The 9/11 frame has never been a big weekend for movies. Even before the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers, it was still a weekend in the middle of September, and studios have known better than to release major movies on this date. Still…
Jean Claude Van Damme’s Kickboxer turns 25 this week. The film opened to 4.1M in 1989, on its way to 14M domestic. It lost to the 6th weekend of Parenthood and the 4th weekend of Uncle Buck.
It’s the 15th anniversary for both Stigmata and Stir Of Echoes. Both horror flicks were riding the coattails of The Sixth Sense and The Blair Witch Project which brought horror back into the mainstream. Stigmata did much better, opening to 18.3M, on its way to 50M domestic, and 89M worldwide. A 22% on Rotten Tomatoes would suggest it isn’t a classic, but a 6.2 on IMDB suggests audiences didn’t care as much. Stir Of Echoes opened in third, with 5.8M, eventually making 21.1M. The Kevin Bacon chiller fared better with critics, with a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 7.0 on IMDB. The film spawned an awful straight-to-video sequel with Rob Lowe in 2007.
Ten years ago, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, the second film in the series, landed 23M on opening weekend, eventually making 51.2M domestically and 129M worldwide. Critics gave it a 21% and audiences enjoyed it a bit more with a 6.1 on IMDB.
