Warner Bros. expensive comic book movie Batman Begins had a tepid opening weekend, taking in an estimated 446.9 million in domestic box office receipts despite positive critical reviews.
The results continue the movie industry's longest losing streak in 20 years in which weekend receipts have run behind those of a year earlier.
Blah, blah Christian Bale, blah blah. Then this:
The latest weekend results are the 17th in a row to fall short of cumulative box office receipts for the same weekend last year-making this the longest year to date down streak since 1985.
First getting over the weirdness of 1985 being 20 years ago, I got curious what was in the theaters a year ago and what was in the theaters 20 years ago. The answer? Last year at this time we had: Passion of the Christ, LOTR: Return of the King, Spiderman 2, Shrek 2, HP: Prisoner of Azkaban, Scooby Doo 2, Kill Bill vol.2, Barbarshop 2. Now this trend makes sense; a highly controversial film about Jesus (during Eastertime no less), and some huge franchises vs. Matagascar, SW: Episode 3 and a bunch more forgettable things.
When you look at the movies of 1985, very little of the memorable movies premiered at the beginning of the year. The end of the year released franchise films in both the Rocky and the Rambo series and launched the Back to the Future franchise. The second half of 1985 gave us Out of Africa and The Color Purple. I hope the second half of 2005 does as well as 1985 successfully launching the franchises of Chronicles of Narnia and Serenity.
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