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

[baumer]

3 hours ago, John Marston said:

when I was very young, the Scream movies looked like the scariest movies ever. Got scared whenever I saw some sort of commercial for them

 

 

when I was in high school I caught the first movie on TV. I remember getting really engaged in the mystery and liking that the film was kind of making fun of horror movies. Also liked it felt more like a thriller than a "Scary" type of film. And of course since I was older it wasn't the terrifying experience I thought when I was younger. 

 

 

When Scream 4 was coming out I checked out the first film again and liked it even more. I then watched the two sequels and it also made me watch other, similar films (Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, I Know What You Did Last Summer etc)

 

 

 

 

That's an awesome post.  Thanks for sharing.

 

I'm turning in for the evening...and I'll watching Scream.  

[baumer]

Coming up tomorrow.....the opening weekend record is set by a Spielberg sequel

Bill, Kathy, Leo, Billy and Kate

May the force be with you...again

Matt and Ben win an oscar

 

[John Marston]

5 hours ago, Maxmoser3 said:

1996 is an interesting year at the box office and I'm not going into too much detail. As it was the year I was born.

 

Scream was definitely a big surprise at the box office. After having horror franchises being put to death in between 1991-1996, and ressurecting vampires and werewolves were a mixed bag as some were big hits and the rest flopped. It was also something that ressurected Drew Barrymore's career, and boosted the horror genre as until 1999 as The Blair Witch Project was the the top grossing R-rated horror flick(minus The Exorcist). And most horror films in 1996 minus Scream and somewhat The Craft, and From Dusk Till Dawn. The rest had all bombed.

 

Action films were  still relevant as Broken Arrow proved to be a big hit in February as it grossed over $70 million. Eraser made $101 million and over $200 million WW on a $100 million budget which wasn't bad for a solo action film for Schwarzenegger.

 

The Rock did extremely well with having Speed's release date, a known cast, a action packed story(an interesting one at that), and what a summer blockbuster should be! It grossed $132 million in the states, which was amazing for an R-rated action film! It also helped out Nicolas Cage briefly in the action department, and bringing in a then blockbuster newcomer Michael Bay. 

 

Comedies also proved to perform strong with The Birdcage performing well with a total close to $125 million making it Robin Williams biggest hit in three years, and director Mike Nichols top grossing film knocking out The Graduate. Eddie Murphy had a comeback after duds in 1994-1995 with The Nutty Professor as it grossed a very solid $128 million and performed well against Independence Day a week later. Although Sandler had a flop with Bulletproof later in the year, Happy Gilmore did decent for a comedy released in February. While it wasn't the hit as his other movies, Jim Carrey's The Cable Guy did $60 million which was fine for a dark comedy. 

 

Tom Cruise had a strong year with two films passing the $150 million threshold with Mission Impossible in the summer as it had one of the top summer debuts at the time right behind Batman Forever and grossed an outstanding $180 million stateside total. As for Jerry Macguire it grossed well for a romantic drama as it proved to be a solid choice for adults around Christmas and January of 1997, and grossed an amazing $153 million total. 

 

The First Wives Club was one of the few most sucessful female oriented films in the year, which grossed $106 million and proved to be a hit for both Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton as it held on fine in September and October.

 

Disaster films proved to be strong in 1996 as Independence Day exploded that summer which was at the time thanks to a great marketing campaign as it was the first film to be advertised on the Super Bowl on January 28th. Twister was another film that proved to be leggy at the beginning of the summer as it was yet another blockbuster for director Jan De Bont as it was his last big hit as a director, and grossed nearly $245 million. 

 

Miscellanous stuff include Space Jam doing well for families as it grossed close to $100 million, and did well for a Looney Tunes themed film and was the only sucessful film that a basketball star(until Lebron James in 2015) could do. Paramount/MTV saw success in December with the full-length film Beavis & Butt-Head: Do America as it was the top opening weekend for the month of December at that time and grossed a healthy north of $60 million haul.

 

Adult oriented films(other than Jerry Macguire) also performed decent such as A Time To Kill grossed a solid $108 million which was the personal best for a John Grisham film, and proved to be a big star vehicle for Sandra Bullock and Matthew Mccoungahey. In October, Sleepers did decent for a darker R-rated drama as it did above $50 million and was director Barry Levinson's few profitable films. 

 

Mel Gibson had his biggest hit since Lethal Weapon 3 with kidnap thriller Ransom as it performed relatively better than other kidnapping thrillers, and had a very memorable closing to a trailer with the "I Want My Son!" closing it off. The film is one of the R-rated thrillers that was the top grossing kidnapping thrillers ever right next to Taken, and held on well even with its darker premise in November. 

 

As for the losers, it's mostly just a genre list in 1996.

 

As horror films had success with Scream, and an ok profit with The Craft/From Dusk Till Dawn. Franchises(Hellraiser:Bloodline, and The Crow:City Of Angels) bombed for Miramax, and had to go straight to video years later. Horror comedies were duds as Bordello Of Blood, and The Frighteners were both toned down and put to death in the summer. Bad Moon bombed around November, and disappeared within a week. Hell even Stephen King couldn't even sneak past the stinkers as Thinner lost weight around Halloween and bombed. 

 

While Eraser, The Rock, and Broken Arrow were hits there were a lot of action packed duds. Jean Claude Van Damme couldn't escape the sinkhole as The Quest and Maxumum Risk both flopped stateside. Stallone joined the cursed first weekend of December crowd with the big bomb Daylight. Buddy action films were also put to death as Bulletproof, and The Glimmer Man both snuck past $20 million total each. Speaking of Seagal, Executive Decision (although he dies in it) joins the list as well which underperformed stateside but made some back overseas still wasn't the success that WB hoped to be. Bruce Willis came back to his old ways with Last Man Standing as it barely stood for a few weeks. 

 

Damn this bitch keeps showing up here now, but Sharon Stone still can't be a sucessful draw as Diabolique was a huge failure, and Last Dance(fitting title isn't it?) was her "Last Dance"

 

Although their tits are nice to look at it, Pamela Anderson's Barb Wire got caught in a trap and bombed, and Demi Moore had a flop with Striptease although it proved to be more sucessful overseas and stirred some controversy later on due  to a 4th grade teacher in Chicago showing this to students. 

 

 

another actor that didn't have a great 1996 was Val Kilmer. He was on a high from 1995 but then starred in two box office duds in 1996. The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Ghost and the Darkness

[Eric Prime]

1997 was the year I was born, so I am pretty excited to see all of the highlights from that year.

[baumer]

I think we are finally getting to the era of box office where most of the posters on this site are familiar with.  I know it's hard to really get excited about films you haven't seen, but that's been part of the fun, for me at least, with this thread.  You get to learn all kinds of things about different era of film.  It's been enlightening for me as well.  I've learned so much by doing this.

 

But now we get into the movies that people here love.....Titanic is only 20 years ago and then coming up soon after you have the prequel/Potter/LOTR era......it's gonna be fun.

[John Marston]

oh yeah, I should also point out that Twister also looked like the scariest movie ever to me when I was a kid. Since I knew tornadoes were things that could actually happen and we did tornado drills in elementary school. Even the cover of the movie scared me. LOL

[Fancyarcher]

1996 is such a great year for film, and I have fond memories of it. Independence Day was a film I used to love watching every year. Movie's dumb, but it's entertaining as all hell nonetheless.

 

3 hours ago, Jonwo said:

The stage musical version replaces them as statues of saints of Notre Dame and as figment of Quasimodo's imagination.

I was always under the impression that The Gargoyles were something that Eisner and co forced the animators to add in, in order to make the film more kid-friendly, similar to how Pocahontas was meant to be more straight-forward, before it got all Disneyfied & they added sidekick animals, because Katzenberg wanted his big Oscar film.

[Fancyarcher]

22 minutes ago, John Marston said:

 

 

another actor that didn't have a great 1996 was Val Kilmer. He was on a high from 1995 but then starred in two box office duds in 1996. The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Ghost and the Darkness

Both films opened at #1 at least. I know there was some anticipation for Moreau at the time before Stanley was fired & production went out of control. Kilmer himself was "out of control" on the set. 

Edited August 2, 2017 by Fancyarcher

[Man of Steelbook]

Thanks so much for doing this I have been following along. I recently lost my father unexpectedly and reading each year is like a trip down memory lane. Most of the films we watched together either on VHS or at the theatre. Back to 1993 and Cool Runnings is a personal favorite of mine as filming took place in my city Calgary where the 88 Olympics took place. If you visit Canada Olympic Park in Calgary you can see the Jamaican bobsleigh used in the film.

[kowhite]

Sorry for your loss, but I'm glad Cool Runnigs brings back good memories.  I remember seeing that with my friends, I was like 12.  Not a monumental life moment but one I surely remember.  Love how a little box office trip brings back the feels.

[Maxmoser3]

3 hours ago, John Marston said:

 

 

another actor that didn't have a great 1996 was Val Kilmer. He was on a high from 1995 but then starred in two box office duds in 1996. The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Ghost and the Darkness

Damn. I forgot. The Island of Dr. Moreau was also a film that had a troubled production, and Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer butt fucked it during production, and Richard Stanley had isssues during production. And Fairuza Balk was supposed to be in the film but was outraged. 

 

The Ghost And The Darkness flopped but wasn't as difficult during production. But was interesting that Tom Cruise and Kevin Costner were in talks being in the film in the early 90s, and Sean Connery was in talks of being Douglas's character. 

 

So all in all, 1996 was not a good year for Val Kilmer. Two flops, and him and Joanne Whalley divorce after 8 years.

[Maxmoser3]

3 hours ago, Fancyarcher said:

Both films opened at #1 at least. I know there was some anticipation for Moreau at the time before Stanley was fired & production went out of control. Kilmer himself was "out of control" on the set. 

Well in Moreau's weekly, Tin Cup beat it. And it dropped like a rock. 

[Maxmoser3]

3 hours ago, CoolEric258 said:

1997 was the year I was born, so I am pretty excited to see all of the highlights from that year.

Well my friend, there were a lot of highlights to list. And some interesting stuff as well. It also was the start(1996 as well) but more 1997 was the start of dvds. WB released more titles that year to DVD and Sony came in second. 

[junkshop36]

I remember seeing Twistwer OW. It's one of the best movie going experiences I've ever had. The audience was totally into it. Same with ID4. Both were definitely movies that needed to be seen on the big screen. 

[The Stingray]

For me 1996 was all about Scream (my first R-rated movie) and ID4 (I was a huge Will Smith fan back in the day).

 

1997 was all about the glorious Nic Cage 1-2 punch in the shape of Con Air and Face/Off, plus the even more awesome Starship Troopers (I had on three pairs of socks to make myself look taller in order to get into those movies). I guess Titanic was a big deal, too. The only downside was that I got shut down at Anaconda, but I blame that one on the baby-faced friend I was going to see the movie with.

Edited August 2, 2017 by The Stingray

[Fancyarcher]

6 hours ago, Maxmoser3 said:

Well in Moreau's weekly, Tin Cup beat it. And it dropped like a rock. 

Like I said, reception for the film was not "so great" in the end.

[Man of Steelbook]

One of my favorite movies of 1996 was Mars Attacks! It's ironic that it came out the same year as Independence Day which I think hurt its box office.  Not as well done as Independence Day for sure but had it come out in 1995 I believe it would have preformed better.  I found it to be a fun comedy with a great cast including Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Michael J. Fox & Sarah Jessica Parker and directed by Tim Burton. This film also features football legend Jim Brown. With a budget of $80 Million & an extra $20 Million for marketing the film flopped upon its December 1996 release taking in only $9.38 Million opening weekend and eventually getting to a total of $37.77 Million in the US and $101.4 Million world wide.  I believe the story is based on trading cards from the 80s.  

 

@Stutterng baumer Denbrough would you be able to cover Blade in 1998? Love that movie and is I believe the 2nd movie to be released in theatres based on a Marvel character after Howard the Duck in the 80s.

 

[baumer]

You're the first one to ask for 1998, so yes, I will cover Blade.

[Man of Steelbook]

25 minutes ago, Stutterng baumer Denbrough said:

You're the first one to ask for 1998, so yes, I will cover Blade.

Awesome thank you can't wait!

[baumer]

3 hours ago, Man of Steelbook said:

Awesome thank you can't wait!

 

I will get 1997 done today for sure.  If I can find time later, I'll do 1998 as well.  But if I can't get to it today, by Friday at the latest.