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

[Chaz]

Cher had an epic year in 1987. This was also the "Bagle Boy" era and she had several hit singles from her Cher album that year. 

 

She's a true entertainment legend. Conquered TV, movies and music.

[Plain Old Tele]

1 hour ago, baumer said:

Ty Narnia 

 

I will certainly keep it going. I will get 2017 probably in a couple of months LOL. Each write-up is time consuming and I'm debating as to whether or not I should bring my laptop on vacation with me.

 

You should bring your laptop so you have something to read.  

[baumer]

6 minutes ago, Tele Came Back said:

 

You should bring your laptop so you have something to read.  

 

I can read that on my phone if I don't bring my laptop. But it doesn't matter I am definitely going to bring it LOL

[baumer]

This will be my last entry for about 10 days.  I'm on vacation for that amount of time.  So I'll get 88 done in about an hour and then back at it when I return.

 

Again, thanks to all who have read, commented and enjoyed.

[Outrageous!]

On 5/22/2017 at 1:23 PM, baumer said:

Part of what is interesting about doing this is that you get to see all kinds of surprising films finish on top.  Films like Dirty Dancing and Three Men and a Baby, these are films that would probably tank today.

 

The reverse is also true.   Movies that could do much better today were passed over then.  Baumer is only making these summaries at light speed, which is too slow.  He needs to increase these to ludicrous speed.  It is amazing for a movie like Spaceballs that gets quoted on a regular basis, it was not a big movie of 1987.

[baumer]

1988

 

Not surprisingly 1988 was another record setting year.  It only makes sense that as the years go on and the cost of a movie ticket increases, the more money films are going to make.  1988 continued that trend as for the first time in history the top ten all topped 70 million and also for the first time in history there were six films to make 100 million domestically.  Let's start of course with the number one film of the year.

 

The number one film was also the best picture winner, which hadn't happened since 1976 when Rocky was the top grossing film and best picture winner.  Rain Man is a comedy-drama directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. It tells the story of an abrasive and selfish young wheeler-dealer, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), who discovers that his estranged father has died and left all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware. Charlie is left with only his father's car and collection

Rain Man received overwhelmingly positive reviews, praising Hoffman's role and the wit and sophistication of the screenplay.  The film won four Oscars including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Hoffman. 

 

 

This was just another film in Cruise's filmography that continued to solidify him as a mammoth box office draw.  He did the very crowd pleasing Tog Gun in 86, then The Color of Money in the same year helped Paul Newman finally win an Oscar and then he did the critically panned by box office giant, Cocktail and then he comes back with a road buddy picture that deals with autism and he helps propel it to a gross of 172 million domestic and 350 WW....all on a budget of 7 million.  Tom Cruise was arguable the biggest star of the second half of the 80's.

 

Coming in at number two was the Spielberg produced and Zemekis directed, groundbreaking live action mixed with animation film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?  

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a fantasy neo-noir film.  In addition to Spielberg, it was also produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. The film is based on Gary K. Wolf's 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? The film stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer, Stubby Kaye, and Joanna Cassidy. Combining live-action and animation, the film is set in a Hollywood during the late 1940s where animated characters really exist. The story follows Eddie Valiant, a private detective who must exonerate "Toon" Roger Rabbit, who is accused of murdering a wealthy businessman.

 

 

Walt Disney Pictures purchased the film rights for Who Framed Roger Rabbit's story in 1981. Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman wrote two drafts of the script before Disney brought in executive producer Steven Spielberg, and his production company, Amblin Entertainment. Zemeckis was brought on to direct the film, and Canadian animator Richard Williams was hired to supervise the animation sequences.

 

I had an issue of Premiere magazine from 1988 that said Who Framed Roger Rabbit was doomed at the Oscars because of the three S's.  Spielberg, success and special effects.  It went on to say that while it was unquestionably one of the best films of the year, it was doomed not to make a dent in the Oscars because of the three S's.  Just one more example of the Academy still resenting Spielberg and his acumen for picking the right projects.  

 

The film was a huge success bringing in 156 million domestic and 330 million WW but it was also one of the pricier films ever made at that time as it cost 70 million to produce and more to market.  Still, it was a massive success.

In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

 

Coming in at number three was the Eddie Murphy Arsenio Hall smash hit Coming to America.  Murphy and Hall played several roles each.  Most notably, and to the complete shock of some, Murphy also played an old white Jewish man in a barbershop.  He also gets some of the biggest laughs in the movie.  While the film made 288 million WW on a budget of 40 million, there was a lot of acrimony on the set between director John Landis and star Eddie Murphy.  It's of course a he said he said situation.  Both director and star not speaking kindly about the other.

 

 

John Landis recalled the differences in working with Murphy on the two movies: "The guy on Trading Places was young and full of energy and curious and funny and fresh and great. The guy on Coming to America was the pig of the world... But I still think he's wonderful in the movie."

 

Murphy's version of it is different of course..."We had a tussling confrontation… We didn't come to blows. Personalities didn't mesh. I grabbed him, and he thought I was playing. So he tried to grab my balls and I pushed him away. But I wasn't kidding. He was doing some silly shit that made me mad. He directed me in Trading Places when I was just starting out as a kid, but he was still treating me like a kid five years later during Coming to America. And I hired him to direct the movie! I was gonna direct Coming to America myself, but I knew that Landis had just done three fucked-up pictures in a row and that his career was hanging by a thread after the Twilight Zone trial. I figured the guy was nice to me when I did Trading Places, so I'd give him a shot… I was going out of my way to help this guy, and he fucked me over. Now he's got a hit picture on his resumé, a movie that made over $200 million, as opposed to him coming off a couple of fucked-up movies – which is where I'd rather see him be right now (laughs)."

 

Despite the experience, Landis and Murphy collaborated again six years later on Beverly Hills Cop III.

 

For me personally, I find this movie to be one of the funniest films Ive ever seen.  There is so much fresh humour, so much energy and the timing is impeccable.  Arsenio outshines Eddie in many scenes imo.  There's one small scene where Hall plays a woman at a club (who looks to be in drag and is probably a man) who says to both Akeem and Semi (Murphy and Hall), "I'm gonna tear you apart, and your friend too."  Then Semi (Hall) spits his drink out in fear.  It had me in stitches.

 

Coming in at number four was the Tom Hanks smash Big, in which a young boy wants to be an adult and the next morning he wakes up as one.  Hanks brilliantly plays the adult who still thinks and acts like a child.  If you have never seen the piano on the floor scene with Hanks and Robert Loggia, go find it now, it's on you-tube.  Really good stuff.  This was also Hanks first Oscar nomination.  Big was made for 18 million and grossed 151 million.

 

Number five was Arnold Schwarzenegger's first comedy (although some can argue that Commando was part comedy).  He starred with Danny DeVito and was directed by Ivan Reitman in Twins.  

Twins is a comedy about unlikely twins (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito) who were separated at birth. The core of the film is the contrast between DeVito's streetwise persona matched with Schwarzenegger's intellectual persona. 

The film was a commercial success, earning $11 million on its opening weekend, and going on to gross $216 million worldwide. Instead of taking their usual salaries for the film, Schwarzenegger and DeVito both agreed with the studio to take 20% of the film's box office returns; this resulted in them receiving the biggest paychecks of their movie careers.

 

 

Critics hated the film (what a shock) but Ebert gave it three out of four.  

 

This was the first time Arnold branched out into comedy and it was his first 100 million dollar grossing film.  

 

Number six was the follow up to Crocodile Dundee, aptly titled Crocodile Dundee II.  While it didn't do nearly as well domestically, it was a smash hit WW as it made 240 million on a 14 million dollar budget.  

 

Coming in at number seven was one of the most iconic films of the 80's and in a way a game changer in the action department.  Die Hard made 83 million domestically and 140 million WW on a budget of 28 million.  This one has quite the behind the scenes story to it.  

 

 

Bruce Willis was far from a star in 1988.  He was known for his TV work on Moonlighting.  He did one comedy called Blind Date and it did medium business with 39 million.  His other film was with James Garner called Sunset and it was DOA.  The script was written by Steven DeSouza who had wrote Commando and before that he done a lot of TV work and was known for The Six Million Dollar Man.  The script was a hot commodity and 20th Century Fox was bullish on it.  So they offered it to all of the big action stars of the decade.  Arnold and Sly both passed on it.  Clint Eastwood didn't think it was right for him and Burt Reynolds took a flier as well.  Don Johnson was hot in the 80s and he was offered it and turned it down.  Harrison Ford passed on it as well.  Fox was desperate to get the film made for their summer slot so they did the unheard of.  They offered to role to Bruce Willis and offered him 5 million guaranteed money.  The big wigs at Fox did not believe in Willis and were upset at the casting of him but president Leonard Goldberg justified the cost to cast Willis saying that audience had to believe in the character as someone they could relate to.  By having someone more akin to being a normal guy, and not a larger than life presence like other action stars, he would be someone the audience would love.  And he was proven to be correct.

 

 

Not only did Die Hard make piles of money, it created a new kind of action hero, just like Goldberg predicted.  This kind of changed the action film.  Arnold and Sly were the muscle bound invincible action heroes of the 80's John McClane was the guy we could all relate to.  He got injured, didn't wear any shoes, got beat up and was an every man, like us, who got put into a situation that was either sink or swim.  Bruce Willis' star exploded after this.

 

But another star was born as Alan Rickman played the devious and sinister but undeniably likable villain, Hans Gruber.  He was erroneously and tragically looked over for best supporting actor this year.  Not only does he give the best supporting performance of the year, he gives one of the all time best supporting performances of all time.....something that will be covered when I get back to my supporting performance thread.

 

This was produced by Joel Silver and it was one of his early efforts that changed cinema.  It would not be the last time this would happen.  But we'd have to wait another decade to see it again.

 

Number 8 and 9 finished within 500K of each other as Leslie Nielsen and Tom Cruise had two very different films but both made bank.  Naked Gun and Cocktail both finished with over 78 million.

 

Number ten was the Michael Keaton/Tim Burton collaboration, Beetlejuice.  This would be a huge hit for Burton and it would pave the way for him to make one of the biggest films of all time the year alter.....also with Keaton.  Beetlejuice made 73 million.

 

Number 12 was a Fish Called Wanda.  This is one of the funniest, most zany films I've ever seen with one of the all time greatest supporting performances I've ever seen.  

A Fish Called Wanda is a British-American heist comedy film directed by Charles Crichton (his final film) and co-written with John Cleese. It stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin as a gang of diamond thieves who double-cross one another to find stolen diamonds hidden by the gang leader. His barrister, played by Cleese, becomes a central figure as femme fatale Wanda (Curtis) uses him to locate the loot.

The film was released to positive reviews and was nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, winning Best Supporting Actor for Kline. Cleese and Palin won BAFTA Awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for their performances.

 

 

Here, imo, is one of the highlights of the film.  If you have seen it, you will laugh reading this, if you have not....what the hell are you waiting for?

 

Wanda: [after Otto breaks in on Wanda and Archie in Archie's flat and hangs him out the window] I was dealing with something delicate, Otto. I'm setting up a guy who's incredibly important to us, who's going to tell me where the loot is and if they're going to come and arrest you. And you come loping in like Rambo without a jockstrap and you dangle him out a fifth-floor window. Now, was that smart? Was it shrewd? Was it good tactics? Or was it stupid?

Otto West: Don't call me stupid.

Wanda: Oh, right! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people! I've known sheep that could outwit you. I've worn dresses with higher IQs. But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?

Otto West: Apes don't read philosophy.

Wanda: Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it. Now let me correct you on a couple of things, OK? Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not "Every man for himself." And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up.

 

A Fish Called Wanda grossed 62.5 million 

 

Number 16 was the third part of the Rambo series called Rambo III.  It was very expensive at 63 million and while it didn't come close to Rambo II, it did make 189 million WW.  Not a disaster by not what Tri-Star was looking for when they greenlit the film with that budget.

 

The 26th (there were 27 films this year to make 40 million) to clear 40 million was the silky smooth and sexually charged film (and one of my favourites) Tequila Sunrise.  Starring Kurt Russell, Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer, all in the prime, the film was a minor success but imo was the third best film of 1988 behind Mississippi Burning (which unfortunately only made 34 million) and Fish Called Wanda.  Written and directed by Robert Towne, imo, it is one of the best scripts ever produced.  The dialogue really won me over.  Towne is known for his brilliant words in films like Chinatowne and the Firm and for doing uncredited touch-ups on films like Days of Thunder and Armageddon.  The man can just flat out write dialogue.

 

 

This was 1988.

 

[Plain Old Tele]

Random (possibly wrong?) comment, but I remember TWINS having a better critical reception. I think this might be a case where RT simply isn't accurate -- although the only way to know is to dig up all the old reviews. 

 

Or maybe my memory is wrong. 

[baumer]

3 hours ago, Tele Came Back said:

Random (possibly wrong?) comment, but I remember TWINS having a better critical reception. I think this might be a case where RT simply isn't accurate -- although the only way to know is to dig up all the old reviews. 

 

Or maybe my memory is wrong. 

 

I can only go by what I research.  I personally can't remember what the reception was like.  But it wouldn't surprise me if was better received than reported.

[Plain Old Tele]

COMING TO AMERICA is also famous because of Art Buchwald's lawsuit. He claimed Paramount ripped off his idea -- Paramount had optioned a concept of his and Landis and Murphy had been attached to it at one point. Buchwald's project eventually died in development, but it was close enough to the concept of COMING TO AMERICA that he actually won a breach of contract lawsuit before settling out of court.

 

The other fallout from his lawsuit was Paramount had to open their books for a full audit and ended up having to pay millions of dollars to both Murphy and Landis because of net points they were owed. 

[baumer]

I debated putting that part in the Coming To America bit, Tele, but I just decided to keep it out.

 

One thing I hope this thread does is gets people curious to see some of these films but also do their research about the history of some of the films.  The film world is a fascinating one.

[Jonwo]

I love Roger Rabbit, I think it was the film that lead to Disney's comeback animation wise. It really holds up today, I've always wanted a sequel which will likely never happen. 

 

Rain Man and Cocktail were highlights for Tom Cruise and I wish he'd take a break from action film and do a drama or a comedy

[baumer]

Roger Rabbit is a revolutionary film, no doubt.

[John Marston]

Rambo 3'sdrop from Rambo 2 is incredible.

Edited May 28, 2017 by John Marston

[Plain Old Tele]

2 minutes ago, John Marston said:

Rambo 3'sdrop from Rambo 2 is incredible.

 

Not to mention it's more than a little awkward today, since it's basically RAMBO TEAMS UP WITH BIN LADEN.  

[baumer]

1 hour ago, Tele Came Back said:

 

Not to mention it's more than a little awkward today, since it's basically RAMBO TEAMS UP WITH BIN LADEN.  

 

Well Bin Laden was CIA. Everyone knows that. Duh.

[baumer]

Back from vacation.

 

Will get 1989 done today.

[Giesi]

 

[Chaz]

I watched Roger Rabbit this weekend. First time in several years. 

 

Still as entertaining as ever.

[baumer]

I haven't seen Roger Rabbit in years.  

 

Although I did watch Red Heat two nights ago.  Pretty entertaining.

[Chaz]

5 minutes ago, baumer said:

I haven't seen Roger Rabbit in years.  

 

Although I did watch Red Heat two nights ago.  Pretty entertaining.

It's on Netflix. I watched it on my phone while the electricity was out during a storm.