It's now the second half of the summer. As the 4th of July is such an outdoor-oriented holiday, often the month's biggest titles actually arrive after the holiday, though that is a relatively recent phenomenon. Still, even the smaller summer movies could do some solid business.
One Year Ago--July 10, 2020:
#1 Movie:
The Empire Strikes Back
New Theatrical Releases:
Palm Springs--$0.2 million/160/95%/82--Wedding guest Cristin Milioti finds herself trapped in a time loop, along with fellow guest Andy Samburg, who has already been trapped in it for some time. She tries to figure out how to escape. He, having long given up, is just enjoying life as best he can. J. K. Simmons, Tyler Hoechlin, Peter Gallagher, Dale Dickey, and June Squibb co-star. Despite the obvious parallels to Groundhog Day, this romcom got warm reviews. It was released simultaneously in the handful of open theaters and onto Hulu.
Director: Max Barbakow
New Streaming Releases:
Greyhound--79%/64--This World War II drama stars Tom Hanks (who also wrote the screenplay) as the commander of a navel destroyer, in charge of a convoy of ships traveling from the US to England. In the middle of the ocean, too far away from both North America and Europe for air cover, the convoy comes under attack by a group of German U-boats, and Hanks and his men have to try to save as many of the other ships as possible while their supplies to fight the Germans rapidly dwindles. Stephen Graham, Rob Morgan, and Elisabeth Shue co-star. This would be one of the highest profile titles of the summer to have its entire theatrical release cancelled, instead ending up on Apple TV+. Despite not playing in theaters, it would receive an Oscar nomination for Sound.
Director: Aaron Schneider
Ode to Passion--33%/NA--This original rock musical (with 18 new songs) stars young Broadway vet Giuseppe Bausilio as an idealistic young writer who falls head over heels for Julia Nightingale, who is so busy fighting her own demons she might not be able to provide the love he is clearly looking for. In addition to the music, the spoken dialogue is all in rhyming verse. The few critics who saw it liked the passion the film was made with, but thought that debuting writer-director Jack Danini had bitten off more than they could chew.
Director: Jack Danini
New Re-Releases:
The Empire Strikes Back--$2.5 million/51
Black Panther--$0.4 million/121
Inside Out--$0.5 million/107
The Goonies--$0.8 million/76
Gremlins--$0.3 million/131
Five Years Ago--July 8, 2016:
New Wide Releases:
The Secret Life of Pets--1/$104.4 million/$368.4 million/4/72%/61--The rivalry between a Jack Russell terrier (Louis C.K.) and his owner's (Ellie Kemper) newly adopted rescue dog, a Newfoundland mix (Eric Stonestreet) leads to both of them lost in New York City, being pursued by a homicidal bunny rabbit (Kevin Hart), while C.K. and Stonestreet's neighbor (Jenny Slate), a Pomeranian, organizes a search party consisting of the other animals in the building. Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Burris, Bobby Moynihan, Tara Strong, Steve Coogan, and Albert Brooks also voiced characters. While this was expected to do well, no one was expecting it to do this much business. A sequel would follow in 2019, with Patton Oswalt replacing the since disgraced C.K.
Director: Chris Renaud
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates--4/$16.6 million/$46 million/72/38%/51--The titular brothers (Adam DeVine and Zac Efron) have a knack for ruining family events, and so are ordered by their parents (Stephen Root and Stephanie Faracy) to find girls to bring with them to the upcoming Hawaii wedding of their sister (Sugar Lyn Beard), which Root and Faracy hope will be a calming influence. Unfortunately, the seemly prim and proper girls they choose (Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza) turn out to secretly be crazy. Hijinks ensue. Sam Richardson, Kumail Nanjiani, Jake Johnson, and Marc Maron co-star. Based loosely on a true story, this comedy was largely rejected by critics, and audiences weren't too interested, either.
Director: Jake Szymanski
Sultan--10/$2.4 million/$6.2 million/151/85%/NA--In this Bollywood drama, a middle-aged wrestler (Salman Kahn) whose pursuit of glory cost him everything, agrees to return to the ring at the behest of a promoter (Amit Sadh), desperate to prove his new wrestling league is legitimate. This would end up as the highest-grossing Indian movie of the summer in the North American market, and second-highest of the year.
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
New Limited Releases:
Captain Fantastic--$5.9 million/152/83%/72--After the death of his wife (Trini Miller), an anarchist (Viggo Mortensen) who has been living off the grid, raising their six children (George MacKay, Samantha Isler, Annalise Basso, Nicholas Hamilton, Shree Crooks, Charlie Shotwell) leaves their isolated farm to attend the funeral, even though Mortensen's traditional father-in-law (Frank Langella) is adamant that he stay away. Kathryn Hahn, Steve Zahn, Missi Pyle, and Ann Dowd co-star. The comedy-drama got relatively positive reviews, and did all right on the art-house circuit. Mortensen would receive an Oscar nomination for Lead Actor.
Director: Matt Ross
Ten Years Ago--July 15, 2011:
New Wide Releases:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2--1/$169.2 million/$381 million/1/96%/85--After ten years and eight films, the epic movie adaptions of J.K. Rowling's beloved novels about the coming of age of the titular teenage wizard reached a smashing climax, as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson), along with their allies, faced off for the final time against Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and his army of Death Eaters, at the place where it all started--Hogwarts. Most of the franchise's many, many, many cast members returned for the final installment--even some whose characters had previously been killed off, including Michael Gambon, Warwick Davis, Robbie Coltrane, Matthew Lewis, Tom Felton, Maggie Smith, John Hurt, Alan Rickman, Julie Walters, Jason Isaacs, Miriam Margolyes, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Emma Thompson, Domhnall Gleeson, Helena Bonham Carter, Evanna Lynch, Helen McCrory, and Jim Broadbent. Newcomers for the final installment included Kelly Macdonald and Ciarán Hinds. The film lived up to the hype, receiving nearly unanimous raves and having what at the time was the largest opening in history. It would be the first Harry Potter film since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to end up as the year's highest-grossing film. While no direct film sequels have emerged, Rowling did co-write a stage sequel that focused on the sons of Harry and Draco that will undoubtedly be adapted into a movie at some point. The prequel Fantastic Beasts series would have its first installment in 2016. This film would earn three Oscar nominations, for Makeup, Visual Effects, and Art Direction.
Director: David Yates
Winnie the Pooh--6/$7.9 million/$26.7 million/105/90%/74--Disney decided to counterprogram Harry Potter with this traditionally animated revival of the Pooh franchise, which sees the titular bear (Jim Cummings) trying to find both a pot of honey to eat and Eeyore's missing tail, while also helping his friends capture the fearsome (or what they think is fearsome) Backson. Among the other voices were Craig Ferguson, Tom Kenny, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and John Cleese. Despite the strong reviews and the very short running time (one hour three minutes), this got swamped by the Deathly Hallows, and only ended up making a little bit more than 2003's Piglet's Big Movie and 2005's Pooh's Heffalump Movie, both of which were considerably cheaper to produce. This would be the final traditionally animated film made by Disney and the final Disney Animated Feature to get a G rating to date. A live action/CGI hybrid sequel to the series as a whole, Christopher Robin, would be released in 2018.
Director: Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall
New Limited Releases:
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara--$3.1 million/171/93%/NA--In this road comedy, three friends (Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar) head to Spain for a three-week bachelor party to celebrate Deol's engagement. There, they have a series of adventures that lead them to confront their choices and re-evaluate how they want to spend their lives. Even though the plot is rather cliched, this Bollywood production got solid reviews and did good business in North America.
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Fifteen Years Ago--July 14, 2006:
#1 Movie:
Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest--$62.4 million
New Wide Releases:
Little Man--2/$21.6 million/$58.7 million/53/12%/26--Two years after Shawn and Marlon Wayans starred in the high-concept comedy White Chicks for their brother Keenan, came an even higher-concept comedy for the trio, one seemingly based on, of all things, an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. Marlon (who is normal height) plays a very small jewel thief, who, for reasons, has to pose as a baby to be taken into the house of Shawn and Kerry Washington. Hijinks ensue. This one attracted a surprisingly decent cast, including John Witherspoon, Tracy Morgan, Chazz Palminteri, Molly Shannon, David Alan Grier, and Alex Borstein. That helped make the film a moderate hit (though not as successful as White Chicks), though critics were predictably horrified. This is Keenan's last directorial effort to date.
Director: Keenan Ivory Wayans
You, Me, and Dupree--3/$21.5 million/$75.6 million/30/20%/46--After learning that his best friend (Owen Wilson) has fallen on hard times, a newlywed couple (Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson) invite him to move in with them, only for disaster to predictably follow. Meanwhile, Dillon is having issues with his boss and father-in-law (Michael Douglas) who is actively undermining Dillon's marriage. Seth Rogan, Billy Gardell, and Bill Hader, in his live-action film debut, co-star. Slightly better reviews might explain why this ended up having better legs than Little Man, though it still fell far short of what Wilson's Wedding Crashers had done the year before. This would be the last movie directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo (who would head back to working in TV) until their MCU debut eight years later with Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Director: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
Twenty Years Ago--July 13, 2001:
New Wide Releases:
Legally Blonde--1/$20.4 million/$96.5 million/22/70%/59--After being dumped by her Harvard Law-bound boyfriend (Matthew Davis), a SoCal sorority girl (Reese Witherspoon) decides to apply to Harvard herself and gets in, though she quickly realizes how out of place she is. Luckily, she's also secretly brilliant and succeeds on her own terms. Luke Wilson, Selma Blair, Victor Garber, Jennifer Coolidge, Holland Taylor, Ali Larter, Linda Cardellini, Allyce Beasley, and Raquel Welch co-star. This comedy became one of the year's biggest sleeper hits, and though reviews were somewhat mixed at the time, is now regarded as a near-classic. It would be followed by a sequel in 2003 and a Broadway musical adaption in 2007.
Director: Robert Luketic
The Score--2/$19 million/$71.1 million/33/73%/71--A professional safecracker (Robert De Niro) is convinced by his fence (Marlon Brando) to take one final job, to steal a valuable MacGuffin from an insanely secure vault. To De Niro's chagrin, the partner he is required to work with is a cocky young thief (Edward Norton) who chafes under De Niro's authority. Angela Bassett co-stars. Despite the star power, critics were only mildly approving of the film, and while it did decent business, it was hardly the blockbuster that star teaming would imply. This would be the only on-screen meeting between the two Vito Corleones, and would also be Brando's final role in a theatrical film.
Director: Frank Oz
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within--4/$11.4 million/$32.1 million/74/44%/49--Based loosely on the blockbuster video game franchise, this computer animated sci-fi drama, the first attempt at a photorealistic CGI film, concerns a scientist (Ming-Na) who is working on way to save Earth from alien ghosts that have infected the planet, killing all that they encounter. Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin, and Donald Sutherland provide other voices. This film proved to be incredibly expensive to make, but opened to largely negative reviews and indifferent box office, which effectively ended the plan to make the character voiced by Ming-Na to be the first CGI actor.
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi (co-director: Motonori Sakakibara)
Twenty-Five Years Ago--July 12, 1996:
#1 Movie:
Independence Day--$35.2 million
New Wide Releases:
Courage Under Fire--3/$12.5 million/$59 million/24/85%/77--Denzel Washington re-teamed with his Glory director Edward Zwick for this drama in which Washington played a lieutenant colonel in the US Army who is assigned to investigate whether a deceased Medevac helicopter pilot (Meg Ryan) deserved to become a Medal of Honor recipient. Washington quickly runs into conflicting stories from her surviving crew members (including Matt Damon, Lou Diamond Phillips, Seth Gilliam, and Tim Guinee) about her actions and her level of heroism during her final battle. Bronson Pinchot, Regina Taylor, Michael Moriatry, Željko Ivanek, Scott Glenn, Sean Astin, Ken Jenkins, and Sean Patrick Thomas, in his film debut, co-star. The film got decent reviews, but only did moderate business against summer action blockbusters.
Director: Edward Zwick
Harriet the Spy--5/$6.6 million/$26.6 million/58/48%/NA--Cable network Nickelodeon made its first foray into feature films with this modern-day-set adaption of the classic 60s kids novel, in which Harriet (Michelle Trachtenberg, in her film debut) ends up alienating all of her friends and classmates after a rival (Charlotte Sullivan) finds her secret notebook filled with unflattering observations of her peers and reads them aloud. Gregory Smith, Vanessa Lee Chester, Eartha Kitt, and Rosie O'Donnell co-star. Reviews weren't great, and neither was the box office, though it did outperform most of the other kid movies released in July and August.
Director: Bronwen Hughes
Thirty Years Ago--July 12, 1991:
#1 Movie:
Terminator 2: Judgment Day--$20.7 million
New Wide Releases:
One Hundred and One Dalmatians--2/$10.3 million/$60.8 million/20/98%/83--A mere 5 1/2 years after its most recent re-release, Disney returned one of its most popular features to theaters, allowing a new generation of kids to meet Pongo (Rod Taylor) and Perdita (Cate Bauer) and experience their quest to rescue their 15 puppies--and 84 more--from the clutches of Cruella de Vil (Betty Lou Gerson). This re-release would easily be the movie's most successful one, nearly doubling the gross of the Christmas 1985 run, but with the advent of home video, it would prove to be the last time to date the animated film has been seen theatrically. Since this release, the film has become something of a media empire for the studio, with three different live action movies, a straight-to-video animated sequel, two animated TV series, and Cruella popping up in other Disney media.
Director: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, and Wolfgang Reitherman
Boyz N the Hood--3/$10 million/$57.5 million/23/96%/76--In what was arguably the biggest out-of-nowhere hit of the summer of 1991, 23-year-old director John Singleton made his debut with this drama following three teenage boys--straight-laced Cuba Gooding, Jr. (in his first lead role), football star Morris Chestnut (in his film debut), and gang-banger Ice Cube (also making his film debut), as they try to survive on the mean streets of South Central L.A., where violence rules and the cops don't seem to care. Laurence Fishburne (still billed as Larry), Angela Bassett (who would reteam with Fishburne two years later for What's Love Got to Do With It), Nia Long, and Regina King (also in her first film) co-star. The film would receive two Oscar nominations, for Original Screenplay and Director for Singleton, who became both the youngest-ever Director nominee (a record he still holds today) and fist African-American nominee in the category.
Director: John Singleton
Point Break--4/$8.5 million/$43.2 million/29/69%/58--James Cameron executive produced this thriller for his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow, starring Keanu Reeves as a rookie FBI agent who goes undercover and joins a surfing gang led by Patrick Swayze, who might also be moonlighting as a notorious gang of bank robbers. Gary Busey, Lori Petty, John C. McGinley, James Le Gross, Anthony Kiedis, Lee Tergesen, and an uncredited Tom Sizemore co-star. Critics were mixed, but the film became a moderate hit, and became a much bigger cult hit in the years since. A remake was released in 2015.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Regarding Henry--7/$6.1 million/$43 million/30/43%/47--The combination of Harrison Ford, Annette Bening (coming off her Oscar nomination for The Grifters), and director Mike Nichols led to high expectations for this drama, which most critics agree were definitely not met. Ford plays a high-powered attorney who gets shot by John Leguizamo in a hold-up, giving him brain damage. As he recovers, he realizes that he hated the unethical, win-at-all-costs person he used to be as he reconnects with his wife (Bening) and daughter (Mikki Allen). Bill Nunn, Rebecca Miller, Bruce Altman, Elizabeth Wilson, Donald Moffat, James Rebhorn, and the film's young screenwriter Jeffrey Abrams, better known today by his initials J.J., co-star. Box office was decent.
Director: Mike Nichols
Thirty-Five Years Ago--July 11, 1986:
#1 Movie:
The Karate Kid, Part II--$6.7 million
New Wide Releases:
Club Paradise--5/$4.2 million/$12.3 million/67/11%/40--This poorly-received comedy stars Robin Williams as a retired firefighter who moves to the Caribbean and opens the titular resort, which isn't quite as nice as the brochures claim. This puts him on a collision course with a real estate developer (Brian Doyle-Murray) and the island's prime minister (Adolph Caesar, in his final film role). Peter O'Toole, Rick Moranis, Jimmy Cliff, Twiggy, Eugene Levy, Joanna Cassidy, Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty, Robin Duke, Mary Gross, Carry Lowell, and Bruce McGill co-star. Despite the sterling cast (including much of the SCTV cast reuniting with director Harold Ramis), this one got awful reviews and an indifferent response from audiences.
Director: Harold Ramis
Forty Years Ago--July 10, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
The Fox and the Hound--$39.9 million/14/70%/65--Disney's first full-length animated film since The Rescuers in 1977 (and last until The Black Cauldron in 1985), this told the story of the titular fox (voiced by Keith Coogan, billed as Keith Mitchell, as a pup, Mickey Rooney as an adult) and hound (Corey Feldman as a pup, Kurt Russell as an adult) who form a fast friendship, even though the hound is being raised by its owner (Jack Albertson) to be a hunting dog--specially a dog specialized in tracking foxes. Pearl Bailey, Sandy Duncan, Jeanette Nolan, Pat Buttram, and Paul Winchell provided other voices. This was a transition film for the studio, as it was the final project worked on by the legendary Nine Old Men, and the first or one of the first for a new generation of animators, including Ron Clements, who would go on to direct The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Moana, Brad Bird, who would eventually direct The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille, John Lassiter, who would go on to co-found Pixar and direct Toy Story 1 & 2, and Tim Burton, who would make his mark primarily in live-action films. It would also be the last film Don Bluth worked on for the studio before leaving to start his own animation company. Critic-wise, it got rather mixed reviews upon release, but while it is still considered minor Disney, its reputation has grown over time. In terms of box office, it was a sizeable hit, making the most money an animated film had taken in in its initial release up to that point. A straight-to-video sequel would follow a quarter-century later, in 2006.
Director: Ted Berman, Richard Rich, and Art Stevens
New Limited Releases:
Escape From New York--$25.2 million/32/87%/76--It says a lot about the general opinion of New York City in the early 1980s that no one would blink an eye at the idea of Manhattan being turned into a prison colony. Set in the far-off year of 1997, the film stars Kurt Russell (having a busy weekend) as federal convict Snake Plissken, who is offered a pardon if he can rescue the President (Donald Pleasence), who is missing somewhere on the island after escaping from a hijacked Air Force One. Once on the ground, he finds that the president is the hostage of gang leader Isaac Hayes, who plans to use him for his own purposes. Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Season Hubley, and Adrienne Barbeau co-star. The film would do well critically and commercially, but it would become even more successful as it became a cult film. After previously making the TV movie Elvis together, this would be the first of four theatrical films Russell and director John Carpenter would make together. The last to date would be the 1996 sequel, Escape from L.A.
Director: John Carpenter
Force: Five--NA/NA/NA/NA--In this martial arts flick clearly inspired in part by the then-recent Jonestown Massacre, a undercover agent (kickboxer and karate expert Joe Lewis), along with his team of mercenaries (Benny Urquidez, Richard Norton, Sonny Barnes, Pam Huntington, Ron Hayden), is sent to infiltrate a dangerous cult to rescue a brainwashed politician's daughter (Amanda Wyss), but quickly discover that escaping the clutches of the evil leader (Bong Soo Han) is going to require a lot of fighting. This ranks pretty far below director Robert Clouse's own Enter the Dragon, but is probably better than his 1985 flick Gymkata.
Director: Robert Clouse
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