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

[baumer]

Come on @Tele Came Back....don't be that guy who's a couple cans short of a six pack.  When asking for the UZI 9 MM, just remember that the store owner can't be reasoned with and can't be bargained with.  

 

Spoiler

Did you really think 1984 would go off without AS and JC being mentioned?

 

[The Stingray]

17 minutes ago, Tele Came Back said:

 

And maybe a footnote for someone who'll be back. 

 

The Terminator wasn't that big of a hit, though. It wasn't even in the top 10 of 1984.
 

[baumer]

22 minutes ago, The Stingray said:

 

The Terminator wasn't that big of a hit, though. It wasn't even in the top 10 of 1984.
 

 

True. But well mention if though. Not a long write up but it was definitely the start of something bigger to come.

[Plain Old Tele]

Just now, baumer said:

 

True. But well mention if though. Not a long write up but it was definitely the start of something bigger to come.

 

There's a (box-office) storm coming. It's game over, man, game over. This here's a bottomless pit, baby. Hasta la vista. That's a snow-cone maker. I'm king of the world. Outstanding. 

[baumer]

Here is an interesting little story about James Cameron.  I was going to wait until I got to 1986 to mention.... But why not do it now? In 1984 as he was in the middle of making Terminator, he got the offer to do the screenplay for Rambo First Blood Part II and to direct Aliens. All three projects were going to overlap and he did not see how he would be able to pull it off. One of his friends, and it might have even been Bill Paxton, but I'm not sure, told him that he had struggled to find work for so long and now that he had so many opportunities he would be a fool to pass it up. So without knowing how he was going to do all three projects at once he still decided to take them on and the rest as they say ladies and gentlemen is history.

[The Stingray]

Rambo 2 ain't that good. 

[Plain Old Tele]

10 minutes ago, baumer said:

Here is an interesting little story about James Cameron.  I was going to wait until I got to 1986 to mention.... But why not do it now? In 1984 as he was in the middle of making Terminator, he got the offer to do the screenplay for Rambo First Blood Part II and to direct Aliens. All three projects were going to overlap and he did not see how he would be able to pull it off. One of his friends, and it might have even been Bill Paxton, but I'm not sure, told him that he had struggled to find work for so long and now that he had so many opportunities he would be a fool to pass it up. So without knowing how he was going to do all three projects at once he still decided to take them on and the rest as they say ladies and gentlemen is history.

 

To add to this: he calculated out how many hours per day he would be awake, divided that in three, and spent that allocated time on each project. He helped himself switch mindsets by having three different playlists of music to listen to. He also kept everything from RAMBO and ALIENS separate by having two different desks in different rooms, one for each project.

[baumer]

6 minutes ago, Tele Came Back said:

 

To add to this: he calculated out how many hours per day he would be awake, divided that in three, and spent that allocated time on each project. He helped himself switch mindsets by having three different playlists of music to listen to. He also kept everything from RAMBO and ALIENS separate by having two different desks in different rooms, one for each project.

 

That part I did not know. You know that is fascinating and the music stuff really makes a lot of sense to me. When I was writing terrified and defenseless I was constantly listening to music and without me even realizing it it was all classic movie soundtracks. I would listen to stuff like the Titanic soundtrack, aliens soundtrack, and of course lots of John Williams. Music definitely helps you get into a Groove when writing, at least with my experience.

[baumer]

13 minutes ago, The Stingray said:

Rambo 2 ain't that good. 

 

I disagree. 

[The Stingray]

5 minutes ago, baumer said:

 

I disagree. 

 

I know. 

 

I believe Cameron also said that Stallone was the one responsible for all the political stuff in the movie.

[baumer]

35 minutes ago, The Stingray said:

 

I know. 

 

I believe Cameron also said that Stallone was the one responsible for all the political stuff in the movie.

 

Yea Stallone made it much better. Stallone is in some ways a better writet than Cameron.

[baumer]

Looking forward to digging in to 1984

[baumer]

And when wd get to 85, we get to a feat that hadnt been done before and is still rare today.

[baumer]

1984

 

1984 was a record setting year in more ways that one.  For the first time in box office history, two films made more than 200 million domestically and four films made more than 150 million.  And to put the cherry on top, only one of the top five films was a sequel.  This year would turn out to be historic.  

 

Beverly Hills Cop was the number one film of the year with a gross of 234.7 million dollars.  This is the film that propelled Eddie Murphy into super stardom.  The film did not start out as an action comedy.  Sylvester Stallone was originally considered for the part of Foley. Stallone gave the script a dramatic rewrite and made it into a straight action film.  In one of the previous drafts written for Stallone, he had renamed the lead character to Axel Cobretti (which would eventually show up two years later in the film Cobra), with the character of Michael Tandino being his brother and Jenny Summers playing his love interest. Stallone has said that his script for Beverly Hills Cop would have "looked like the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan on the beaches of Normandy. Believe it or not, the finale was me in a stolen Lamborghini playing chicken with an oncoming freight train being driven by the ultra-slimy bad guy."  Paramount didn't like this direction as they wanted something a bit more cost effective and they also wanted the humour of the original script.  Jerry Bruckheimer convinced Eddie Murphy to take on the role only two weeks before filming was to commence.  The script was rewritten again and Murphy was also allowed to improvise a lot of his character.  The banana in the tailpipe bit, for example, was conceived by Murphy.       

 

Not only was Beverly Hills Cop a box office smash, it was a critical darling as well.  Many critics mentioned Murphy specifically, stating that he was born to play this kind of role.  

 

Beverly Hills Cop would spend 14 non consecutive weeks at number one and it became the highest grossing R rated film in history.  It would keep this record for 20 years before Matrix Reloaded surpassed it.

 

 

Coming in at number two was Ghostbusters.  Ghostbusters is a supernatural comedy directed and produced by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis as three eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City. Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis co-star as a client and her neighbor, and Ernie Hudson as the Ghostbusters' first recruit.

Aykroyd conceived the film as a project for himself and fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus John Belushi, with the "Ghostmashers" travelling through time and space in the future with magic wands. He and Ramis dramatically rewrote the script following Belushi's death and after Reitman deemed Aykroyd's initial vision financially impractical.

Ghostbusters was released in the United States on June 8, 1984. It received a positive response from critics and audiences and grossed $242 million in the United States but kind of tanked on teh international circuit as it only grossed another 50 million overseas.  It was nominated for two Oscars for Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song (for the theme song), but lost to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Woman in Red respectively. The American Film Institute ranked Ghostbusters 28th in its AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list of film comedies. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"

 

 

Ghostbusters continued the success of Reitman, Murray and Ramis.  This trio would continue to work together in pairs for decades to come.  

 

Ghostbusters was released on June 8, 1984, in 1,339 theaters. It grossed $13.6 million on its opening weekend and $23 million in its first week, setting studio records at the time.  After seven weeks, it was finally knocked to the number-two position by Prince's film Purple Rain.  Remarkably, Ghostbusters then regained the top spot the next week, and again six weeks later. It went on to gross $229.2 million.  A 1985 re-release raised the film's United States gross to $238.6 million.

 

Number three for the year was the sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  Temple of Doom was released on May 23, 1984 in America, accumulating a record-breaking $45.7 million in its first week. The film went on to gross $333.1 million worldwide, with $180 million in North America and $153.1 million in other markets. The film had the highest opening weekend of 1984, and was that year's highest-grossing film (third in North America, behind Beverly Hills Cop and Ghostbusters). It was also the tenth highest-grossing film of all time during its release.

 

Temple of Doom was a tricky production.  Although Spielberg and Lucas were best friends, Spielberg had just come off E.T. and was being coveted for every film by every studio.  So Lucas knew he had a small window to allow Spielberg to direct.  Spielberg's clout also convinced George to change some of the elements of Temple that would probably not go over well with an audience.  Lawrence Kasdan wouldn't return to scipt doctor this one as he felt it to do much too dark, much too violent and a joyless experience.  He would go on to say that because Lucas and Spielberg were going through breakups in their personal lives, it was reflected in the script.  

 

 

Temple of Doom made gobs of money but ultimately fell a little short of Raiders.  Critically it was met with mixed reception but Roger Ebert did give it 4 stars saying it was one of the best films of 1984.  

 

To make matters on the set very difficult, Harrison Ford injured his back on one of the stunts.  He was eventually hospitalized for 5 weeks and a stunt double was brought in for scenes without close-ups.  

 

For a film that had child slaves , hearts being ripped out of chests, men being burned alive, human sacrifice and so on, this film was not something that should have been rated PG.  Hence, the pg-13 was created.  From wikipedia:

 

In the early 1980s complaints about violence and gore in films such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins, both of which received PG ratings, refocused attention on films seen by small children and pre-teens. According to author Filipa Antunes, this revealed the conundrum of a film which "could not be recommended for all children but also could not be repudiated for all children uniformly," leading to speculation that the rating system’s scope, in particular its PG classification, "no longer matched a notion of childhood most parents in America could agree on." Steven Spielberg, director of Temple of Doom and executive producer of Gremlins, suggested a new intermediate rating between "PG" and "R". The "PG-13" rating was introduced in July 1984, with the advisory "Parents Are Strongly Cautioned to Give Special Guidance for Attendance of Children Under 13 – Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Young Children"; in 1985, the wording was simplified to "Parents Strongly Cautioned – Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Children Under 13".

 

Coming in at number four was the Spielberg produced, Joe Dante directed, Gremlins.  Gremlins was a huge success. Produced on an $11 million budget, it was more expensive than Spielberg had originally intended but still relatively cheap for its time.  It was about the same budget as E.T. 

 

Gremlins was released into North American theaters on June 8, 1984, the same day as Ivan Reitman's Ghostbusters. Gremlins ranked second, with $12.5 million in its first weekend, $1.1 million less than Ghostbusters. By the end of its American screenings on November 29, it had grossed $148,168,459 domestically.  In August 1984, it opened in Argentina and Spain, and in October it premiered in West Germany. Screenings began in Mexico, Australia, and much of the rest of Europe in December. Since Gremlins had an international audience, different versions of the film were made to overcome cultural barriers. Mandel learned to speak his few intelligible lines, such as "Bright light!", in various languages, including German. Regional music and humor were also incorporated into foreign-language versions. Dante credited this work as being one of the factors which helped to make Gremlins a worldwide success. However, many critics questioned the summer release date of the film in America, as the film takes place during the Christmas holiday season, causing them to comment that it should have had a Christmas release date instead.

 

 

Spielberg was offered the directing duties but he passed as he was working on Temple of Doom.  He did produce it through Amblin and took it to Warner Brothers.  Spielberg was the one who hired Joe Dante to direct as he felt that Gremlins needed a director who was good with horror.  Chris Columbus developed the script for his own idea.  

 

Coming in at number five and six were two very different films.  

 

The Karate Kid grossed 90 million while at number five was Police Academy.  90 and 81 million were the final numbers.  The Karate Kid went on to get nominated for best picture and Police Academy was viewed as pure trash from most critics.  Both films would go on to spawn numerous sequels and Police Academy would have the first five films open at number one during the opening weekend.  

 

Footloose came in at number 7 with 80 million and an interesting quote about Kevin Bacon almost not getting the role is that one of the executives on the film didn't want to hire Bacon as the lead because they didn't think he "was fuckable".  This is a story Bacon told on one of the late night talk shows just a few years back.  I guess Bacon was fuckable enough because his career has now spanned 5 decades.

 

 

Romancing the Stone, which was directed by Robert Zemekis, came in at number 8 with 76 million.  Because of the success of this film, Zemekis was able to land the directing gig for 1985's biggest film.

 

Number 11 was Purple Rain, which grossed 68 million.

 

Coming in at number 16 and number 44 were two high school/university high jinks movies.  Revenge of the Nerds, which starred a very young and thin John Goodman and it was known for it's copious amounts of female nudity, where as Sixteen Candles was John Hughes' first forray into his high-school world.  Nerds grossed 40 million while Candles took in 23 million.  

 

Two iconic horror films came in at number 33 and 40.  Friday the 13th the Final Chapter grossed 33 million on a budget of 2.5 million and it is not only my favourite Friday the 13th but I think it's one of the top 100 films ever made.  Nightmare on Elm Street started the franchise off with a gross of 25.5 million.

 

Coming in at number 21 was the beginning of a beautiful relationship as James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger did their first film together.  Terminator was made for a modest 6 million and made 78 million WW.  But more importantly, this was the start of two of the biggest careers Hollywood had ever seen. 

 

 

 

1.Beverly Hills Cop Paramount$234,760,478

2.Ghostbusters Columbia$229,242,989

3.Indiana Jones and the Temple of DoomParamount$179,870,271

4.Gremlins Warner Bros.$153,083,102

5.The Karate Kid Columbia$90,815,558

6.Police Academy Warner Bros.$81,198,894

7.Footloose Paramount$80,035,402

8.Romancing the Stone 20th Century Fox$76,572,238

9.Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Paramount$76,471,076

10.Splash Touchstone Pictures$69,821,334

 

This was 1984

[Premium George]

9 minutes ago, baumer said:

 

This was 1984

After long time!

Three comedy movies at the top, not gonna see something like that now.

And that ending paragraph, another amazing writeup baumer.

Edited May 8, 2017 by damnitgeorge08

[baumer]

Yea, I took a week off...sorry...last week my work schedule was all over the place.

 

Thank you @damnitgeorge08

[baumer]

I'll try to get to 1985...my favourite year (Murdoch..I'm coming to get you...Let off some steam Bennett....To beat me...he's going to have to kill me....what the hell's a gigawat?!!) later today.

[Outrageous!]

On 5/8/2017 at 8:57 AM, baumer said:

I'll try to get to 1985...my favourite year (Murdoch..I'm coming to get you...Let off some steam Bennett....To beat me...he's going to have to kill me....what the hell's a gigawat?!!) later today.

 

I am looking forward to hearing about 1985 as well, and one film especially.  We almost had "Spaceman from Pluto" as a title and just discussing all the things about that one film could take up most of the 1985 summary.

[baumer]

I will get to 1985 tonight.

[Kalo]

Looking forward to 1985 Baumer...