I went to see JFK with my mum when I was about 13. We were both into the JFK conspiracy, watergate etc back then. The film was controversial but while reviewed while Kostener was the biggest star in the world back then.

Home Alone was basically the biggest thing ever if you we're a kid. That was also just before Disney animated films made a comeback with B&B and Aladdin

My mother went to see it to. She still likes those thrillers. That summer she also went to see The Mummy and when her and her friends weren't all that keen about it they decided to see Notting Hill right afterwards.

Speaking of A Time to Kill - Grisham is releasing a sequel this year. No doubt it will made into a film with Matthew McCaugnhey returning as the lead. Will be interesting to see how it fairs!

Home Alone's run is just amazing in comparison to how holiday blockbusters perform today. It opened the weekend before Thanksgiving, with an adjusted total of only $33m, in 1,202 locations. It increased 23% on Thanksgiving weekend, continuously dropped after Thanksgiving and Christmas (expected), then it shot up at Christmas, and made 50% more over New Year's weekend than it did over its OW!

There were several other holiday smash hits in the early 90s that followed this pattern (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire), but unlike those, Home Alone stayed at #1 from its opening all the way through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, and never had a single weekend during that period which adjusts to under $20 million.

Also, Home Alone was the first film since Back to the Future to spend more than 10 weekends at #1, the first since Beverly Hills Cop to spend more than 10 consecutive weekends at #1, and the last to do either until Titanic.

And nowadays, no film has sufficient legs to win both Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year's. Home Alone is one of only five movies to have accomplished this, along with Rocky IV, Three Men and a Baby, Mrs. Doubtfire and Toy Story, and only Rocky IV and Home Alone did it without dropping below #1 between the two.

Yes family films used to have a big revival at Christmas. Look at The Santa Clause as well.

These big live action family films badly get made now thanks to the animation boom.

Which is a mistake. See Elf.

Still, The Santa Clause did not rebound to its Thanksgiving highs over Christmas. Toy Story was the last one to come close.

Even though trailers for movies have often referred to Thanksgiving/Christmas combined as "the holiday season" (Thanksgiving used to be a dump period, something which Rocky IV basically changed singlehandedly), for all intents and purposes they're two separate holidays won by two separate movies.

Yes and The Grinch a few years earlier. That November 2003 was interesting because you had Elf, Cat in the Hat and Haunted House all open (while the only animated film was Brother Bear). All 4 films outside of Elf made between 80-110m and were considered mid level performers at best.

A year later - the revolution had begun and November 2004 saw all animation - The Incredibles, Spongebob, Polar Express with National Treasure being a huge family hit.

True the Holiday Season has been split into two. There is even room for 3 lots of hits - early November, thanksgiving and Christmas.

Home Alone, however, is widely recognized as a HUMONGOUS box-office performer and a Christmas classic too, so this does not elicit a "WTF?" from me any longer when looking back.

But Basic Instinct having made $230+ million adjusted does.

Or Showgirls, the critically hated NC-17 movie adjusting to $38 million is insane too. We might never see an NC-17 film even grossing $15 million again, let alone $38 million...

Another one: Sleeping with the Enemy. Does anyone even remember that Julia Roberts-starring R-rated flick? It adjusts to $197 million!

Same year, Fried Green Tomatoes - $163 mllion!

Studios kept trying with Fred Claus, Deck the Halls, Christmas with the Kranks...but most were just shit.

I like that Air Force One, the first R rated movie I saw, adjusts to $307,409,000


Compare White House Down's measly gross to that. LOL


also like that Speed, another R rated film from childhood, adjusts to $236,694,900

Yes. Fred Claus in particular should have been big had the film been more appealing.

Well those two were great great films.

R-rated action blockbusters basically died with the Columbine shootings. During the 2000s, hard action films declined in general, most of them got neutered to PG-13, and those that were R didn't do very well compared to the heights of the 90s.

With the exceptions of the Matrix sequels, Terminator 3, Bad Boys II and 300 (and Django, which doesn't really qualify because it was both a Western and an Oscar contender), none of the now-much-fewer R-rated action releases have made it into the upper 100 millions, even adjusted.

The only other post-1999 hard-R actioner which breaks the $150m threshold after adjustment is Wanted, and the only others which even adjust over $125m are Collateral, Inglourious Basterds and Safe House. (You could say 21 Jump Street or The Heat, but those are action-comedies, and R-rated comedy is still thriving, so again, I don't think they count.)

And that comparison to White House Down gives me a thought: if WHD had been made in the 90s with a hard R, and let's say Danny Glover and Keanu Reeves in the lead roles, I am willing to bet it would currently adjust to at least $200 million.

The fault is with the studios. Of course barely any R-rated action releases made it there, but that is mainly because studios stopped producing R-rated action tentpole releases. 300 and Bad Boys II have shown that the audience is there.

Olympus Has Fallen is looking at $99 million with its R-rating, a March release date and Gerard Butler, who is definitely not a major star. If Olympus Has Fallen had been the only White-House-Die-Hard film this year, if it had been given a summer release date and if it had starred bigger stars it probably would have broken $125 million.

Michael Bay's The Rock adjusts to $247,513,000. An awesome movie that is






also I am amazed at how successful Twister was. Adjusts to $446,255,100

Kevin Costner sure was huge once upon a time. Tin Cup adjusts to 100 million. Who even remembers Tin Cup? Notorious dud Waterworld to over 160 million. Dances with Wolves to 356 million.

I like Tin Cup lol

I like Tin Cup too.

The reason Waterworld was a "flop" is not because it performed particularly horribly, but because it cost so much that in order to make a profit, it needed to be a smash hit, and it wasn't.

If you adjust the full production + marketing costs for Waterworld, they come to $360 million. Conversely, its WW gross would probably be equivalent to something like $500m today. So while it wasn't a bomb on the level of John Carter or Battleship or The Lone Ranger, it was certainly a disappointment.

Tin Cup is fun.

I always thought Anaconda was a bomb, had no idea it adjusted t o$117,130,300

A Walk in the Clouds adjusts to nearly 100 million.

Yeah that was a huge surprise hit at the time. For some reason. It's freaking hilariously bad. I guess that was part of the appeal.