creatures, when the evil leader of the cats (voiced by Sean Hayes), tries to capture the research by Maguire's owner (Jeff Goldblum) in order to take over the world. Elizabeth Perkins and Miriam Margolyes played other humans, while voices for the various cats and dogs were provided by Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Jon Lovitz, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Clarke Duncan, Billy West, John Michael Higgins, and Charlton Heston. Critics reacted about as you'd expect, but the film became a surprise minor hit. A sequel would follow in 2010.
Director: Lawrence Guterman
Scary Movie 2--2/$20.5 million/$71.3 million/32/14%/29--The first Scary Movie from the year before had been advertised as not getting a sequel, but that went out the window when it grossed nearly $160 million. So a year later came this quickie follow-up, in which Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans all return, despite all their characters dying in the first film. Oh well, it's a comedy. This one, more a spoof of haunted house movies like The Haunting and The Exorcist than slasher films like the first one was, has the four of them, along with Christopher Masterson and Tori Spelling, being lured to a mansion haunted by its evil former owner (Richard Moll) by professor Tim Curry. Kathleen Robertson, David Cross, Chris Elliott, James Woods, Andy Richter (appearing in his third movie in three weeks), Veronica Cartwright, and Natasha Lyonne co-star. Critics, who didn't much like the first film, really hated this one, and it attracted less than half the audience of the original. Nevertheless, three more sequels would follow, though only Faris and Hall would return for the next installment.
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Kiss of the Dragon--4/$13.3 million/$36.9 million/66/52%/58--In this Paris-set actioner, produced and co-written by Luc Besson, Jet Li plays a Chinese agent framed for the murder of a mob boss (Ric Young) by a corrupt French policeman (Tchéky Karyo), and has to prove his innocence with the help of an American prostitute (Bridget Fonda) who has her own reasons for taking Karyo down. Burt Kwouk co-stars. Critics liked the action scenes but little else, and with so many other summer movie options to choose from, this one really only attracted hard-core action fans.
Director: Chris Nahon
New Limited Releases:
Jump Tomorrow--$0.03 million/316/81%/68--In this British-financed, American-set romcom, a shy Nigerian-American man (Tunde Adebimpe), is about to enter into an arranged marriage with a childhood friend (Abiola Abrams), who he does not love, when he meets a vivacious Spanish woman (Natalia Verbeke) who he immediately falls for. Too bad that he's still getting married and that she has a fiancée (James Wilby). Hippolyte Girardot, Amy Sedaris, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. co-star. Despite good reviews, this came and went without making much of an impact.
Director: Joel Hopkins
Everybody's Famous!--$0.1 million/295/55%/60--In this satire of celebrity, an unemployed man (Josse De Pauw) spontaneously kidnaps a top pop star (Thekla Reuten). When her record sales go up, her manager (Victor Löw) convinces De Pauw to keep holding onto Reuten, and in return, he'll try to make De Pauw's daughter (Eva Van Der Gucht) a pop star herself. This had gotten a Foreign Language Film nomination for Belgium at the Oscars that had been held about three months prior to the film's American release, but that nomination didn't impress either critics or audiences.
Director: Dominique Deruddere
Twenty-Five Years Ago--July 5, 1996:
New Wide Releases:
Independence Day--1/$50.2 million/$306.2 million/1/68%/59--In this smash hit alien invasion thriller, giant spaceships destroy the world's major cities, leaving a ragtag group of survivors, including a fighter pilot (Will Smith), a satellite technician (Jeff Goldblum), his father (Judd Hirsch), a farmer (Randy Quaid) and the President of the United States (Bill Pullman) to figure out how to stop the invasion and to fight back. Mary McDonnell, Robert Loggia, Margaret Colin, Vivica A. Fox, James Rebhorn, Harvey Fierstein, Adam Baldwin, James Duval, Harry Connick, Jr., Mae Whitman, and sci-fi royalty Brent Spiner co-star. The ad campaign started roughly six months before release, when a commercial during the Super Bowl showing the aliens destroying the White House greatly raised anticipation for this film. Director Roland Emmerich would become the go-to disaster movie director, and Smith cemented his place as one of Hollywood's biggest superstars. It would be Oscar nominated for Sound, and would win for Visual Effects. A sequel, which did not feature Smith, would come out in 2016.
Director: Roland Emmerich
Phenomenon--3/$16.2 million/$104.6 million/12/50%/41--Such was the power of John Travolta in the mid-90s that this small, not particularly well-reviewed little drama, about a man who, after being hit by a mysterious ball of light, begins to exhibit extraordinary intelligence and powers, could end up as one of the biggest hits of the year, even opening against the single biggest hit of the year. Kyra Sedgwick, Robert Duvall, Forest Whittiker, Jeffrey DeMunn, Richard Kiley, David Gallagher, and Brent Spiner, doing sci-fi double duty that weekend, co-star.
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Thirty Years Ago--July 5, 1991:
New Wide Releases:
Terminator 2: Judgment Day--1/$31.8 million/$204.8 million/1/93%/75--Ten years after the events of the first film, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is in a mental institution, and her son John (Edward Furlong, in his film debut) is in foster care, when two more robots arrive from the future: a T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), reprogrammed by the human resistance to protect Furlong, and a more advanced, liquid metal T-1000 (Robert Patrick), which has the ability to shapeshift and is determined to see Furlong dead. After breaking Hamilton out of the mental institution, the three go on the run, trying to figure out how to stop Patrick, or maybe even prevent the robot apocalypse from happening at all. Earl Boen would also return from the first film, and Joe Morton, Xander Berkeley, and S. Epatha Merkerson also co-star. The 1984 film had been a moderate hit, but had achieved cult status in the 7 years since its original release, and that, Schwarzenegger's star power, and the groundbreaking special effects helped make this the biggest blockbuster of the year, also earning rave reviews. It would be nominated for six Oscars, including Cinematography and Film Editing, and would win four, for Sound, Sound Effects Editing, Visual Effects, and Makeup. Despite the runaway success of the film, it wouldn't be until 2003 that Terminator 3 would be released, with only Schwarzenegger returning.
Director: James Cameron
Problem Child 2--5/$5.4 million/$25.1 million/52/8%/NA--Quickie sequel to the previous summer's surprise hit has the now divorced John Ritter and adopted son Michael Oliver relocating to a new town, where Ritter becomes infatuated with the school nurse (Ritter's future wife Amy Yasbeck, who had played a different role as Ritter's first wife in the first film), while Oliver quickly makes an enemy of another "problem child" (Ivyann Schwan), who is Yasbeck's daughter. Also returning from the first film are Jack Warden and Gilbert Gottfried, with Laraine Newman, Charlene Tilton, Martha Quinn, and James Tolkan joining the cast. This got reviews that were just as awful as the first one, and the PG-13 rating (the original was rated PG) kept a large chunk of the first one's audience away, as this only made about half as much. It would be followed by an animated series and a third entry that was made for TV.
Director: Brian Levant
New Limited Releases:
Slacker--$1.2 million/166/81%/69--Richard Linklater's second full-length feature, and first to get a theatrical release, is this vignette-heavy comedy-drama that follows a large number of eccentric types around downtown Austin, never staying with one character for more than a couple of minutes. Aside from Linklater himself, probably the most famous cast member is musician Teresa Taylor, who appeared on the film's poster. The film was an art-house success, and launched Linklater's career.
Director: Richard Linklater
Thirty-Five Years Ago--July 4, 1986:
#1 Movie:
The Karate Kid Part II--$6.3 million
New Wide Releases:
Psycho III--8/$3.2 million/$14.5 million/59/61%/58--25th anniversary commemorative sequels aren't just a modern invention. In this rather bonkers follow-up, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) falls in love with a young, suicidal nun (Diana Scarwid), while a journalist (Roberta Maxwell) is sniffing around and Perkins's new assistant (Jeff Fahey) is becoming increasingly suspicious, especially as a new string of bodies begins to turn up. Hugh Gillin, Robert Alan Browne, and Lee Garlington return from Psycho II. With the disappointing box office on this one, the fourth installment was made for Showtime in 1990. This would be one of two feature films Perkins would direct.
Director: Anthony Perkins
The Great Mouse Detective--9/$3.2 million/$25.3 million/38/80%/73--After bottoming out the previous year with The Black Cauldron, Disney Feature Animation began its comeback with this much-better-received riff on the Sherlock Holmes stories. Barrie Ingham voices the title character, a mouse who lives in Holmes's house and agrees to help a young mouse girl (Susanne Pollatschek) save her father (Alan Young) who has been kidnapped by Ingham's arch enemy (Vincent Price) who hopes to use Young's skills to become the dictator of England. Frank Welker and Melissa Manchester also provided voices, and a recording of Basil Rathbone, who had died in 1966, was used to play Holmes. The film started slowly, but would end up with rather lengthy legs, paving the way for The Little Mermaid 3 and a half years later. This would be the feature film directorial debut for all four credited directors, two of which, John Musker and Ron Clements, would go on to become two of the most important directors working for Disney.
Director: Ron Clements, Burny Mattinson, Dave Michener, and John Musker
About Last Night--10/$3.2 million/$38.7 million/26/61%/70--A year after St. Elmo's Fire, Rob Lowe and Demi Moore left behind the rest of the Brat Pack to star in this romcomdram about two twentysomethings that embark on their first serious relationship with each other, much to the chagrin of each of their best friends (James Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins), who don't like the other. Megan Mullally co-starred, and Catherine Keener made her film debut in a bit part. Like The Great Mouse Detective (which was aimed at a completely different audience), this one also started slowly, but ended up having even better legs. This would be the feature film directing debut of Edward Zwick. A remake would be released in 2014.
Director: Edward Zwick.
Big Trouble in Little China--12/$2.7 million/$11.1 million/71/74%/53--Including the TV movie Elvis, director John Carpenter and star Kurt Russell team up for the fourth time for this action comedy that may have been a box office flop, but has far more staying power than anything else that opened this weekend. Russell plays a truck driver who inadvertently gets caught in a gang war in Chinatown, one involving magic and an immortal sorcerer (James Hong) who hopes to sacrifice a lawyer (Kim Cattrall) Russell has his eye on to reverse his curse. Victor Wong and Kate Burton co-star, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa made his film debut in a bit part. Despite the cool reaction in 1986, this has become a beloved cult film.
Director: John Carpenter
New Limited Releases:
Under the Cherry Moon--$10.1 million/72/36%/36--It was a rough couple of weeks for the creative team behind Purple Rain. A week after its director, Albert Magnoli, delivered the instantly forgotten American Anthem, Prince starred in his own disaster, this black and white romantic comedy, which he also directed, in which he played a gigolo on the French Riviera who finds himself actually falling for his latest target, a young rich heiress (Kristin Scott Thomas, in her film debut), whose powerful father (Steven Berkoff) intends for her to marry the man he picked out for her, and is willing to go to any length to keep Prince out of her life. Purple Rain co-star Jerome Benton also co-starred in this. Critics largely howled, and the film quickly flopped, but it did produce a successful soundtrack album (called Parade) and the #1 song "Kiss", which remains one of Prince's most famous songs.
Director: Prince
Forty Years Ago--July 3, 1981:
New Wide Releases:
S.O.B.--$14.9 million/51/81%/62--Art somewhat imitates life in this Hollywood satire, in which a film producer (Richard Mulligan) decides that the flop musical he just produced needs to be turned into a soft-core film--one in which his wife and star, who has a reputation for making primarily family-friendly films, would bare her breasts. She was played by Julie Andrews, who was married to director Blake Edwards, had a reputation for making primarily family-friendly films, and who bared her breasts (the one thing this film is remembered for 40 years later). The film co-stars William Holden (in his final role), Robert Preston, Robert Vaughn, Larry Hagman, Loretta Swit, Robert Loggia, Rosanna Arquette, and Shelley Winters. The film received mixed reviews, and ended up getting lost amid the big (and more family-friendly) summer releases. In 1982, Edwards, Andrews, and Preston would reunite for the much more successful Victor/Victoria, and Edwards, Mulligan, and Loggia would reunite for the much, much, much less successful Trail of the Pink Panther.
Director: Blake Edwards
New Limited Releases:
I Sent a Letter to My Love--NA/NA/NA/NA--In this French drama, a lonely spinster (Simone Signoret), who has spent her life taking care of her wheelchair-confined brother (Jean Rochefort), decides to place a personals ad. She gets only one reply, which she quickly realizes came from her brother (not knowing it was her). Despite this, they continue to correspond, revealing thoughts and dreams and frustrations they could never voice in person. Delphine Seyrig co-starred. Despite the (relatively) well-known leads, this failed to find much of an audience in American art houses.
Director: Moshé Mizrahi
No comments:
Post a Comment