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

[75Live]

1 hour ago, baumer said:

We would need a translator if I was to use voice to text for these posts LOL

 

i'd help out but you would still have to wind up typing out everything to get it to me so it kind of defeats the purpose  lol

[baumer]

Well,it won't be tonight.  So we'll get it going on Tuesday.

[baumer]

Hey guys.  I really have been trying to get back to this, but I'm having good days and then not so good days when it comes to the thing that is preventing me from getting going.  It's a nerve condition that comes and goes (had it sine i was 8 years old).  Right now (past 6 months) it's been a bit troublesome.  But hopefully it's going to get to a good place soon.  

 

I really want to get this going again.  And once again, I'm truly sorry for not getting to it for the past few months.  As soon as it is possible, I will get it going again.

[baumer]

Well, we are almost done 2001.  I'm up to number 9 now.  With any luck, I should have it up by lat tonight.  Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come. 

[That One Girl]

2001: A Baumer Odyssey

[baumer]

2001

 

And so begins one of the most interesting and historic years at the box office as the two films that would finish one-two would go on to dominate the decade, one series more than the other due to it having 8 films instead of 3.  Many were calling Harry Potter to do well, I'm not sure if many thought it would obliterate the opening weekend record, which at the time was held by The Lost World.  

 

Number one for the year was the Warner Bros. smash hit, which soared to historic new highs with the much awaited fantasy adventure Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone which grossed $90.3M making it the largest opening weekend ever. Playing in 3,672 theaters, the Chris Columbus-directed film averaged took in a monstrous $24,590 per theatre and demolished numerous box office records in the process by attracting wizards and muggles alike.

Harry Potter brought author J.K. Rowling's immensely popular eleven-year-old wizard to the big screen.  

 

Harry, Ron, and Hermione also destroyed a number of other box office records over the weekend. The megablockbuster's weekend tally set new benchmarks for Warner Bros. (surpassing Batman Forever's $52.8M from 1995), the month of November (beating Monsters, Inc. which had come out just two weeks prior), and the year 2001 (vaulting past Planet of the Apes' $68.5M from July). Potter's bow in 3,672 theaters gave it the widest opening in history (at the time).

 

"It was a sensational opening which exceeded our expectations," exclaimed Dan Fellman, president of distribution for Warner Bros. With a $125M production budget, Harry Potter was a bit of a risk, but only a bit. This is the film that would start WB's decade long dominance at the box office. This came at a perfect time for WB as their two 80's franchises that had enough longevity to get them into the 90's (Batman and Lethal Weapon) were clearly fading.  

 

Not only did Harry Potter conquer the North American box office, but the effects-driven adventure obliterated records in the United Kingdom where it launched on the same weekend. UK ticket buyers spent a mammoth 16.3 million pounds ($23.8M) on Potter tickets this weekend (including last weekend's 6.6 million pounds in previews) and beat the previous record of 9.5 million pounds ($14.7M) held by The Phantom Menace's four-day bow.  

 

 

The development of the film from novel is well documented, but here is a brief synopsis of how it came to be.   

 

In 1997, producer David Heyman searched for a children's book that could be adapted into a well-received film.  His staff at Heyday Films suggested Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which his assistant believed was "a cool idea." Heyman pitched the idea to Warner Bros and in 1999, Rowling sold the company the rights to the first four Harry Potter books for a reported 1 million pounds.  A demand Rowling made was that the principal cast be kept strictly British, nonetheless allowing for the inclusion of Irish actors such as Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and for casting of French and Eastern European actors in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where characters from the book are specified as such. Rowling was hesitant to sell the rights because she "didn't want to give them control over the rest of the story" by selling the rights to the characters, which would have enabled Warner Bros. to make non-author-written sequels.

 

Although Steven Spielberg initially negotiated to direct the film, he declined the offer. Spielberg reportedly wanted the adaptation to be an animated film, with American actor Haley Joel Osment to provide Harry Potter's voice, or a film that incorporated elements from subsequent books as well. Spielberg contended that, in his opinion, it was like "shooting ducks in a barrel. It's just a slam dunk. It's just like withdrawing a billion dollars and putting it into your personal bank accounts. There's no challenge." Rowling maintains that she had no role in choosing directors for the films and that "anyone who thinks I could (or would) have 'veto-ed' him [Spielberg] needs their Quick-Quotes Quill serviced." Heyman recalled that Spielberg decided to direct A.I. Artificial Intelligence instead.

After Spielberg left, talks began with other directors, including: Chris Columbus, Terry Gilliam, Jonathan Demme, Mike Newell, Alan Parker, Wolfgang Petersen, Rob Reiner, Ivan Reitman, Tim Robbins, Brad Silberling, M. Night Shyamalan and Peter Weir. Petersen and Reiner both pulled out of the running in March 2000, and the choice was narrowed down to Silberling, Columbus, Parker and Gilliam. Rowling's first choice director was Terry Gilliam, but Warner Bros. chose Columbus, citing his work on other family films such as Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire as influences for their decision.  Columbus pitched his vision of the film for two hours, stating that he wanted the Muggle scenes "to be bleak and dreary" but those set in the wizarding world "to be steeped in color, mood, and detail." He took inspiration from David Lean's adaptations of Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), wishing to use "that sort of darkness, that sort of edge, that quality to the cinematography," taking the colour designs from Oliver! and The Godfather.

 

 

It all worked as Harry Potter became a world wide phenom and almost became the second billion dollar grossing film, finishing 25 million dollars shy of the mark.

 

Coming in at number two is Lord of the Rings:  Fellowship of the Ring....the film that should have won best picture imo and the film that was born because director Peter Jackson and producer Robert Shaye had a vision and they had guts to foresee the future.  If their vision was wrong, both men might have had a tough go of it with future projects.  In 1998, Jackson came to Shaye with a vision to take the entire Lord of the Rings story and develop it into two films.  Shaye was very familiar with the story, citing that it was one of his favourite books.  It was Shaye who suggested that there was more than enough material to make three movies.  In an unheard of and unprecedented move, Shaye green lit all three movies with a 270 million dollar price tag, before marketing.  This was a huge risk in the late 90's as production budgets rarely exceeded 100 million and if the first Rings film didn't catch on with the public, then it would be a colossal disaster and New Line would be on the hook for massive losses.  

 

All of their foresight and vision paid off as Fellowship made a killing at the North American and World Wide box office.  FOTR made in excess of 300 million domestically and 871 million world wide.  The "measely" 300 million they spent on the production costs for the trilogy was already made back once all the money was counted for FOTR.

 

 

It was nominated for thirteen Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for McKellen, winning four for Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, Best Original Score, and Best Visual Effects. It also won four British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film and Best Director BAFTA awards. The Special Extended Edition was released to DVD on 12 November 2002 and to Blu-ray Disc on 28 June 2011. In 2007, The Fellowship of the Ring was voted No. 50 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 greatest American films. The AFI also voted it the second greatest fantasy film of all time.  The film ranks #24 on Empire's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.

 

Coming in at number three domestically and number four WW for the year was Dreamwork's Shrek.  Budgeted at a reasonable 60 million, it made 267 in North America and 484 million WW.  

 

Based loosely on William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book of the same name and directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson in their directorial debut. It stars the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow, and somewhat serves as a parody of other films adapted from numerous fairy tales, mainly animated Disney films. The film focuses on an ogre named Shrek who finds his swamp overrun by fairy tale creatures who have been banished there by order of the evil Lord Farquaad. In order to get his swamp back, Shrek makes a deal with Farquaad to bring him a queen in exchange for the deed for his swamp. Shrek sets out with a talking Donkey and rescues Princess Fiona. While they take Fiona to Farquaad so she can marry him, Shrek starts to fall in love with the princess and soon discovers a shocking secret about her.

 

 

The rights to Steig's book were originally bought by Steven Spielberg in 1991, before the founding of DreamWorks, when he thought about making a traditionally animated film based on the book. However, John H. Williams convinced him to bring the film to DreamWorks in 1994, the time the studio was founded, and the film was put quickly into active development by Jeffrey Katzenberg after the rights were bought by the studio in 1995. Chris Farley was originally cast as the voice for the title character, recording about 80%–90% of his dialogue. After Farley died in 1997 before he could finish his work, Mike Myers was brought in to voice the character.  Myers originally voiced Shrek with his natural speaking voice before the film was test-screened. Then he tried country Canadian accents for Shrek. However, after viewing a rough cut of the film, he felt that something was missing from his performance, and re-recorded all of his lines with a Scottish accent, based on the voice his mother used when reading him bedtime stories as a child. The original voice can still be heard in the technical goofs on the DVD. The decision to revoice Shrek in a Scottish accent ended up costing an additional four million dollars as it took him twenty sessions to complete the re-voiceover. This was his first voice performance in an animated film.

 

Shrek established DreamWorks Animation as a prime competitor to Pixar in feature film computer animation, and grossed $484.4 million at the worldwide box office against its $60 million production budget. It was acclaimed as an animated film worthy of adult interest, with many adult-oriented jokes and themes but a simple enough plot and humor to appeal to children. Shrek won the first ever Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. It was also nominated for six British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, including the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Eddie Murphy for his voice performance as Donkey, and won the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

 

Number four for the year was Pixar's Monster's Inc.  

 

Monsters, Inc. was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Featuring the voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, and Jennifer Tilly, the film was directed by Pete Docter in his directorial debut, and executive produced by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton. The film centers on two monsters employed at the titular energy-producing factory Monsters, Inc. – top scarer James P. "Sulley" Sullivan and his one-eyed partner and best friend Mike Wazowski. In the film, employees at Monsters, Inc. generate their city's power by scaring children, but they themselves are afraid that the children are toxic to them, and when one child enters the factory, Sulley and Mike must return her home before it is too late.

 

 

Docter began developing the film in 1996, and wrote the story with Jill Culton, Jeff Pidgeon, and Ralph Eggleston. Fellow Pixar director Andrew Stanton wrote the screenplay with screenwriter Daniel Gerson. The characters went through many incarnations over the film's five-year production process. The technical team and animators found new ways to render fur and cloth realistically for the film. Randy Newman, who composed the music for Pixar's three prior films, returned to compose its fourth.

 

Monsters, Inc. was praised by critics and proved to be a major box office success from its release on November 2, 2001, generating over $577 million worldwide. Monsters, Inc. saw a 3D re-release in theaters on December 19, 2012. Twelve years later, a prequel, Monsters University, directed by Dan Scanlon, was released on June 21, 2013.

 

Monster's Inc. opened to a very strong 62 million and then remarkably fell only 27% in its second weekend.  It would up with a 4X and was just another success in the Pixar stable of films.  

 

In a very interesting and unique marketing ploy, Disney/Pixar prepared a special trailer for Monsters Inc. to show before Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Mike and Sulley play a game of charades in their apartment, with Sulley acting out "Harry Potter." Mike has difficulty solving the puzzle, some of his guesses being Dirty Harry, "Harry Flowerpot" and "When Hairy Met Sulley," (a reference to Billy Crystal's starring role in When Harry Met Sally). Eventually Sulley puts on round spectacles, sticks a paper lightning bolt to his forehead and sits on a broom with an owl on his arm, to which Mike ecstatically guesses The Sound of Music. Sully gives up and walks off-screen as Mike finally guesses "Harry Potter" and the cut away to title cards noting that "Monsters Inc." is "Now showing at a theater near you. Really near you. Like, maybe, right next door." At the end of the trailer, it is Mike's turn to act out a part, with a very bored looking Sully guessing it is Star Wars within seconds, much to Mike's dismay. 

 

Number five domestically was the sequel to the smash hit Rush Hour.  Jackie Chan and Chris Reprised their roles in this 90 million dollar follow up.  It did incredibly well in North America, taking in 226 million but it disappointed internationally doing only 121 million.  There is no gross listed for China and that is surprising considering Chan has such a huge following in China.  Because of it's disappointing box office overseas, Rush Hour 2 ranks only number 11 for the world wide chart in 2001.  

 

After being adjusted for inflation, Rush Hour 2 out-grossed its predecessor Rush Hour. This was due to the fact that it had a little more box-office longevity and lasted consistently within the domestic box-office top 10 for roughly two weeks longer than the first movie. In addition, the hype surrounding the second movie helped it maintain high numbers for a longer period of time. After 50 days since its domestic release, Rush Hour was only #10 on the box-office charts while comparatively, Rush Hour 2 was still pulling in big audiences after 50 days in theaters and was the #2 grossing film domestically.

 

 

At the time of its opening, Rush Hour 2 had the biggest opening weekend for a comedy of all-time, and the third best non-holiday opening in history (how times change).

 

Prior to its August 3 release, Rush Hour 2 was premiered to the public on Thursday, July 26, 2001, on-board United Airlines Flight 1 from Los Angeles to Hong Kong renamed, "The Rush Hour Express". The Hong Kong Board of Tourism teamed up with United Airlines and New Line Cinemas in a campaign that offered both trailers for the movie for passengers on all domestic United flights during July and August reaching an expected 3 million people, as well as Hong Kong travel videos to inspire tourists to visit China where the movie was set.  This promotion is thought to have aided greatly in the success of the film despite lackluster reviews from most critics.  Even though Rotten Tomatoes wasn't a thing in 2001, critics could still influence a movie, but not nearly as much as they can today.

 

Initial press screenings of Rush Hour 2 indicated the possibility of an even higher grossing movie than the first. As a result, New Line Cinema and TriStar Pictures distributed it to 3,118 screens across America, 480 more theaters than the first movie. Additional possibilities to the sequel's bigger success than its predecessor point to its release date, August 3, which was approximately a month and a half earlier than the release date of the first movie (September 18). Summer releases have long outperformed openings during the other months of the year as moviegoers are frequently out of school and have a greater amount of time to hit theaters.

 

Chris Tucker was paid more than Jackie Chan for this movie.  Tucker received 20 million while Chan "settled" for 15 million plus gross profit points.  In the end, Chan would take home more.

 

Number six for the year was The Mummy Returns.  This is when Brendan Fraser was on top of the world.  This is a follow up the 1999 smash hit, The Mummy.  This took in 202 million domestically and 433 million WW on a budget of 98 million.  In addition to Fraser returning, so did Rachael Weisz and it had a small but intriguing role for then wrestler, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.  This was obviously much much before Dwayne became arguably the biggest Hollywood star in the world.  As with many sequels, it made big bucks at the box office but suffered the wrath of critics.  Most of them didn't care for it saying it focused more on the action and effects and abandoned the characters.  Audiences didn't seem to care what critics said as it opened well and had close to a 3 multiplier.  

 

 

The film was green lit by Universal the day after the Mummy opened. 

 

The shoot was not a pleasant one for Fraser or Johnson.  Fraser suffer two cracked ribs, a bruised knee and tore a spinal disk while Johnson suffered from food poisoning.  He would later say it was the worst he felt in his entire life.  He lost ten pounds in the 5 days he was ill.  

 

 

For the action packed fight scene between Rachel Weisz and Patricia Velasquez, they both trained for five months for this scene. They did the fight without any stunt women.

 

Number seven domestically and number six WW was the Michael Bay attempt to emulate the success of Titanic.  

 

Pearl Harbor is a romantic period war drama, produced by Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer and written by Randall Wallace. It stars Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Colm Feore, and Alec Baldwin. The film is loosely based on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the Doolittle Raid.

 

Despite receiving generally negative reviews from critics, the film was a major box office success, earning $59 million in its opening weekend and, in the end, nearly $450 million worldwide. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning in the category of Best Sound Editing. However, it was also nominated for six Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture. This marked the first occurrence of a Worst Picture-nominated film winning an Academy Award.

 

 

The problem here of course is that Pearl Harbor was incredibly expensive.  It had a budget of 140 million.  However, imho, the money was well spent.  The aerial scenes and the scenes of war and the actual bombing of Pearl Harbor are all quite breathtaking.  Titanic set a ridiculous standard that others tried to duplicate and there was just no way that was going to happen again.  Titanic is Titanic.  Everything else is not Titanic.  Having said all that, Pearl Harbor was one of the biggest hits in the world in 2001.  It also sold well on HV, which probably means that Disney turned a profit on it, eventually.  

 

The proposed budget of $208 million that Bay and Bruckheimer wanted was an area of contention with Disney executives, since a great deal of the budget was to be expended on production aspects. Also controversial was the effort to change the film's rating from R to PG-13. Bay wanted to graphically portray the horrors of war and was not interested in primarily marketing the final product to a teen and young adult audience. Budget fights continued throughout the planning of the film, with Bay "walking" on several occasions.

 

In order to recreate the atmosphere of pre-war Pearl Harbor, the producers staged the film in Hawaii and used current naval facilities. Many active duty military members stationed in Hawaii and members of the local population served as extras during the filming. The set at Rosarito Beach in the Mexican state of Baja California was used for scale model work as required. Formerly the set of Titanic (1997), Rosarito was the ideal location to recreate the death throes of the battleships in the Pearl Harbor attack. A large-scale model of the bow section of USS Oklahoma mounted on a gimbal produced an authentic rolling and submerging of the doomed battleship. Production Engineer Nigel Phelps stated that the sequence of the ship rolling out of the water and slapping down would involve one of the "biggest set elements" to be staged. Matched with computer generated imagery, the action had to reflect precision and accuracy throughout.  In addition, to simulate the ocean, the film crew used a massive stadium-like "bowl" filled with water. The bowl was built in Honolulu, Hawaii and cost nearly $8 million. Today the bowl is used for scuba training and deep water fishing tournaments.

 

The vessel most seen in the movie was USS Lexington, representing both USS Hornet and a Japanese carrier. All aircraft take-offs during the movie were filmed on board the Lexington, a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas. The aircraft on display were removed for filming and were replaced with film aircraft as well as World War II anti-aircraft turrets. Other ships used in filler scenes included USS Hornet, and USS Constellation during filming for the carrier sequences. Filming was also done on board the museum battleship USS Texas located near Houston, Texas.

 

 

The shots of the series of six explosions in Battleship Row were filmed by fourteen cameras in total, and were actually staged on real Navy ships. While on a location scout above Pearl Harbor, Michael Bay looked down and saw a line of ships doing nothing. He learned that these ships were part of the inactive fleet, and so he decided to use them for the explosions. The explosive charges were put on the real ships on plywood for protection, with seven hundred sticks of dynamite, two thousand feet of cord, and four thousand gallons of gasoline being used. The six six-hundred-foot ship explosions took a month and a half to rig (with five hundred individual bombs on each boat). During the scene, there were also over one hundred extras in the harbor, and six real planes had to fly past the ships. In total, the shots took seven months of coordination among every department on the film, the local government of Hawaii, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Navy to ensure everything went off without a hitch. In the end, the explosions themselves lasted only seven seconds and comprised only twelve seconds of on-screen time.

 

Sorry to spend so much time on a movie that most people hate....as you all know,I love Bay so my bias comes through a bit.  

 

Coming in at number 8 domestically and number five world wide was the star studded remake of Ocean's 11, the Rat Pack smash hit.  This one is titled Ocean's Eleven.

 

In January 2000, it was announced that Warner Bros. was moving forward with Steven Soderbergh on development for an Ocean's Eleven remake, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts. Johnny Depp was being considered for Linus Caldwell, while Luke and Owen Wilson were in discussions to play the Malloy twins.  However, the Wilson brothers had to vacate due to their commitment to The Royal Tenenbaums. The decision to use an ensemble cast of movie stars led to various actors dropping out over conflicting schedules and asking prices that Warner Bros. referred to as "an affordable budget".  The amount of actors at one time considered for roles is a veritable list of who's who in Hollywood at the time.   Mike Myers, Bruce Willis, Ewan McGregor, Alan Arkin, Danny Glover and Ralph Fiennes were among those to drop out. Filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen were considered as replacements for the Wilson brothers, but Soderbergh cast Scott Caan and Casey Affleck instead. Mark Wahlberg was originally cast as Linus Caldwell, but left in favor of starring in another remake, Planet of the Apes, and was subsequently replaced with Matt Damon. Clooney's commitment to Ocean's Eleven forced him to turn down the lead role in Unfaithful.

 

 

With a budget of 85 million, this went on to make close to 6 times the budget as it took in 183 million domestic and more than 450 million dollars world wide.  Audiences seemed to love seeing so many stars in one film.  With a December release, it opened well enough at 38 million but the legs would be very strong.  The second weekend dropped 42% but then for the next six weeks it dropped in the 15-35% range.  

 

With such a big cast of well known actors, there were bound to be some jealousy and jockeying for position.  Don Cheadle is uncredited despite having a major role. This is due to a dispute over his billing. Cheadle wanted above the title billing alongside George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt. When he was refused, he refused to be credited at all. Cheadle received above the title billing in both sequels.

 

There's a funny scene right at the beginning of the movie when Rusty (Brad Pitt) is teaching the "teen idols" to play poker, all of the actors are actual "teen idols" who were at the time starring in popular TV Shows. They are: Holly Marie Combs from Charmed (1998) - Topher Grace of That '70s Show (1998) - Joshua Jackson of Dawson's Creek (1998) - Barry Watson of 7th Heaven (1996) and Shane West of Once and Again (1999).

 

Getting access to film in Vegas casinos can be very daunting at times.  The Bellagio granted the crew full access. Producer Jerry Weintraub was friends with former owner Steve Wynn. Wynn sold the Bellagio to Kirk Kerkorian before filming, but Weintraub was friends with him too.

 

Coming in at number nine was one of the biggest disappointments of the year.  Jurassic Park III made a lot of money but in comparison to the original many felt it was a huge let down quality wise.  Jurassic Park III had a budget of 98 million and only took in 368 million WW, 181 of that coming from North America.  Excellent numbers for most films, but a disappointment for a franchise that knocked the socks off of people in 1993 and then set the opening weekend record with the sequel 4 years later.  

 

The pre-production on the film was a tumultuous one and if the internet was as prevalent in 2001 as it is now, this film would have been excoriated by fanboys and forum members alike.  

 

 

Universal Pictures announced the film on June 29, 1998, with Spielberg acting as a producer. Michael Crichton was reportedly going to collaborate with Spielberg to create a storyline and write a script. The film was set for release in summer 2000.  Spielberg initially devised a story idea that involved Dr. Alan Grant, who was discovered to have been living on one of InGen's islands. According to Johnston, "He'd snuck in, after not being allowed in to research the dinosaurs, and was living in a tree like Robinson Crusoe. But I couldn't imagine this guy wanting to get back on any island that had dinosaurs in it after the first movie.

 

In June 1999, Craig Rosenberg began writing the first draft of the script, which involved teenagers who get marooned on Isla Sorna.  Johnston was announced as the film's director in August 1999, with Rosenberg still attached. Production was expected to begin in early 2000.  Rosenberg's draft about teenagers on Isla Sorna was rejected in September 1999. Although Johnston felt that it was "not a badly written script," he also said, "It read like a bad episode of Friends".  By December 1999, new writers had been hired to devise a better story for the film.

 

The film's second script involved Pteranodon escaping from Isla Sorna and causing a spate of mysterious killings on the mainland, which was to be investigated by Alan Grant and a number of other characters including Billy Brennan, a naturalist named Simone, a tough military attaché, wealthy Paul Roby, and Roby's teenage son Miles. Grant's group crash-lands on the island, while a parallel investigation is being carried out on the mainland. The aviary sequence and laboratory set piece were initially much longer and more complex, including Velociraptor stealthily entering the hatchery as the team spends the night there. Sets, costumes, and props were built for this version.

 

 

Five weeks before filming began, Johnston and Spielberg rejected the entire script as they were dissatisfied with it; $18 million had already been spent on the film at that time.  Johnston felt that the script's story was too complicated. The simpler "rescue mission" plot, which had been suggested by David Koepp, was used for the film instead.  Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor began rewriting the script in July 2000.

 

Can you imagine if all this was leaked to the ravenous public back then like things do now?  Deadpool 2 and Solo would be child's play compared to the bad press this would of had.  

 

At the end of the day, the gross was still enough to turn a profit but it was obvious that some major tooling would need to be done for this franchise to become part of the zeitgeist again.  We'll cover that when we get to 2015.

 

Coming it at number ten is the film Mark Wahlberg turned down Ocean's 11 for.  Planet of the Apes is the remake to the classic 1968 science fiction film (and perhaps my favourite film made before 1970).  While Apes was a success, it was an expensive one.  Apes had a budget of 100 million and took in 181 domestic and 362 WW.  It had a huge cast that included Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Michael Clark Duncan, (It girl at the time) Estelle Warren and Helen Bonham Carter.  

 

Before Tim Burton was signed on as director, there were many A-list directors involved or at least coveted.  Oliver Stone and Sam Raimi were the first directors they considered.   This is a bit of a long read, but it's so funny and absurd, that you simply must read to to get a glimpse into why studio execs should just stay out of the creative process:

 

Stone brought Terry Hayes to write the screenplay entitled Return of the Apes. Set in the near future, a plague is making humans extinct. Geneticist Will Robinson discovers the plague is a genetic time bomb embedded in the Stone Age. He time travels with a pregnant colleague named Billie Rae Diamond to a time when Palaeolithic humans were at war for the future of the planet with highly evolved apes. The apes' supreme commander is a gorilla named Drak. Robinson and Billie Rae discover a young human girl named Aiv (pronounced Eve) to be the next step in evolution. It is revealed that it was the apes that created the virus to destroy the human race. They protect her from the virus, thus ensuring the survival of the human race 102,000 years later. Billie Rae gives birth to a baby boy named Adam.

 

 

Fox president Peter Chernin called Return of the Apes "one of the best scripts I ever read".  Chernin was hoping Hayes' script would create a franchise that included sequels, spin-off television shows and merchandise.  In March 1994, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed on as Will Robinson with the condition he had approval of director. Chuck Russell was considered as a possible director before Phillip Noyce was hired in January 1995, while pre-production was nearing commencement with a $100 million budget. Stone first approached Rick Baker, who worked on Rifkin's failed remake, to design the prosthetic makeup, but eventually hired Stan Winston.

 

Fox became frustrated by the distance between their approach and Hayes' interpretation of Stone's ideas. As producer Don Murphy put it, "Terry wrote a Terminator and Fox wanted The Flintstones". Fox studio executive Dylan Sellers felt the script could be improved by comedy. "What if Robinson finds himself in Ape land and the Apes are trying to play baseball? But they're missing one element, like the pitcher or something." Sellers continued. "Robinson knows what they're missing and he shows them, and they all start playing."  Sellers refused to give up his baseball scene, and when Hayes turned in the next script, sans baseball, Sellers fired him. Dissatisfied with Sellers' decision to fire Hayes, Noyce left Return of the Apes in February 1995 to work on The Saint.

 

Fox then approached both Chris Columbus and then James Cameron.  Cameron was approached while filming Titanic and he had some good ideas that the studio liked.  However, once Titanic became the smash success it was, Cameron dropped out.  

 

As for my opinion on the film, Ebert pretty much echoes my sentiments:  He gave the film 2½ stars; he praised the twist ending, but felt the film lacked a balanced story structure. "The movie is great-looking. Rick Baker's makeup is convincing even in the extreme closeups, and his apes sparkle with personality and presence. The sets and locations give us a proper sense of alien awe," Ebert commented. "Tim Burton made a film that's respectful to the original, and respectable in itself, but that's not enough. Ten years from now, it will be the 1968 version that people are still renting." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave a negative review. "Call it a letdown, worsened by the forces of shoddy screenwriting. To quote Heston in both films, 'Damn them, damn them all'."

 

Coming in at number 14 is The Fast and the Furious.  The film made 144 domestic and only 62 million internationally.  

 

Director Rob Cohen was inspired to make this film after reading a 1998 Vibe magazine article called "Racer X" about street racing in New York City[6] and watching an actual illegal street race at night in Los Angeles. The film's original title was Redline before it was changed to The Fast and The Furious. Roger Corman licensed the title rights of his 1955 film The Fast and the Furious to Universal so that the title could be used on this project; both films were about racing.

 

Producer Neal H. Moritz, who had previously worked with Paul Walker on the film The Skulls (2000), gave the actor a script and offered him the role of Brian O'Conner. Originally, the studio told the producers they would green-light the film if they could get Timothy Olyphant to play the role of Dom Toretto. Olyphant, who had starred in the previous year's car-themed blockbuster Gone in 60 Seconds, declined the role, however. Moritz instead suggested Diesel, who had to be convinced to take the role even though he had only played supporting roles up to that point.

 

 

The film was shot in various locations within Los Angeles and parts of southern California. Key locations included Dodger Stadium (on the opening scene where Brian tests his Eclipse on the parking lot), Angelino Heights, Silver Lake and Echo Park (the neighborhoods around Toretto's home), as well as Little Saigon (where Tran destroys the Eclipse) and the San Bernardino International Airport (the venue for Race Wars, which attracted over 1,500 import car owners and enthusiasts). The entire last rig heist scene was filmed along Domenigoni Parkway on the southern side of San Jacinto/Hemet in the San Jacinto Valley near Diamond Valley Lake.

 

Prior to filming, both Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez did not have driver's licenses, so they took driving lessons during production. For the climactic race scene between Brian and Toretto, separate shots of both cars crossing the railroad and the train crossing the street were filmed, then composited together to give the illusion of the train narrowly missing the cars. A long steel rod was used as a ramp for Toretto's car to crash through the semi-truck and fly in mid-air.

 

This film made Vin Diesel a star, not quite as big a star as he thought he was but a star nonetheless.  And of course we all know where the franchise has gone in today's world.  Diesel is now an ego maniac but he is also a producer on the films and that has made him an ungodly amount of money.  Who would have thought that a movie about street racing starring Caparzzo from Saving Private Ryan, would go on to be one of the biggest film properties in the world, with two films grossing over 1 billion internationally?  No one, not in 2001.  

 

And finally coming in at number 55 was a film that did mild business at the domestic box office but went on to do big business on HV and become one of the all time classic comedies.  

 

Zoolander was produced for 28 million and was the first real comedy to come out after the 9/11 tragedy.  I'm not sure America was ready for this film and I think if it would have come out under better circumstances, it might have done better. To corroborate this notion, Roger Ebert gave the film one star out of four, and felt the film was insensitive in its portrayal of child labor, but also added that "to some degree, Zoolander is a victim of bad timing", referencing the film's release two weeks after September 11. According to Stiller, years later in private, Ebert admitted that he changed his mind and thought the film was funny, and apologized to him for going "overboard".

 

 

It made 45 million in the US and only 15 internationally, but as I mentioned, it went on to bigger things one people found it on HV.  It's one of the most quotable comedies and Stiller's take on the vacuous state of male models was something people seemed to find hilarious.  With Billy Zane and David Bowie making cameos, it just strengthened an already stellar cast with names like Jon Voight, Will Ferell, Owen Wilson and Jerry Stiller.  

 

Sorry it took me so long to get back into the swing of things.....but my health is good right now and my typing fingers are as quick and agile as ever.  

 

This was 2001!

 

 

 

 

 

[baumer]

@Chaz

@75Live

@Kalo

@Trolltastic Tele

@La Binoche

@Brainbug

@The Stingray

[Plain Old Tele]

Hell of a write-up there, B. 

[That One Girl]

Pretty crazy that @aabattery's most loved film and most hated film have long write-ups back to back.

[La Binoche]

Great write-up but you forgot one big name in 2001: 

 

[WrathOfHan]

Shrek is love

Shrek is life

[Brainbug]

Yes, that was well worth the wait!

 

Also, screw JP3! @aabattery

[narniadis]

Great job as always @baumer

 

2001 has so many "classic" and bad films, was a great start to the century / decade.

 

Also amazing how much (and how little) has changed since then.

 

The Mummy 2 always stuns me when you think about franchise potential - it had the #2 OW OF ALL TIME, at the time of it's release and then barely made it over 200m - while it had good legs, it was only ok for the era and the franchise never recovered. I think if they had tried getting Mummy 3 off the ground by 2003-04 they probably could have salvaged the Branden Fraiser version. 2008 and the recasting / other issues was just too long.

[aabattery]

Good write-up, B!

 

#fuckjp3 tho

[75Live]

Way to get back into this baumer.  Great write up

[Jonwo]

Both Ocean's Eleven and Pearl Harbour were expensive even in 2001! PH luckily had home video to help it out but even then it was successful. 

 

New Line had a great few years with LOTR plus Rush Hour 2, it did go wrong for them after that and Golden Compass was the nail in the coffin, now they're a subsidy of WB and still making successful films but LOTR was the peak for them. 

 

Shrek really capture the zeitgest and I think ironically hurt Disney because people saw their films as old fashioned but Disney were able to rebound after a rough couple of years. 

 

 

[Webslinger]

2001 was nuts. A whole bunch of the movies listed here basically re-wrote the rules of the time for mega-openers and kept on inching closer and closer to finally breaking The Lost World's long-standing weekend record before Harry Potter blew it open in November. To put it into perspective: Hannibal's $58 million opening in February '01 was the third biggest ever at the time; by year's end, it had already fallen to ninth on that list.

[Premium George]

Rush Hour 2 had bad reviews? wtf? 

[Barnack]

3 hours ago, Jonwo said:

Disney were able to rebound after a rough couple of years. 

I would imagine in large part because they bought Pixar and transfered a lot of that expertise/culture to Disney Animation.

[baumer]

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone.  I'll get to work on 2002 possibly tomorrow.  In other words, it won't be another 6 months in between.