A Look at The Biggest Box Office Stories from 1972-present (THABOS: The History of Amazing Box Office Stories) | IT'S FINALLY COMPLETE!!!!!!!

[baumer]

Tobolwsky is one of my faves.  And that's a funny bit.  

 

Seagal got weird.  He was a head case and after his brief stint as a box office draw, he does all straight to HV now.

[Plain Old Tele]

Give me a ping, Vasily. One ping only, please.

[baumer]

3 minutes ago, Telemachos said:

Give me a ping, Vasily. One ping only, please.

 

Oooooo....good one.  

 

I know you love that movie, don't you?

[baumer]

Ok, well, back to my Transformers marathon.  Part 3 is on deck.

[DAJK]

Baumer, Tele, go to bed its past your bedtimes 

 

@baumer isn't it like 4AM in Toronto by now

[Brainbug]

This is one of the best threads in the forum imo. So informative and fun to read. Thx Baumer for giving newbies like me history lessons in box office

[Premium George]

1 minute ago, Brainbug said:

This is one of the best threads in the forum imo. So informative and fun to read. Thx Baumer for giving newbies like me history lessons in box office

And good for life lessons too. Alec baldwin, reagal, home alone kid all fucked up. 

[teardropmina]

2 hours ago, baumer said:

 

 

Ghost ended with a multiplier of 18 and spent 9 weeks at number one or two (different times of course, but take that Wonder Woman)

 

 

 

not sure why Wonder Woman has to be mentioned.  

 

btw, Ghost was indeed a world wide event, it still stands as the #70 in the all-time chart of Taiwan. 

Edited June 27, 2017 by teardropmina

[Chaz]

1990, the year that kickstarted Julia Roberts' stardom. I don't think anyone would argue that she was the biggest movie star of the decade. 

 

I love Dick Tracy. It's super fun and it gave us one of Madonna's greatest songs: "Vogue."

[75Live]

I forgot how good 1990 was since the decade was so bad in so many things overall  

 

but another great write up @baumer

Edited June 27, 2017 by 75live

[baumer]

I should have time to get 1991 done today.

Here's what's coming up:

 

"The Galleria?"

"Fuck me he cleared it!"

"Oh stop it!  Stop it!  He'll never get it!  The cows can even program a VCR now!"

"Counsellor! Couuunnnsellor"

[baumer]

Without looking all of these up, do you know what those four lines are from, @75live?

[75Live]

Just now, baumer said:

Without looking all of these up, do you know what those four lines are from, @75live?

 

yes.  I was going to say that but I figured others did too so it wasn't a big deal if I knew  

 

but maybe it's only me that gets them  lol 

 

[baumer]

3 hours ago, 75live said:

 

yes.  I was going to say that but I figured others did too so it wasn't a big deal if I knew  

 

but maybe it's only me that gets them  lol 

 

 

There's no way MOST people here know the last two....most people weren't born when these movies came out and unless they are really famous movies like T2 and RHPOT, I don't think they would know.

[75Live]

Just now, baumer said:

 

There's no way MOST people here know the last two....most people weren't born when these movies came out and unless they are really famous movies like T2 and RHPOT, I don't think they would know.

 

good point.  I forget the age thing sometimes

 

The first one took me a second or two since it was so short, but I got it.

 

The 3rd one I still use to this day for some people when I try to explain them some technology  lol

[Eric Atreides]

Also of note:

 

Even to this day, over 27 years later, Home Alone is still the highest-grossing Christmas movie of all time, both domestic and worldwide. (Well, unless you count Iron Man 3 as a Christmas movie. )

 

Regardless, it's amazing how the film is still the victor even after years of other competitors.

[baumer]

I dont think any Christmas movie will top Home Alone.

[baumer]

1991

 

In 1984, a young Canadian film maker shot a film for 6 million dollars called The Terminator.  It was such a huge success that even before that film had hit theaters, he was asked (by the future producer of Terminator 2) to write the screenplay for Stallone's follow up to First Blood, called Rambo First Blood Part II and to direct and write the follow up to Ridley Scott's classic 1979 masterpiece, Alien.  Both Rambo and Aliens were huge successes and Cameron became the Hollywood flavour of the month.  But then something strange happened as he took three years to make his next film and although The Abyss was fairly well received critically and did somewhat okay domestically with 54 million, it tanked internationally and ultimately 20th Century Fox took a loss on the 70 million dollar film.  To make matters a bit worse, Cameron began to get a reputation as a tyrant on set.  Ed Harris actually punched Cameron in the face and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio said that he treated them like animals (almost 30 years later, Harris has softened on his experience on the Abyss and has even gone on to say Cameron is brilliant and that when he has seen JC in later years, they are really friendly with one another).  The Abyss, years later, has been described as a masterpiece by many, with the exception of the final ten minutes.  With this set back in Cameron's career, he took another two years before he would release his next project.  But this time, the world was not prepared for what they were about to see.  And this brings us to our number one film of 1991, both domestically and WW.  

 

 

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (also referred to as Terminator 2 or T2) is a science-fiction action co-written, produced and directed by James Cameron. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Robert Patrick ,and Edward Furlong, in his first role, as John Connor. Terminator 2 follows Sarah Connor (Hamilton) and her ten-year-old son John (Furlong) as they are pursued by a new, more advanced Terminator, the liquid metal, shapeshifting T-1000 (Patrick), sent back in time to kill John Connor and prevent him from becoming the leader of the human resistance. A second, less advanced Terminator (Schwarzenegger) is also sent back in time to protect John.

 

After a troubled pre-production characterized by legal disputes, Mario Kassar (he and Andrew Vajna formed Carolco pictures in 1976 and they were incredibly successful early on but a few bad business decisions and the company began to decline......it's a fascinating story and if you want to know more, check out this link   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolco_Pictures ) of Carolco Pictures emerged with the franchise's property rights in early 1990. This paved the way for the completion of the screenplay by a Cameron-led production team, and the October 1990 start of a shortened 186-day filming schedule. The production of Terminator 2 required a $102 million budget making it the most expensive film made up to that point. Much of the film's massive budget was spent on filming and special effects. The film was released on July 3, 1991, in time for the U.S. Independence Day weekend.

 

The film's visual effects saw breakthroughs in computer-generated imagery, including the first use of natural human motion for a computer-generated character and the first partially computer-generated main character. Terminator 2 was a critical and commercial success and influenced popular culture, especially the use of visual effects in films. It received many accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects. The highest-grossing film of 1991 and of Schwarzenegger's career, Terminator 2 has since been ranked by several publications such as the American Film Institute as one of the greatest action films, science fiction films and sequels of all time.

 

Terminator 2 is what put both Arnold and Cameron over the top.  Before this, Arnold was regarded as one of the true draws in Hollywood, but after this, his paycheck and career went to the stars.  Arnold had a few 100 million dollars films to his name, but with the box office take of more than 200 million domestic and 520 million WW on a budget of 100 million, Terminator 2 was a bona fide smash hit.

 

The film also set the standard for visual effects.  

 

 

Terminator 2 made extensive use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) to vivify the main two Terminators. The use of such technology was the most ambitious since the 1982 and 1984 science fiction films Tron and The Last Starfighter respectively, and would be integral to the critical success of the film. CGI was required particularly for the T-1000, a "mimetic poly-alloy" (liquid metal) structure, since the shapeshifting character can transform into almost anything it touches. Most of the key Terminator effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for computer graphics and Stan Winston for practical effects.  Creation of the visual effects cost $5 million and took 35 people, including animators, computer scientists, technicians and artists, ten months to produce, for a total of 25 man-years.  Despite the large amount of time spent, the CGI sequences only total five minutes of running time. Enlisted to produce articulated puppets and prosthetic effects was Stan Winston's studio, who was also responsible for the metal skeleton effects of the T-800.  Such was the role and creation of CGI that the visual-effects team was awarded the 1992 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. 

For Sarah's nuclear nightmare scene, Robert and Dennis Skotak of 4-Ward Production constructed a cityscape of Los Angeles using large-scale miniature buildings and realistic roads and vehicles. The pair, after having studied actual footages of nuclear tests, then simulated the nuclear blast by using air mortars to knock over the cityscape, including the intricately built buildings.

 

Terminator 2 did things and set standards in the industry in many ways.  The effects, the box office and more were top notch.  This is the film that gave Cameron the leeway and the clout to take another 6 years to make his most ambitious project.  More on that when we get to 1997.

 

Coming in at number two for the year both domestically and WW is the Kevin Costner starring vehicle, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.  It had a budget of 48 million dollars and opened on the June 14th weekend at number one with 25.6 million.  

 

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is an action adventure film. The film, an iteration of the legendary English folk tale, was directed by Kevin Reynolds. The film's principal cast includes Kevin Costner as Robin Hood, Morgan Freeman as Azeem, Christian Slater as Will Scarlet, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Maid Marian, and Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham.

 

The film grossed over $390 million worldwide, ranking as the second-highest-grossing film of 1991. For his role as George, Sheriff of Nottingham, Rickman received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The film's theme song, "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", by Bryan Adams, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song and won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television.

 

When Costner was filming his early scenes, he was doing so with an English accent.  He was so inept at doing the accent that it was making the dailies almost unbearable.  Finally, director Kevin Reynolds told Costner to scrap the accent.  It was either that or they would have to cast another actor and that wasn't an option.  So Costner did scrap it and although it was mentioned by critics and some fans of the film, it eventually became moot because the film was so good in pretty much every way that people looked past it.  

 

 

Alan Rickman gave his second career defining performance in this film.  Neither this or his work in Die Hard were recognized by the Academy, but three decades later, Rickman is remembered for his work in those two films much more than whoever it was that won best supporting actor in 1988 and 1991.  For the Sheriff of Notingham, he turned down the role twice before accepting it on the condition he that he could interpret the character with Carte Blanche.  And this is why he is such a brilliant actor.  

 

Helping sell the film was Bryan Adam's classic tune, Everything I Do (I Do It For You).  This is one of the best selling singles of all time and it spent 16 straight weeks at number one in the UK and 8 weeks at number one in the US.  

 

Robin Hood grossed 165 million in the US.

 

Number three was one of Disney's all time classic films, Beauty and the Beast.  

 

Beauty and the Beast is an animated musical romantic fantasy drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 30th Disney animated feature film and the third released during the Disney Renaissance period, it is based on the French fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (who was also credited in the English version as well as in the French version).  Beauty and the Beast focuses on the relationship between the Beast (voice of Robby Benson), a prince who is magically transformed into a monster as punishment for his arrogance, and Belle (voice of Paige O'Hara), a young woman whom he imprisons in his castle. To become a prince again, Beast must learn to love Belle and earn her love in return to avoid remaining a monster forever. The film also features the voices of Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, and Angela Lansbury.

 

 

Walt Disney first attempted unsuccessfully to adapt Beauty and the Beast into an animated film during the 1930s and 1950s. Following the success of The Little Mermaid (1989), Walt Disney Pictures decided to adapt the fairy tale, which Richard Purdum originally conceived as a non-musical. Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg eventually dismissed Purdum's idea and ordered that the film be a musical similar to The Little Mermaid instead. The film was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, with a screenplay by Linda Woolverton story first credited to Roger Allers. Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken wrote the film's songs. Ashman, who additionally served as the film's executive producer, died of AIDS-related complications eight months before the film's release, and the film is thus dedicated to his memory.

 

Beauty and the Beast premiered as an unfinished film at the New York Film Festival on September 29, 1991, followed by its theatrical release as a completed film at the El Capitan Theatre on November 13. The film was a box office success, grossing $425 million worldwide on a $25 million budget. Beauty and the Beast received positive reviews from critics; it won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and became the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for its title song. In April 1994, Beauty and the Beast became Disney's first animated film to be adapted into a Broadway musical. 

 

Music also played a huge role in the films success.  A pop version of the "Beauty and the Beast" theme, performed by Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson over the end credits, was released as a commercial single from the film's soundtrack, supported with a music video. The Dion/Bryson version of "Beauty and the Beast" became an international pop hit and performed considerably well on charts around the world. The song became Dion's second single to land within the top-10 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number nine. The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart. In Canada, "Beauty and the Beast" peaked at number two. Outside of North America, the song peaked within the top ten in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, while peaking within the top twenty in Australia, Netherlands, and Ireland. The song sold over a million copies worldwide. This version of the song was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammys, and it won the Grammy for Dion and Bryson for Best Pop Duo/Group Vocal Performance.  

 

Interesting in that Dion was an unknown singer in 1991.  James Cameron was not unknown but he wasn't the massive name that he became after Terminator 2.  They both had career break out years in 1991 and would collaborate in 1997 in a film that would change film history.

 

Beauty and The Beast was made for 25 million, grossed 145.8 million in NA and 351 million WW.  

 

Number four for the year was the best picture winner, Silence of the Lambs.  The Silence of the Lambs is a horror-thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, and Scott Glenn.  Adapted by Ted Tally from the 1988 novel of the same name by Thomas Harris, his second to feature the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecter;  a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer, the film was the second adaptation of a Harris novel featuring Lecter, preceded by the Michael Mann-directed Manhunter in 1986. In the film, Clarice Starling, a young U.S. FBI trainee, seeks the advice of the imprisoned Dr. Lecter to apprehend another serial killer, known only as "Buffalo Bill".

 

There's two really interesting things about Silence of the Lambs winning best picture. First is that it did not come out in the last month of the year.  Usually films that win best picture come out between November and the end of December.  This is so all of the geriatric and senile old fools in the Academy have the film fresh in their minds when they vote on who and what wins.  This film came out on Valentine's Day, the second month of the year.  It's amazing that it got nominated and even more amazing that it won. 

 

 

The second odd thing is that it's a straight up horror film.  Not in the same sense that the slasher films of the 70's and 80's were, but make no mistake about this.  It's a violent, sometimes gory horror movie with a body count.  This is not the kind of film that the Academy awards.  But in this case, the film just struck a chord with so many that they had no choice but to award it with all kinds of accolades.  

 

Jodie Foster was interested in playing the role of Clarice Starling immediately after reading the novel. However, despite Foster's having just won an Academy Award for her performance in the 1988 film The Accused, Demme was not convinced that she was right for the part.  Having previously collaborated on Married to the Mob, Demme's first choice for the role of Starling was Michelle Pfeiffer, who turned it down, later saying, "It was a difficult decision, but I got nervous about the subject matter".  As a result, Foster was awarded the role due to her passion towards the character. 

For the role of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Demme originally approached Sean Connery. After the actor turned it down, Anthony Hopkins was then offered the part based on his performance in The Elephant Man. Other actors considered for the role included Derek Jacobi and Daniel Day-Lewis.

 

Scott Glenn was cast in the role of Jack Crawford, the Agent-in-Charge of the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI in Quantico, Virginia. To prepare for the role, Glenn met with John E. Douglas, after whom the character is modeled. Douglas gave Glenn a tour of the Quantico facility and also played for him an audio tape containing various recordings that serial killers Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris had made of themselves raping and torturing a 16-year-old girl.  According to Douglas, Glenn wept as he experienced the recordings and even changed his liberal stance on the death penalty.  The roles of Clarice and Hannibal changed the careers of Foster and Hopkins.  They both took home Oscars of course, but more that that, they became over night stars.  Both Foster and Hopkins had been around for about 15 years but it wasn't until this film that they became giants in the industry.

 

Silence of the Lambs made 130 mill, 272 WW on a small budget of 19 million.

 

Number five was one of my favourite comedies of all time, City Slickers.  City Slickers is a western comedy film, directed by Ron Underwood and starring Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby, and Jack Palance, with supporting roles by Patricia Wettig, Helen Slater, and Noble Willingham.

 

The film's screenplay was written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (perhaps my all time favourite comedy writers), and it was shot in New York City; New Mexico; Durango, Colorado; and Spain. A sequel City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold was released in 1994, with the same cast, with the exception of Kirby, who was replaced by Jon Lovitz.  Jack Palance won best supporting actor for his turn as Curly.

 

 

The film's plot, which consists of inexperienced cowboys battling villains as they press on with their cattle drive after the death of their leader, was conceived to be similar to John Wayne's The Cowboys, although that was a Western drama as opposed to a comedy.

 

In his 2013 memoir, Still Foolin' Em, Billy Crystal writes of how the casting of the film came about. "Palance," he says, "was the first choice from the beginning, but had a commitment to make another film." He wrote that he contacted Charles Bronson about the part, only to be rudely rebuffed because the character dies. Palance got out of his other obligation to join the cast. Rick Moranis, however, originally cast as Phil, had to leave the production due to his wife's illness. Daniel Stern was a late replacement in the role.

On the night Palance won the Academy Award, according to Crystal, the 73-year-old actor placed the Oscar on his shoulder and said, "Billy Crystal ... who thought it would be you?" He added in his book, "We had a glass of champagne together, and I could only imagine what Charles Bronson was thinking as he went to sleep that night."

 

City Slickers was made for 26 million and took in 124 million domestic and 180 WW.

 

Number six for the year was the first Spielberg film (up to that point in my life) that I didn't really like all that much.  Hook was a massively budgeted film at 70 million and it contained the who's who of Hollywood at the time.  

 

Hook is a fantasy adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by James V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo. It stars Robin Williams as Peter Banning/Peter Pan, Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell, Bob Hoskins as Smee, Maggie Smith as Wendy, Caroline Goodall as Moira Banning, and Charlie Korsmo as Jack Banning. It acts as a sequel to J. M. Barrie's 1911 novel Peter and Wendy focusing on an adult Peter Pan who has forgotten all about his childhood. In his new life, he is known as Peter Banning, a successful but unimaginative and workaholic corporate lawyer with a wife (Wendy's granddaughter) and two children. However, when Captain Hook, the enemy of his past, kidnaps his children, he returns to Neverland in order to save them. Along the journey he reclaims the memories of his past.

 

Spielberg began developing the film in the early 1980s with Walt Disney Productions and Paramount Pictures, which would have followed the story line seen in the 1924 silent film and 1953 animated film. It entered pre-production in 1985, but Spielberg abandoned the project. James V. Hart developed the script with director Nick Castle and TriStar Pictures before Spielberg decided to direct in 1989. It was shot almost entirely on sound stages at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. It received mixed reviews from critics, and while it was a commercial success, its box office take was lower than expected. It was nominated in five categories at the 64th Academy Awards. It also spawned merchandise, including video games, action figures, and comic book adaptations.

 

 

Hook made 119 million domestically and more than 300 WW.  It finished at number 6 for the year in NA but number 4 for the year WW.  

 

On a personal note, it's not that I disliked the film, it just disappointed me because it was Spielberg and I expected more.  Having said that, my 19 year old self felt that way, my adult 40 year old self likes it much better.  

 

Spielberg found close personal connection to the Peter Pan story from his own childhood. The troubled relationship between Peter and Jack in the sequel echoed Spielberg's relationship with his own father. Previous Spielberg films that explored a dysfunctional father-son relationship included E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Peter's "quest for success" paralleled Spielberg starting out as a film director and transforming into a Hollywood business magnate. "I think a lot of people today are losing their imagination because they are work-driven. They are so self-involved with work and success and arriving at the next plateau that children and family almost become incidental. I have even experienced it myself when I have been on a very tough shoot and I've not seen my kids except on weekends. They ask for my time and I can't give it to them because I'm working." Like Peter at the beginning of the film, Spielberg has a fear of flying. He feels that Peter's "enduring quality" in the storyline is simply to fly. "Anytime anything flies, whether it's Superman, Batman, or E.T., it's got to be a tip of the hat to Peter Pan," Spielberg reflected in a 1992 interview. "Peter Pan was the first time I saw anybody fly. Before I saw Superman, before I saw Batman, and of course before I saw any superheroes, my first memory of anybody flying is in Peter Pan."

 

Coming in at number 7 was The Addams Family.  The Addams Family is a 1991 American fantasy comedy film based on the characters from the cartoon of the same name created by cartoonist Charles Addams.  The film was originally developed at Orion Pictures (which, at the time, owned the rights to the television series on which the film was based). But due to the studio's financial problems, Paramount Pictures stepped in to complete the film and handled North American distribution; Orion retained the international rights, though these rights now belong to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer through their purchase of Orion.

 

 Anjelica Huston was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance as Morticia Addams; Raúl Juliá as Gomez Addams, Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams, and Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester were also well received. It was commercially successful, making back several times its operating budget, and was followed by a sequel, Addams Family Values, two years later.  It was made for 30 million and took in 113.5 million domestic and 191 WW.

 

Number eight was the second Julia Roberts film of the year to finish in the top ten.  Sleeping with the Enemy is a psychological thriller directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Julia Roberts and Patrick Bergin. The film is based on Nancy Price's 1987 novel of the same name. Roberts plays a woman who escapes from her abusive husband, from Cape Cod to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she captures the attention of a kindly college drama teacher.

 

Roberts actually had three films out in 1991.  Sleeping with the Enemy kind of surprised everyone when it did the magical 100 million.  This film cemented Roberts as the next IT girl and it also caused Premiere Magazine to place her next film, Dying Young, in their top ten for the summer.  That film never caught on with an audience and it sputtered to a 33 million dollar finish.  It wasn't exactly the greatest subject matter for a summer release.  It dealt with Roberts falling in love with a young man who was terminally ill.  He dies, she cries and the audience is supposed to cry along with her, but it was basically ignored.  It's also the kind of film that made me think something like The Fault in Our Stars would not be a big box office success.  

 

 

Sleeping with the Enemy was made for 19 million, grossed 119 domestic and more than 175 WW.

 

Number nine The Steve Martin/Diane Keaton film, Father of the Bride.  Father of the Bride is a comedy starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams (in her film debut, and she might be one of the most attractive women I'd ever laid eyes on at that point), George Newbern, Martin Short, B. D. Wong, and Kieran Culkin. It is a remake of the 1950 film of the same name.

The film inspired a series of Hallmark commercials that featured the smiling faces of the happy couple and sneak-peeks at the backs of numerous greeting cards. It is number 92 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Martin portrays George Banks, a businessman and owner of an athletic shoe company (called Side Kicks), who, when he finds out his daughter is getting married, does not want to give her away. He eventually learns to live with his new son-in-law and realizes that as long as his daughter is happy, he is happy.

The film opened to positive reviews, and became a major box office success, earning more than four times its budget. With its success, a sequel, Father of the Bride Part II was released in 1995.

This was Nancy Meyers and Diane Keaton's second film together, the first being Baby Boom (1987); the others were Father of the Bride Part II (1995) and Something's Gotta Give (2003).

 

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four and called it "one of the movies with a lot of smiles and laughter in it, and a good feeling all the way through. Just everyday life, warmly observed." Desson Howe of The Washington Post praised Martin for his performance in it, writing that it is so funny, it's almost sublime. The explanation is simple: It's all Steve Martin."

 

It was made for 20 million, took in 90 million domestic.  I don't have international numbers for this film.  

 

Number ten was the zany comedy by the ZAZ boys, Naked Gun 2 1/2:  The Smell of Fear.  The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear is a comedy. It is the sequel to the 1988 film The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! and the second installment in The Naked Gun film series. The film stars Leslie Nielsen as the comically bumbling Police Lt. Frank Drebin of Police Squad!. Priscilla Presley plays the role of Jane, with O.J. Simpson as Nordberg and George Kennedy as police captain Ed Hocken. The film also features Robert Goulet (who previously made a "special guest star" appearance on Police Squad!) as the villainous Quentin Hapsburg and Richard Griffiths as renewable fuel advocate Dr. Albert S. Meinheimer (as well as his evil double, Earl Hacker). Zsa Zsa Gabor, Mel Tormé and members of the Chicago Bears have cameo roles.

David Zucker returns from the first entry as director and screenwriter of the film. Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker serve as executive producers for the film and receive writing credit due to their contributions to the first entry of the series and the Police Squad! television series. However, neither contributed to the screenplay for the film.

 

Made for 23 million, it grossed 89 million in NA.  

 

Coming in at number 12 was one of my favourite films of the year, Cape Fear.  This was the first time Hollywood titans (for different reasons of course, Spielberg for his box office and Marty for his quality and iconic resume according to critics) Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese worked together.  This was an Amblin production and like many Spielberg productions, the shooting star makes an appearance, which hilariously pissed on the Scorsese loonies.  I had a friend who was a massive Martin Stan and he ranted and moaned and bitched about Marty selling out and so on.  Meanwhile, imo, it added a nice touch to the film and Cape Fear is one of Marty's best films imo.  Although it wasn't nominated for picture or director, star DeNiro was and so was the young Juliette Lewis.  

 

 

This was budgeted at 35 million, high for a Scorsese film but was a financial success taking in more than 79 mill domestically and 182 WW.

 

Number 15 was another Star Trek film called The Undiscovered Country.  It made 74.8 million.

 

Number 17 is one of my top five films of all time.  JFK.  While domestically it did just fine with 70 million, WW it did huge business with more than 200 million.  The budget for this was 40 million.  This also finished at number 6 WW for the year.  Kevin Costner leads an all star cast that includes names like Tommy Lee Jones, John Candy Joe Pesci, Michael Rooker, Jack Lemmon and many many others.  Oliver Stone directed and should have won best director.

 

Kennedy's assassination had always had a profound effect on Stone: "The Kennedy murder was one of the signal events of the postwar generation, my generation."  Stone met Garrison and grilled him with a variety of questions for three hours. Garrison stood up to Stone's questioning and then got up and left. His pride and dignity impressed the director. Stone's impressions from their meeting were that Garrison "made many mistakes. He trusted a lot of weirdos and followed a lot of fake leads. But he went out on a limb, way out. And he kept going, even when he knew he was facing long odds."

Stone was not interested in making a film about Garrison's life, but rather the story behind the conspiracy to kill Kennedy. He also bought the film rights to Jim Marrs' (who is one of if not the best writer about copnspiracies....his work on 9/11 is incredible....not that any of you care about this stuff   } book Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy. One of the filmmaker's primary goals with JFK was to provide a rebuttal to the Warren Commission's report that he believed was "a great myth. And in order to fight a myth, maybe you have to create another one, a counter-myth." Even though Marrs' book collected many theories, Stone was hungry for more and hired Jane Rusconi, a recent Yale University graduate, to lead a team of researchers and assemble as much information about the assassination as possible while the director completed post-production on Born on the Fourth of July. Stone read two dozen books on the assassination while Rusconi read between 100 and 200 books on the subject.

 

 

JFK is one of the films that changed my life.  If you'd like to read a bit more about this, check out my piece on the 50 most important films ever made.  JFK comes in at number 3.

 

JFK third most important film

 

JFK was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning for best editing and cinematography.  It should have won for best picture and director too.  

 

Coming in at number 29 is the now classic Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze surfing movie that Fast and The Furious got its inspiration from.  Point Break did a modest 43 mill domestic and 85 WW but it has gone on to become somewhat of a classic.  

 

 

Steven Seagal's best film (imo) Out For Justice came in at number 32 with 39.6 million.  Seagal was a hit machine for about 5 years.  The budgets were always low but they did respectable numbers theatrically and then very well on HV.

 

Another one of my fave comedies, LA Story, came in at number 46.  It only did 28.8 million but it is full of bright and satirical observations about LA and the LA Freeway scene at 5pm still make me laugh to this day.  Also, there is a scene where a bunch of LA socialites order their coffee that reminds me of @Telemachos.

 

 

This was 1991

 

 

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