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

[Ms Lady Hawk]

Another great write up. Thanks for the trivia on Coppola. 1999 was a great year, the Sixth Sense was a great and memorable film. A multiple of 11 is unimaginable today. The movie was unforgettable and everything came together for it. I happen to love almost all of M. Night Shyamalan. I get a lot of flack for The Village and Signs. Of course, Titanic and The Matrix are also unbelievable. Maybe the movie industry professionals thought that the world would end in 2000 and wanted to make great movies in case they were discovered by another civilization centuries later. Lol. Of course, I am just kidding. Look forward to reading more. 

[baumer]

Thank you Diana Prince.

 

I will hopefully get more done tonight.

[Premium George]

Quote

When Larry and Andy Wachowski were pitching The Matrix to their producers, they played them a DVD of an 82-minute Japanese cartoon and said: "We wanna do that for real." The film was 1995's Ghost in the Shell, which defined a visual identity for cyberpunk cinema and counts James Cameron and Steven Spielberg among its most high-profile fans.

It's sad the film which inspired these wonderful films, got a generic as hell live-action adaptation. 

[filmlover]

1999 is definitely a year deserving a great write-up. Many of my favorite movies came out that year.

[vc2002]

"You think that's air you're breathing?"

 

 

Edited August 13, 2017 by vc2002

[Jonwo]

It's incredible that Toy Story 2 turned out so well considering Pixar had a tight timeframe. The Sixth Sense was a phenomenon and I imagine the twist would have shocked audiences back then. 

[filmlover]

7 minutes ago, Jonwo said:

It's incredible that Toy Story 2 turned out so well considering Pixar had a tight timeframe. The Sixth Sense was a phenomenon and I imagine the twist would have shocked audiences back then. 

Yeah, I saw it back when it came out and people were like "holy shit" when the twist came along.

[The Stingray]

1999 was the year I started paying attention to box office. For me the highlights of the year were The Phantom Menace getting overshadowed by The Matrix, and The Blair Witch Project and the birth of found footage.
 

[baumer]

Well the Blair Witch Project and Matrix did fantastically well of course but they certainly did not overshadow The Phantom Menace at the box office.

[Krissykins]

I know I'm late to this thread, but loved your write up about Scream @Stutterng baumer Denbrough

 

Hands down my favourite film of all time. 

[The Stingray]

23 minutes ago, Stutterng baumer Denbrough said:

Well the Blair Witch Project animatrix did fantastically well of course but they certainly did not overshadow The Phantom Menace at the box office.

 

I meant in terms of impact and cultural significance.
 

[Chaz]

I did not see The Sixth Sense until its home video release later in '99. My brother was home from college for the holidays and he brought the VHS to show my mother and me. I was 13. I was thoroughly engrossed in the movie and blown away by the twist. It was a lot of fun. 

 

Of course, I saw The Phantam Menace three times in theaters that summer. Fox went all out on the promotion for it. Remember the teaser poster, with Jake Loyd's shadow in the shape of Darth Vader? I thought that was so cool.

 

Austin Powers and The Matrix are true pop culture icons of the '90s. Everybody could quote those movies, even if they hadn't watched them. I saw the Spy Who Shagged Me with my best friend that summer and we laughed our pre-teen heads off.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Chaz

[baumer]

Nice post Chaz. I agree with you about Austin Powers. It's truly quotable and definitely one of the funnier films of 1999

[filmlover]

The Blair Witch Project is really the only time you could attribute a movie's entire success to the Internet. Various other attempts at trying to build hype via exclusively the World Wide Web (namely, Snakes on a Plane) have fallen completely flat over the years.

[baumer]

50 minutes ago, filmlover said:

The Blair Witch Project is really the only time you could attribute a movie's entire success to the Internet. Various other attempts at trying to build hype via exclusively the World Wide Web (namely, Snakes on a Plane) have fallen completely flat over the years.

 

I agree that the initial success of the film was because of the internet but after that word of mouth definitely got people interested enough to check it out. Obviously not everyone at the liked it but it did have a good multiplier of around 5 I believe so it definitely got people talking.

[filmlover]

I wonder if you plan on giving a shoutout to any of the high-profile disappointments or bombs of the year. 1999 did give us Wild Wild West and the asstacular remake of The Haunting, after all. 

[baumer]

35 minutes ago, filmlover said:

I wonder if you plan on giving a shoutout to any of the high-profile disappointments or bombs of the year. 1999 did give us Wild Wild West and the asstacular remake of The Haunting, after all. 

 

That is the joy and sorrow of doing a thread like this. There are probably 50 to 100 different stories that you can tell per year. I unfortunately don't have the time to get to every single story so I've tried to keep it to the top 10 and then mentioning 3-5 other films outside of it. So I can't promise to get to any of the high-profile bombs but I will see if I can squeeze in one of them LOL

[baumer]

I will be able to finish the rest of 99 tonight and I might get a chance to post maybe a quarter of 2000.

[Maxmoser3]

I'm trying to decide which post I should make first. Either the successes and some duds of the monthly period of 1999, or share my thoughts on the films I've seen that year as I've seen a shit ton from '99. You know what, I"ll do box office first. 

 

As usual in January, holdovers dominated. But only two films released that month were considered hits as two films that aimed teen audiences and both featured Paul Walker, were both sucessful. As Varsity Blues made a very solid $54.2 million WW off a $16 million production and proved to be a great start for Paramount/MTV. She's All That legged her way through a healthy $16 million debut to an excellent $63 million stateside and $103 million WW off a $10 million production which proved to be another success for after Miramax, after coming off 1998 with Good Will Hunting bringing home some awards, and Shakespeare In Love making profitable business. 

 

February didn't really see any big stateside hits as two of the films mentioned above held on strong in February. But the only somewhat two profitable films that can be said is Payback and  8MM as they both fell short of their budget but worldwide proved to be decent. I was going to put Message In The Bottle in there but an $80 million budgeted film making $116 million WW is kind of a let down with P&A costs.

 

March had two for sure  hits(one was more April), and were both by WB. Analyze This had very solid legs and mobbed up an impressive $106 million stateside, as it proved that Robert De Niro can be sucessful at comedies too other than being  in darker  mobster films like Casino & Goodfellas in the earlier portions of the '90s.  The next film was a late March release and performed more onto April, but anyway The Matrix broke out and proved to be another blockbuster for actor Keanu Reeves. The film also played strong even with columbine affecting the box office in later April. 

 

April had relied on the success of The Matrix. Entrapment did sucessful both stateside and overseas as it grossed over $210 million WW on a $66 million budget, the film had also stirred recognition thanks to Catherine Zeta-Jones butt lasers scene.

 

May was the beginning of an eventful year as The Mummy started off the summer with a bang and grossed $155 million and over $415 million WW on an $80 million budget which saved Universal from an unlucky 1998 and a not so great start to 1999. The Phantom Menace proved to be the big event of the month, and played strong for most of the summer! And still was in theaters in 2000. 

 

Another success to look at was Julia Roberts next vehicle, Notting Hill which proved another big sucessful counter-programmer after the release of My Best Friend's Wedding in '97. It also was High Grant's most sucessful rom-com vehicle in the states as well. 

 

June had comedy sequel, Austin Powers:The Spy Who Shagged Me, which took the best opening weekend record for June, and was one of the two sequels that was able to outgross its predecessor on its opening weekend which Terminator 2 did 8 years ago, and later on Pitch Perfect 2 16 years later. Tarzan proved to be a sucessful turn as well coming off a $34 million debut and earning a profitbale $171 million total stateside which proved to be another success for Disney and outgrossing precious Disney titles such as Mulan and even A Bug's Life a year before.

 

June also had some two other strong notes as well, as The General's Daughter did decent but not amazing counter-programming with a $102 million stateside total. Big Daddy also did quite well for Adam Sandler, after coming off the Waterboy, as it proved to be outgross The Waterboy's both opening weekend and domestic total.

 

July had started off ok as Wild Wild West was a bomb, but South Park did quite well for a small budget R-rated animated film with $83 million WW on a $21 million budget. American Pie was another success for a modest budget film as it grossed $235 million WW on an $11 million budget. Deep Blue Sea did sucessful for a creature feature with $73 million domestic and a worldwide total of $164 million WW on a $60 million budget. Eyes Wide Shut fell short of budget stateside but make an ok $162 million WW on a $65 million budget. Runanway Bride was both Richard Gere and Julia Roberts biggest hit since Pretty Woman, which Bride walked down the aisle with $152 million stateside and over $300 million WW. 

 

The final July release, The Blair Witch Project grossed a solid $140 million and $248 million WW on a $60,000 budget  . It also proved to be a very sucessful with marketing all over the internet with using posters that used a "Missing" picture as if they went missing for real. It also was a hit for Artisan Entertainment, as they had flop after flop for the little time that studio existed. Blair Witch was also the top grossing original film without any big stars or director until Get Out this year. It's also interesting that a sequel's domestic total couldn't even reach its predecessor's opening weekend(expansion). 

 

Anyway part 2(from August-December) will be posted later tonight, because there's way too much to talk about. Then probably early tomorrow morning I"ll share my thoughts on the films of '99 and what I've seen. 

[baumer]

Well, for those of you who like long write ups for each year, I just finished the rest of 1999.  I hope you enjoy.

 

@75livesinDerry

@Kalo