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

[baumer]

One last post....

 

This is my favourite quote from Jim Carrey

 

So many of us chose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn't believe that was possible for him. So, he made a conservative choice and instead he got a job as an accountant. When I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. Our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which is that you can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.

 

 

[That One Girl]

4 minutes ago, baumer said:

Angry apes attack Pennywise

 

 

...WTFPOTA over IT on OW?

[baumer]

3 hours ago, That One Guy said:

 

...WTFPOTA over IT on OW?

 

 

LOL...there were other angry Apes in 1995.

[ProtoMan]

As others have said 1994 was a beast year. Just a couple thoughts...

 

Forrest Gump - I vividly remember its box office run and it was just shocking at the time. Mostly because Tom Hanks wasn't seen as a box office draw at the time. It was a movie that just kept making money week after week. Easily in the top 5 box office runs I've ever seen.  It was so against the grain of the typical movie that dominated a summer. 

 

Pulp Fiction -  As a John Travolta fan, I've never been so happy to see an actor bounce back. The media really hyped up Travolta but I enjoyed Samuel Jackson's performance a little bit more. As Baumer stated, the cast was great. The Marvin scene is one of the funniest in cinema history. 

 

Edited July 19, 2017 by ProtoMan

[Premium George]

I don't think anybody now take % of profit. It's all about gross.

[Maxmoser3]

1994 in a box office prospect was up and down.

 

the main winners were tv show adaptations such as Maverick, Flintstones, and Little Rascals which all outgrossed tired dud sequels such as City Slickers 2 and Beverly Hills Cop 3 that summer.

 

Speed and True Lies both were big profitable R-rated summer blockbusters as one was a modest budget flick with rising stars such as Sandra Bullock & Keanu Reeves, and the other was an action-comedy as another collaboration by James Cameron/Arnold Schwarzenegger. While Speed was the first for both Bullock & Reeves, True Lies was Schwarzenegger's last huge hit for 9 years! 

 

Stallone still was a big success in the fall of '94 with The Specialist as the film held out strong on the top two spots for several weeks in October. Also Violent R-Rated films were also successful such as Natural Born Killers which performed better than comparable titles such as Kalifornia or True Romance.

 

John Travolta and Bruce Willis had their comeback film with Pulp Fiction which was a film that came out of no where, and it even shot down Stallone and Freddy Krueger on its opening weekend back in October of '94.

 

Jim Carrey also had strong success with 3 films within one year! Ace Ventura did fantastic numbers with coming to $80 million, The Mask and Dumb & Dumber both made over $120 million a piece which something rare a star can do 3 times in a row within less than a year!

 

Harisson Ford still pulling in strong for a 50+ year old star with Clear And Present Danger as it was the final film to yet another great summer schedule!

 

Disney had a sucessful year with two family titles such as The Lion King which right next to Forrest Gump was one of the leggiest films of the summer of '94, and Santa Clause proved to be a sucessful film for families during the holiday season.

 

Forrest Gump proved to be a leggy adult hit for the summer, and proved to be surprise audiences even in the fall.

 

The Crow proved to be a big hit with audiences in the summer as it had released on Friday the 13th, and prior to Logan, Blade, and Deadpool among many others was a huge success for an R-rated comic book adaptation. And was late actor Brandon Lee's highest grossing film! 

 

Erotic thrillers with Michael Douglas and another woman that would probably be great in bed(Demi Moore) had great success with Disclosure as it had an ok start but had very sexy legs later on. 

 

The final two winners(while there's more) that will be included are Clerks and Four Weddings And A Funeral.

 

Miramax was on a role in 1994 with The Crow and Pulp Fiction, so with a small price tag while it didn't gross blockbuster $$$ Clerks proved to be a enjoyable profit on its own right and would start the career for Kevin Smith. 

 

Four Weddings And A Funeral was a very sucessful film for indepedent company Gramercy Pictures(studio behind Dazed & Confused, and Mallrats) which didn't even have a big release and made it to the top spot and made over $50 million total. 

 

As for the losers, sequelitis made a huge kick-in in 1994 as third entries such as Beverly Hills Cop 3 made $155 million less than its predecessor, and was the start of many bombs for Eddie Murphy. Naked Gun 3 3 1/3- The Final Insult had the last laugh with above $50 million total. 

 

Both City Slickers II and Major League II also joins the sequel duds as a film that felt unneeded.

 

And 7th entries such as Star Trek:Generations and New Nightmare didn't see any true bright spots either as for one(Star Trek: Generations) made more $$$ than the last one but still couldn't reach the fame of the first 4 films. While the other(New Nightmare)just looked strange and silly to be too scary especially after coming off "The Final Nightmare."

 

While Arnold and Sharon both had hits with The Speicalist, and True Lies they couldn't come back with bombs such as Junior or Intersection as they had aborted and crashed & burned into oblivion.

 

After Under Seige proved Seagal could be in the big league, he unfortunately couldn't repeat it with On Deadly Ground as it couldn't even make close to half of Under Seige's domestic total.

 

Another star who saw success in 1992, couldn't recapture it was Kevin Costner as he had huge failures with Wyatt Earp and The War  which both combined cost close to $100 million and couldn't even make $45 million combined total.

[Jonwo]

You think the movie of The Lion King was successful, the stage adaptation has raked in $6.2bn, $1.2bn from Broadway alone. 

 

Forrest Gump's success is amazing considering that it doesn't push technology boundaries like Jurassic Park or Avatar nor is it a epic movie like a Titanic. I still enjoy it though. 

 

The Flintstones hasn't aged well but it's an alright film, I do think Rosie O'Donnell was miscast as Betty but Elizabeth Perkins worked as Wilma. 

 

The Santa Clause's gross is mind boggling considering that it's did really poorly OS. It's similar to The Grinch where the lion share of the gross was domestic 

 

Interesting that Andi MacDowell was third choice for Carrie in Four Weddings, Hugh Grant is great in it and it really cemented him as a romantic lead in later films but my favourite part of the film is the writing,

[Sterling]

13 hours ago, baumer said:

 

Until i did the research, I had no idea he has three huge hits in 1994.  Has that ever happened before or since?  Has any one actor starred in three films (not as support, but as the above the title star) in one year where they all did incredibly well?  I don't think that has happened.  I could be wrong....maybe back in the 40's or 30's.

 

Channing Tatum in 2012 with The Vow, 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike.

[baumer]

42 minutes ago, Sterling said:

 

Channing Tatum in 2012 with The Vow, 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike.

 

Good one!  Thats actually incredible.

[Barnack]

15 hours ago, baumer said:

 

Until i did the research, I had no idea he has three huge hits in 1994.  Has that ever happened before or since?  Has any one actor starred in three films (not as support, but as the above the title star) in one year where they all did incredibly well?  I don't think that has happened.  I could be wrong....maybe back in the 40's or 30's.

 

Sometime there is some actor with year's of work getting release the same year.

 

Jessica Chastain 2011, had an impressive mix of 2 of the most acclaimed movie of the 2000 and one of the biggest financial success with the Help that did almost 10 time it's budget:

 

The Help

Tree of Life

Take Shelter

 

Jennifer Lawrence commercial success in 2012:

 

Hunger Games: 677 box office on a 80 million budget (8.5x ratio)

House at the end of the street: 44.1 million on a 6.9 million budget (6.4x ratio)

Silver Lining Playbook: 236.4 on a 21 million budget (11.3x ratio)

[narniadis]

Finally caught up. As always @baumer this is a fun read. 

 

Glad you finally got around to reading Grisham, Pelican Brief was the first of his books I ever read and I have read each one at least twice now. His new one Camino Island is a lot of fun. 

 

The 1990s are like the golden years of cinema for me  because I was a 90s kid so when I did watch films those were what I saw. 

[baumer]

3 hours ago, narniadis said:

Finally caught up. As always @baumer this is a fun read. 

 

Glad you finally got around to reading Grisham, Pelican Brief was the first of his books I ever read and I have read each one at least twice now. His new one Camino Island is a lot of fun. 

 

The 1990s are like the golden years of cinema for me  because I was a 90s kid so when I did watch films those were what I saw. 

 

Thank bud. And im loving Grisham. Everything is just incredible. 

[Maxmoser3]

1995 was one of the year's for the lowest grossing films of the 90's as only 10 films made $100 million domestic. I'm switching things around this time and talk box office and my thoughts on the movies if I've seen them.

 

Big budget films proved to be a bad sign with Waterworld being one of Kevin Costner's next big bomb as it was considered "the most expensive film" at its time, and Cuthroat Island proved for 8 years until Disney proved us otherwise that Pirates were a curse as it bombed hard and ended a studio like Carloco which they should've done the Schwarzenegger/Verhoven flick instead but they thought Renny Harlin was gold because of Cliffhanger and Die Hard 2.

 

Also '95 was the end of also Stallone's short box office comeback as he had Judge Dredd and Assassins bomb.

 

Paul Verhoven as a director was also dying off with Showgirls which honestly if a movie came like that I would watch it if like Alexis Texas or Sophie Dee or Christy Mack was in it. but back to the box office it bombed in the fall as it proved that should've been a skinemax flick but it was the highest grossing NC-17 still to this day and does great on home video.

 

Horror directors Wes Craven, and John Carpenter had duds. As Vampire In Brooklyn loss some bite around the Halloween season, and Carpenter's Village Of The Damned remake which I remember seeing some of and not caring for it that much but the film bombed as audiences weren't necessarily wanting to watch a horror film right after the Oklahoma City Bombing. 

 

Sharon Stone had a mixed bag once again as The Quick & The Dead flopped but Casino did ok in the states but made a little more overseas which in my opinion Casino is very well made and for its runtime I wasn't bored and it was a very good movie all around.

 

Wesley Snipes and Woddy Harrelson tried to replicate success after White Men Can't Jump, but they missed the mark with the "controversial"(somewhat with 1996 presidential candidate Bob Dole) Money Train as it couldn't even make half of White Men Can't Jump.

 

Harrison Ford had his first flop in a few years with Sabrina a remake of a film starring Audrey Hepburn(I think). Sabrina bombed due to a crowded slate, and mixed word of mouth. But it didn't shoot him or Paramount too much. 

 

The last two flops of '95 were Mallrats, and Under Siege 2:Dark Territory.

 

Mallrats did less than Clerks and unfortunately fell short of its budget, but Mallrats enjoyed a following on home video and is one of my favorite comedies of the 90's right next to Dazed & Confused.

 

Under Siege 2 underperformed for an action sequel as the first film was a big hit for Segeal and WB in 1992. 

 

The winners of '95 box office wise were first Universal and their modest budget films while they weren't blockbusters Demon Knight grossed decent for a horror film of its nature(Demon Knight is a fun horror film from what I remember, and that Filter song at the beginning), Billy Madison did well for a comedy featuring a rising star, and Apollo 13 was once again a success for Tom Hanks and Ron Howard's biggest film until The Grinch in 2000. 

 

Sandra Bullock still enjoyed success in '95 with The Net being sucessful late summer counter-programming,and While  You're Sleeping the highest grossing rom-com of the year outgrossing Meg Ryan's French Kiss, and Julia Robert's Something To Talk About.

 

Bruce Willis had another sucessful film after Pulp Fiction with Die Hard:With A Vengenace which didn't do as well as Die Hard 2. but ended up being the highest grossing film worldwide of '95!

 

Gene Hackman proved to be a sucessful star with Crimson Tide(which was a good movie but haven't seen it in years)in the summer as it grossed over $90 million although it wasn't another Hunt For Red October it was another profitable flick, and Get Shorty did well for a comedy as it had Pulp Fiction's release date proved to do well as it was close to $80 million.

 

Al Pacino had another hit as it was his biggest hit since Sea Of Love back in 1989 with Heat which performed above normal in the Holiday season of 1995.

 

Seven(or SE7EN) held on strong as being a dark R-rated thriller in the fall as it outgrossed comparable titles at the time and was the best opening for September at the time. It was  another film I haven't seen in years but remembered liking. 

 

Toy Story did well in the holidays as being one of three films aimed towards families, and held on into January of 1996. As well as Jumanji

 

Comedy sequels around the holidays were a nice way to bring in as Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls outgrossed it predecessor and was the highest grossing November debut at the time. Grumpier Old Men outgrossed it's predecessor by a hair.

 

Batman and James Bond made a comeback after a 3-year and a 6-year hiatus. Batman Forever at the time scored the best debut for a summer release, and the Batman franchise and outgrossed Batman Returns. It also proved to be a hit for Val Kilmer who couldn't really a see a hit. 

 

After Licence To Kill bombed against Lethal Weapon 2, and Batman making smashing numbers, Goldeneye proved to be the first 007 film to make $100 million unadjusted.

 

Urban films were sucessful such as Higher Learning grossed close to $40 million total, and Friday performed well for a comedy. Waiting For Exhale also did well for a film directed by an African American actor and for being in a crowded December filled with adult male films like Heat & Sudden Death, family films like Jumanji, and Toy Story, and wannabe blockbusters. 

 

Animals gone wild flicks had performed very well as Congo did reasonable but no Jurassic Park, and Outbreak which was more of a pandemic movie than a an animal but involved an animal and performed well as it was near $70 million.

 

Bad Boys performed solid in the spring as it started up the careers of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence who were popular off of two tv shows around the time such as Martin and Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. 

 

Mortal Kombat proved to perform above the norm for video game films at the time as it grossed a decent $70 million which is rare for video game films to make that much even today.

 

Dangerous Minds also did well at the end of the summer with Coolio splashing up the airwaves with "Gangsta's Paradise," and performing better than Lean On Me and Stand & Deliver and Teachers combined.

 

Species performed well for a sci-fi horror film and outgrossed the totals of Alien 3 and Alien:Ressurection even.

 

Toss-ups at the box office for 1995 were the mixed bag at the box office as the first toss up was Halloween:The Curse Of Michael Myers which did better than Halloween 5 but performed similar to New Nightmare. 

 

Sudden Death was another action film that underperformed but it made money overseas and did better on home video.

 

1995 had about overall a decent slate of movies as there were about over 10 good movies. It also broke the record for the yearly box office, but its slate is forgotten about. But I like 1993, 1996,1997,1998,1999 better but 1995 had great small stuff blockbusters were still good.

[baumer]

Let's continue our journey and get into 1995.  

 

This is another landmark year in film history as Pixar (the bane of my movie going experience) released their first film and the first every computer generated images that made up an entire film.  

 

Coming in at number one for the year was Toy Story.

 

Toy Story is a computer-animated buddy comedy adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The directorial debut of John Lasseter, Toy Story was the first feature-length computer-animated film and the first feature film produced by Pixar. Taking place in a world where anthropomorphic toys pretend to be lifeless whenever humans are present, the film's plot focuses on the relationship between Woody, an old-fashioned pullstring cowboy doll (voiced by Tom Hanks), and Buzz Lightyear, an astronaut action figure (voiced by Tim Allen), as they evolve from rivals competing for the affections of Andy, their owner, to friends who work together to be reunited with Andy as his family prepares to move to a new home. The screenplay was written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, based on a story by Lasseter, Pete Docter, Stanton and Joe Ranft. The film features music by Randy Newman, and was executive-produced by Steve Jobs and Edwin Catmull.

 

 

 

 

Pixar, which produced short animated films to promote their computers, was approached by Disney to produce a computer-animated feature after the success of their short film Tin Toy (1988), which is told from a small toy's perspective. Lasseter, Stanton and Docter wrote early story treatments which were thrown out by Disney, as they wanted the film to be edgier. After disastrous story reels, production was halted and the script was re-written, better reflecting the tone and theme Pixar desired: that "toys deeply want children to play with them, and that this desire drives their hopes, fears, and actions". The studio, then consisting of a relatively small number of employees, produced the film under minor financial constraints.

 

Toy Story was released in theaters on November 22, 1995, and was the highest-grossing film on its opening weekend, earning over $373 million at the worldwide box office, 191 million of that in the domestic market.  The film was widely acclaimed by critics, who praised the animation's technical innovation, the wit and thematic sophistication of the screenplay, and the performances of Hanks and Allen.  It is now considered by many critics to be one of the best animated films ever made. The film received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song for "You've Got a Friend in Me", as well as winning a Special Achievement Academy Award.  It was inducted into the National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2005, its first year of eligibility. 

 

And the funniest part of all of this is that the film cost 30 million to make.  Let that sink in for a minute.

 

Finishing number two for the year domestically, was Batman Forever.  Batman Forever did very well at the box office, setting the opening weekend record with 52.7 million.  It earned 184 million domestically and a massive 336 million WW.  But it didn't come cheaply.  Batman Forever had a negative cost of 100 million before marketing.  It made a profit for WB but this was a sign of things to come in the super-hero genre....these films were getting incredibly expensive to produce.  

 

Batman Forever is a was directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Tim Burton.  Val Kilmer replaced Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman. I personally liked Keaton as Batman but I thought Kilmer did an excellent job in the title role.  The film had a huge cast of name actors......Chris O'Donnell, Nicole Kidman, Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey were the main actors but it also had Uma Thurman and Drew Barrymore in smaller roles. The plot focuses on Batman trying to stop Two-Face (Jones) and the Riddler (Carrey) in their villainous scheme to extract confidential information from all the minds in Gotham City and use it to learn Batman's identity and bring the city under their control. He gains allegiance from a love interest—psychiatrist Dr. Chase Meridian (Kidman) and a young, orphaned circus acrobat named Dick Grayson (O'Donnell), who becomes his sidekick Robin.  I feel this kind of plot is way ahead of it's time and yet it is also a throw back to other films from the past like The Manchurian Candidate.  Brainwashing the populace is something that has been discussed for years and int this film, using TV's to do it was a nice touch.  

 

 

Batman Forever's tone is significantly different from the previous installments, becoming more family-friendly since Warner Bros. believed that the previous Batman film, Batman Returns (1992), failed to outgross its predecessor due to parent complaints about the film's violence and dark overtones. Schumacher eschewed the dark, dystopian atmosphere of Burton's films by drawing inspiration from the Batman comic book of the Dick Sprang era, as well as the 1960s television series. Keaton chose not to reprise the role due to Burton stepping down as director. William Baldwin and Ethan Hawke were initially considered for Keaton's replacement before Kilmer joined the cast.  I feel this Batman was the best of pre-Nolan films.  I realize most like the original Batman but for me, this one was more fun and didn't suffer from stupid plot pieces like penguins with rockets on their back or circus freaks doing cartwheels to move around.

 

One final note is that Keaton dropped out when WB told Burton he was not being brought back as director.  Keaton even turned down an astonishing pay day of 15 million because he didn't like the direction the series was taking.

 

Number three for the year was arguably Ron Howard's best film, Apollo 13.  Apollo 13 is a space adventure docudrama starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles, Jr., and Al Reinert, that dramatizes the aborted 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission, is an adaptation of the book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by astronaut Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. The film depicts astronauts Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise aboard Apollo 13 for America's third Moon landing mission. En route, an on-board explosion deprives their spacecraft of most of its oxygen supply and electric power, forcing NASA's flight controllers to abort the Moon landing, and turning the mission into a struggle to get the three men home safely.

Howard went to great lengths to create a technically accurate movie, employing NASA's technical assistance in astronaut and flight controller training for his cast, and obtaining permission to film scenes aboard a reduced gravity aircraft for realistic depiction of the "weightlessness" experienced by the astronauts in space.

Released to cinemas in the United States on June 30, 1995, Apollo 13 was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture (winning for Best Film Editing and Best Sound). Tom Hanks was also nominated for best actor, his third nomination in a row.  In total, the film grossed over 172 million domestically and 355 million worldwide during its theatrical releases. The film was very positively received by critics.

 

 

Proving that he is the greatest director of all time, or at least the most influential, Ron Howard went to Steven Spielberg for advice when he had concerns about the difficulties of filming weightlessness.  Howard anticipated difficulty in portraying weightlessness in a realistic manner. Spielberg suggested using a KC-135 airplane, which can be flown in such a way as to create about 23 seconds of weightlessness, a method NASA has always used to train its astronauts for space flight. Howard obtained NASA's permission and assistance in filming in the realistic conditions aboard multiple KC-135 flights.

 

Apollo 13 carried a budget of 53 million.

 

Coming in at number four was the second animated film on the list, Pocahontas.  Pocahontas is an animated musical romantic-drama produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation for Walt Disney Pictures.  Directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg, the film is inspired by the known history and folklore surrounding the Native American woman Pocahontas and portrays a fictionalized account of her historical encounter with Englishman John Smith and the Jamestown settlers that arrived from the Virginia Company. The voice cast features Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, Russell Means, Christian Bale, Billy Connolly, and Linda Hunt. The musical score was written by Alan Menken, with songs written by Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz.

Pocahontas was released on June 23, 1995 to a mixed reaction from critics, who praised its animation and music but criticized its story and historical inaccuracy. Nevertheless, the film was a commercial success, grossing 141/346 million at the box office. Pocahontas received two Academy Awards for Best Musical or Comedy Score for Menken's score and Best Original Song for "Colors of the Wind". 

 

Following the Best Picture nomination of Beauty and the Beast at the 64th Academy Awards and its subsequent loss in March 1992, then-studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg opted to produce another animated sweeping romantic epic in hopes of replicating another Best Picture nomination. With Aladdin and The Lion King too far into development, Katzenberg believed that Pocahontas had a chance, and pushed for the title protagonist to be older, the romance between Pocahontas and Smith to be more adult, and for the animals to be mute. Head of Story Tom Sito went on the record stating he wanted to include more and broader jokes, but the "higher-ups wanted it more winsome, more gentle. Some of the folks were so concerned about political correctness, they didn't want to be cuckoo-wacky about it."  Likewise, Eric Goldberg – following his work on Aladdin as the supervising animator for the Genie and with all of the animation units for The Lion King already occupied – was asked to co-direct Pocahontas with Gabriel, in which he agreed to and was given a pitch of the film. Goldberg had expected the film to be more comedic and cartoonish like Aladdin, but Schneider told Goldberg that the film would be produced in the vein of Beauty and the Beast, and the ongoing Los Angeles riots in 1992 further inspired him to commit to the film because of its racial overtones. The executive interference would eventually grow too much that Goldberg himself worked under the pseudonym "Claude Raynes" for Chuck Jones Productions during production. Executive paranoia reached a peak when Joe Grant had drawn Percy wearing an Indian feather, by which the animators took the concept one step further by placing a Spanish ruff on Meeko. One executive exclaimed, "Animals don't have the intelligence to switch their clothes! They don't even have opposing thumbs." The animators would retain their concept for the film.

 

Number five for the year domestically (but not cracking the top 10 WW) was Ace Ventura:  When Nature Calls.  Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (also known as Ace Ventura 2) is a comedy and the sequel to the 1994 American film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Jim Carrey reprises his role as the title character Ace Ventura, a detective who specializes in retrieval of tame and captive animals. Ian McNeice, Simon Callow, and Sophie Okonedo co-star. Tommy Davidson, who co-starred with Carrey on the show In Living Color, makes a cameo appearance in the film.

The film was written and directed by Carrey's close friend Steve Oedekerk, who had also collaborated in the production and as a character consultant for the first film. It was followed by a direct-to-video sequel, Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective, in 2009.

 

 

 

The film grossed 108 million in NA and 212 WW.  Jim Carrey took up a third of the 30 million dollar budget with his 10 million in salary.  He also had almost complete total creative control.  The original director was replaced by Oedekerk.  Oedekerk had no previous directing credits but Carrey wanted him because they both believed in improv and Carrey felt more comfortable with him at the helm.  

 

Often, a sequel to a comedy doesn't live up to the quality of the first.  For me, I found this one to be much funnier.  The scene in the hippo and then coming out of his ass, is so juvenile, so bizaare and so much crazier than anything I'd ever seen before this and it has stuck with me all these years later.  This also gave Carrey two of the top 5 grossing films of the year.

 

The sixth highest grossing film of the year was James Bond coming back with a bang.  GoldenEye is the seventeenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 officer James Bond. The film was directed by Martin Campbell and is the first in the series not to take story elements from the works of novelist Ian Fleming. The story was conceived and written by Michael France, with later collaboration by other writers. In the film, Bond fights to prevent an ex-MI6 agent, gone rogue, from using a satellite against London to cause a global financial meltdown.

GoldenEye was released in 1995 after a six-year hiatus in the series caused by legal disputes, during which Timothy Dalton resigned from the role of James Bond and was replaced by Pierce Brosnan. M was also recast, with actress Judi Dench becoming the first woman to portray the character, replacing Robert Brown. The role of Miss Moneypenny was also recast, with Caroline Bliss being replaced by Samantha Bond; Desmond Llewelyn was the only actor to reprise his role, as Q. GoldenEye was the first Bond film made after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which provided a background for the plot.

The film accumulated a worldwide gross of US$350.7 million, considerably better than Dalton's films.  The film received positive reviews, with critics viewing Brosnan as a definite improvement over his predecessor.

 

 

 

 

GoldenEye was made for 60 million and took in 106 in the US.  MGM must have known hey had a hit on their hand and were willing to take the gamble.  It paid off handsomely for them.

 

The seventh highest grossing film of the year was the Robin Williams "massively beloved film".  At least you would think that based on how people on our site were talking shit about the remake and how it tarnishes the beloved original.  Seeing as many of our members weren't even alive in 1995, it's curious how much they all love Jumanji....I digress.

 

Jumanji is a fantasy adventure directed by Joe Johnston. It is an adaptation of the 1981 children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. The film was written by Greg Taylor, Jonathan Hensleigh, and Jim Strain, and stars Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce, David Alan Grier, Jonathan Hyde, and Bebe Neuwirth. The special effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic for computer graphic elements and Amalgamated Dynamics for animatronics components. The film was dedicated to visual effects supervisor Stephen L. Price, who died before the film's release.

The story centers on young Alan Parrish, who becomes trapped in a board game while playing with his best friend Sarah Whittle in 1969. Twenty-six years later in 1995, siblings Judy and Peter Shepherd find the game, begin playing and then unwittingly release the now-adult Alan. After tracking down Sarah, the quartet resolve to finish the game in order to reverse all of the destruction it has caused.

The film was released on December 15, 1995. Despite its lukewarm critical reception, it was a box office success, earning 100 million in NA and 262 WW on a 65 million dollar budget.

 

 

Robin Williams felt the film was very close to his heart.  When asked in a roundtable interview whether Parrish's father was like Robin Williams' own, the actor admitted a slight comparison. "He was a bit stern and kind of elegant," Williams said. However, the actor likened the disconnected relationship between Alan and his father to the fractured relationship between his dad and grandfather. "The wonderful thing about [my dad] is he would never force me to do anything ... because something had happened early in his life where he didn't want that to happen to me. He had to give up a dream," Williams continued. "His father had been very wealthy and when his father died, they lost all of that and he was forced to work at a strip mine in Pennsylvania ... When I found something I loved, [my dad] saw that ... That's what makes it nice, when you can connect on that level."

 

Number 8 for the year is Casper (the Friendly Ghost).  Casper is a live-action/computer-animated fantasy drama comedy  directed by Brad Silberling loosely based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost created by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo. The film stars Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Cathy Moriarty, Eric Idle, and Amy Brenneman. The film also stars the voices of Malachi Pearson as the title character as well as Joe Nipote, Joe Alaskey, and Brad Garrett. The film makes extensive use of computer-generated imagery to create the ghosts, and it is the first feature film to have a fully CGI character in a leading role. This film tells Casper's story in a darker interpretation in comparison to the comics, cartoons and films of the previous years, especially with its theme of death, most notably the tragic backstory in how he died.

Casper was released in cinemas on May 26, 1995 by Universal Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics and earned 100/287.9 million on a $55 million budget.  Amblin Entertainment was one of the production companies, making Spielberg an executive producer.  

 

 

There's four fairly big and humourous cameos in the film.  Dan Aykroyd reprises his role from Ghostbusters.  Then you get quick glimpses of Clint Eastwood, Rodney Dangerfield and Mel Gibson.  This also means that Gibson had a part in two of the top ten grossing films plus his own film won best picture.  

 

Number 9 for the year, and imo, the second best film of 1995, is Seven.  Seven is a neo-noir crime thriller film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, John C. McGinley, R. Lee Ermey, and Kevin Spacey. The film was based on a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker. It tells the story of David Mills (Pitt), a young detective who is partnered with the retiring William Somerset (Freeman) and soon tasked with tracking down a serial killer (Spacey) who uses the seven deadly sins as tropes in his murders.

The film's screenplay was influenced by the time Walker spent in New York City trying to make it as a writer. Principal photography took place in Los Angeles, with the last scene filmed near Lancaster, California. The film's budget was US$33 million.

 

 

Released on September 22, 1995 by New Line Cinema, Seven went on to become the seventh-highest-grossing film of the year, grossing over $327 million worldwide. It also inched past the 100 million mark domestically.  It was well received by critics, who praised the darkness and brutality of the film and its themes.

 

Seven had a dark theme and an unheard of incredibly dark and disturbing ending.  The ending, the head in the box, caused a lot of panic with New Line.  They originally hated the ending and were terrified that the ending would cripple the movie.  

The ending of the screenplay, with the head in the box, was originally part of an earlier draft that New Line had rejected, instead opting for an ending that involved more traditional elements of a detective thriller film with more action-oriented elements. But when New Line sent David Fincher the screenplay to review for his interest in the project, they accidentally sent him the original screenplay with the head-in-the-box ending. At the time, Fincher had not read a script for a year and a half since the frustrating experience of making Alien 3; he said, "I thought I'd rather die of colon cancer than do another movie".  Fincher eventually agreed to direct Seven because he was drawn to the script, which he found to be a "connect-the-dots movie that delivers about inhumanity. It's psychologically violent. It implies so much, not about why you did but how you did it".  He found it more a "meditation on evil" rather than a "police procedural".

When New Line realized that they had sent Fincher the wrong draft, the President of Production, Michael De Luca, met with Fincher and noted that there was internal pressure to retain the revised version; De Luca stated that if Fincher promised to produce the movie, they would be able to stay with the head-in-a-box ending. Despite this, producer Kopelson refused to allow the film to include the head-in-a-box scene. Brad Pitt joined Fincher in arguing for keeping this original scene, noting that his previous film Legends of the Fall had its emotional ending cut after negative feedback from test audiences, and refusing to do Seven unless the head-in-the-box scene remained.[ As we all know, it stayed in the film and is one of the best twist endings in cinematic history.  Seven took a lot of chances and those risks paid off immeasurably.  

 

 

The other surprise element of the film was Kevin Spacey playing John Doe.  This was a huge year for Spacey, but while making both Seven and The Usual Suspects, Spacey had broken out into the mainstream.  Seven came out in September and the Usual Suspects a month prior.  Spacey was known, but not as anything more than a name who appeared in film from time to time.  He wasn't an Oscar winning actor at this point.  So it was easy to conceal his identity from the audience.  His name does not appear in the opening credits, and if memory serves me correctly, you don't find out Spacey is John Doe until he comes into the police station with his fingers all bloodied.  It was a brilliant bit of casting and something that audiences really responded to.

 

Number 10 domestically but number 2 WW for the year was Die Hard With a Vengeance.  Die Hard with a Vengeance is an action film and the third in the Die Hard film series. It was co-produced and directed by John McTiernan (who directed Die Hard), written by Jonathan Hensleigh, and stars Bruce Willis as New York City Police Department Lieutenant John McClane, Samuel L. Jackson as McClane's reluctant partner Zeus Carver, and Jeremy Irons as Simon Peter Gruber. It was released on May 19, 1995, five years after Die Hard 2, becoming the highest-grossing film at the worldwide box-office until Toy Story passed it.

 

 

This was the first film that Willis and Jackson starred in together after Pulp Fiction and their chemistry was one of the highlights of the film.  

 

Die Hard was Puerto Ricoed over the 100 million dollar mark but it was a huge hit WW grossing 366 million on a 90 million budget.  

 

Number 12 for the year, and one of the biggest box office failures of its time, was Kevin Costner's Waterworld.  I will just allow you to read the Wiki report:

 

The film marked the fourth collaboration between Costner and Reynolds, who had previously worked together on Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Fandango (1985), and Rapa Nui (1994), the latter of which Costner co-produced but did not star in. Waterworld was co-written by David Twohy, who cited Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior as a major inspiration. Both films employed Dean Semler as director of photography.

 

During production, the film was plagued by a series of cost overruns and production setbacks.  Universal initially authorized a budget of $100 million, but production costs eventually ran to an estimated $175 million, a record sum for a film production at the time. Filming took place in a large artificial seawater enclosure similar to that used in the film Titanic two years later; it was located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii. The final scene was filmed in Waipio Valley on the Big Island, also referred to as The Valley of Kings. The production was hampered by the collapse of the multimillion-dollar set during a hurricane. Additional filming took place in Los Angeles, Huntington Beach, and Santa Catalina Island, and the Channel Islands of California.

The production featured different types of personal watercraft (PWC), especially Kawasaki jet skis. Kevin Costner was on the set for 157 days, working 6 days a week.  At one point, he nearly died when he got caught in a squall while tied to the mast of his trimaran. Laird Hamilton, the well-known surfer, was Kevin Costner’s stunt double for many water scenes. Hamilton commuted to the set via jet ski.

Mark Isham's score, which was not recorded and only demos were completed for approximately 25% of the film, was reportedly rejected by Costner because it was "too ethnic and bleak", contrasting the film's futuristic and adventurous tone; Isham offered to try again, but was not given the chance.  James Newton Howard was brought in to write the new score. Joss Whedon flew out to the set to do last minute script rewrites and later described it as "seven weeks of hell"; the work boiled down to editing in Costner's ideas without alteration.

 

The state of Hawaii had more than $35 million added to its economy as a result of the colossal film production. Despite their reported clashes, the director and star reunited almost two decades later for the History Channel miniseries Hatfields & McCoys.

 

Kevin Reynolds received full credit as director, but he did leave the project as star Kevin Costner was constantly plaguing him with unwanted "back-seat driver director" mentality in nearly every single scene, to the point that Reynolds left the project and Costner himself continued it.  This should prove once and for all (although it won't stop the DCEU and Whedon loonies from insisting that Whedon will get credit on JL.  Costner unofficially directed about half the film and still didn't get a credit for it.  

 

Waterworld had a budget of 175 million and took in a disappointing 88 million domestic but a respectable 264 WW.  The budget was just so high that the film lost a pile of money.

 

Coming in at number 18 was the best picture winner, Mel Gibson's Braveheart.  Not only did it win best picture, Gibson won for best director.  Like all films at one point or another, or so it seams, there was difficulty getting it made.  Gibson's production company, Icon Productions, had difficulty raising enough money even if he were to star in the film. Warner Bros. was willing to fund the project on the condition that Gibson sign for another Lethal Weapon sequel, which he refused. Paramount Pictures only agreed to American and Canadian distribution of Braveheart after 20th Century Fox partnered for international rights. The production budget has been estimated at US$72 million.

 

 

 

While the crew spent six weeks shooting on location in Scotland, the major battle scenes were shot in Ireland using members of the Irish Army Reserve as extras. To lower costs, Gibson had the same extras, up to 1,600 in some scenes, portray both armies.

Gibson toned down the film's battle scenes to avoid an NC-17 rating from the MPAA; the final version was rated R for "brutal medieval warfare".

 

While Braveheart did respectable business in NA (75.6M) it did very well internationally and the film took in 210 million WW.  

 

One of the things that made Braveheart such an iconic film was the battle scenes.  Gibson experienced what Cannibal Holocaust director, Ruggero Deodato went through.  Deodato had to prove he didn't really kill his cast members in the 1978 film and Gibson had to do the same for the horses.  The battle scenes looked so real that the horses looked like they were really in harms way.  Mel Gibson was investigated by an animal welfare organization.  Only when one of Gibson's assistants provided some videotaped footage of the location shooting were they convinced otherwise.

 

And finally coming in at number 75 with a gross of just 23 million dollars, is my choice for best picture of the year.  The Usual Suspects has one of the greatest scripts every written and contains one of the best supporting performances ever put on film.  Benicio Del Toro played Fenster, and the character you see on screen, was his own creation.  Fenster was named after the German for window, and originally conceived as the oldest man of the group, a more seasoned veteran. Benicio Del Toro was originally asked to audition for the role of McManus. Del Toro asked to audition for the role of Fenster, telling director Bryan Singer that he had an "idea" for the part. The unintelligible way that Fenster spoke was Del Toro's idea, and Singer decided to go with it. In one scene, Hockney says, in response to Fenster, "What did he just say?" That was Kevin Pollak the actor speaking, not his character; he actually did not understand what Fenster said. The cop's (Christopher McQuarrie) reaction to Fenster in the line-up ("In English please") was unscripted and unrehearsed, as was Fenster's rather strong reaction.

 

 

The line up scene is one of the funniest in the film and there was some real authenticity to it.  The line-up scene was scripted as a serious scene, but after a full day of filming takes where the actors couldn't keep a straight face, director Bryan Singer decided to use the funniest takes. A making-of documentary shows Singer becoming furious at the actors for the constant cracking-up. In an interview (on the Special Edition DVD), Kevin Pollak states that the hilarity came about when Benicio Del Toro "farted, like 12 takes in a row." Del Toro himself said "somebody" farted, but no one knew who.

 

The Usual Suspects didn't do overly well at the box office but it got Spacey a best supporting actor win a best original screenplay for Chris McQuarrie.  It's also went on to become a huge seller on HV and has been hailed as one of the best films of the 90's.  Bryan Singer started here and went on become a hugely successful director.  

 

This was 1995

 

[baumer]

@damnitgeorge08 @75livesinDerry @That EddieKaspbrak Guy @Kalo 

[WrathOfHan]

You think Returns is the best pre-nolan Batman?  

[baumer]

3 hours ago, WrathOfHan said:

You think Returns is the best pre-nolan Batman?  

 

I do.  Not a Burton Batman fan.  Returns is absolutely fucking horrible.

[baumer]

I'll fix the article up in a few minutes.

[Jonwo]

Pocahontas was considered a disappointment for Disney, they were grooming it as a potential Oscar contender for Best Picture. 

 

I'm surprised Toy Story cost $30m, that was cheaper than Pocahontas and The Lion King. It's such a great film though. 

 

GoldenEye IMO is the best of the Brosnan films and it came when many people thought it was a relic of the Cold War and actually proved to be a successful reinvention.

 

It's amazing how Apollo 13 did in the heart of summer but I suppose back then, studio could risk films like this especially as Hanks was coming off from the success of Forrest Gump

[baumer]

I cannot post pictures...anyone know how to fix this?