Amadeus turns 30 this week, having first opened in 1984 with a per screen average of $20,211, which would be somewhere around a 50K per screen average now, with inflation. Amadeus ended up with 51M at the box office, running into August of the following year. It is the third highest grossing film of all time to never be in the Top 5 at the box office. Amadeus has a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, and was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning eight, including wins for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (F Murray Abraham). Audiences agreed, and the film has an 8.4 on IMDB, and ranks #90 on IMDB’s Top 250 list.
A hard act to follow, but it is also the 30th Anniversary of Places In The Heart, which grossed 34.9M in 1984, and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including nominations for Sally Field and John Malkovich, as well as a Best Picture nomination. Ultimately, it won two awards. One for Field and one for Original Screenplay. With an incredible 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, you’d think the IMDB score would be better than 7.4, but I guess not.
It is also the 30th anniversary of the Steve Martin/Lily Tomlin comedy All Of Me. The comedy made 36.4M, and opened at #1 at the box office. It also has a pretty impressive 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, but a sad 6.7 on IMDB. When you adjust for inflation, All Of Me would have made 88M.
It’s the 25th Anniversary for Sea Of Love which opened at #1 with 10M on its way to a 58.5M domestic and 110M worldwide. Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, John Goodman, and Richard Jenkins starred, and critics gave it a 76 on Rotten Tomatoes, and 6.8 on IMDB.
It’s the 20th Anniversary of Timecop, which is definitely my favorite Jean Claude Van Damme movie. It also became a short lived TV show. Timecop opened to #1 with 12M, and went on to gross 44M domestically and 101M worldwide. It has a 43% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.8 on IMDB.
Also celebrating its 20th is Quiz Show, which started in limited release, and eventually made 24M and found four Oscar nominations, including a nomination for Picture and for director Robert Redford. Quiz Show has a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.5 on IMDB.
Blue Sky is also 20 years old today, and is notable because Jessica Lange won Best Actress for her work in this film. She co-starred with Tommy Lee Jones and Chris O’Donnell. Blue Sky ended up with 3.3M domestic, 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 6.4 on IMDB.
It’s the 15th Anniversary of American Beauty, which started in limited release on 16 screens with an impressive 53K per screen average. It was enough to place 11th that week, and almost break the Top 10. American Beauty went on to gross 130M at the domestic box office and 356M worldwide. The Sam Mendes film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won five, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Kevin Spacey, and directing for Mendes. American Beauty has an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, and an 8.5 on IMDB. That is enough to put it at 60 on IMDB’s Top 250 films list. Adjusted for inflation, American Beauty would have made 203M domestically. Not bad.
This is also the 15th Anniversary of Blue Streak, the Martin Lawrence comedy that launched at #1, and went on to make 68M domestic, and 117M worldwide. Critics turned their noses up at 36%, but audiences were more kind with a 6.2 on IMDB.
Ten years ago, a trio of wide releases failed to make any lasting impression on cinematic history. Bernie Mac’s Mr 3000, Jude Law’s Sky Captain and the World Of Tomorrow, and Kirsten Dunst’s Wimbledon. Sky Captain fared the best, opening at #1 with 15.5M, but with a production budget of 70M, it’s not really a hit. It only made 57M worldwide, which still isn’t enough.
This is the 5th anniversary of Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, which opened to 30.3M and went on to gross 124M domestic and 243M worldwide. It spawned a sequel released last year. A solid 87% on Rotten Tomatoes helped it become a new childrens classic.
