Chapter 240: A Spot in Summer
With 1,340 theaters allocating their cinema slots to Back to the Future... the opportunity to gain traction has been set!
With the "4th of July" just having been whizzed by... Back to the Future and its respective film peers were on a relatively stable schedule.
It had to be said that with such a high number of allocated theaters and opportune release schedule... any other low-level film company would be in envy!
Such a prime spot in the summer schedule is what any other mid-tier film production company could hope for.
It was already quite an achievement for a newcomer like Creed Pictures to be able to squeeze in such an opportunity.
Granted... Columbia Pictures were the one to make things happen.
Of course, even though such a spot in the summer schedule is enviable... it can also be a bane of sorts.
After all, there were other heavy-hitters that one has to look out for.
If one were to keep track, there were plenty of typical blockbusters in theaters.
Including Back to the Future, the summer of 1985 was packed with a lot of releases and a considerable selection for summer-goers to go on.
There is [The Goonies] which is at the hand of Steven Spielberg that had already established himself in this summertime. His Jaws film was practically the film that started all the traction that made summer the film fest that it is.
Then there is Sylvester Stallone... with a sequel in theaters through First Blood: Part II.
Stallone's action colleague Arnold Schwarzenegger had Red Sonja.
Even James Bond was around with A View to a Kill playing at another theater.
On the non-action side, there's also the single comedy Fletch, featuring massive comedy star Chevy Chase, and the teen-geared St. Elmo's Fire, which had only been in theaters for a week.
Of course, there are some oddballs like Cocoon, Pale Rider, Prizzi's Honor, and Emerald Forest.
The selection was truly aplenty and some of the flagbearers for some of these films were heavyweights that had already established themselves.
Not just considering Spielberg, James Bond, and the 80s machos... even Pale Rider had Clint Eastwood with his usual actor-director combo.
What's important to note though... is the fact that most of these aforementioned films had already been released for weeks and months with some of them have reached their peaks and are already in viewership decline.
This is where Back to the Future stood out... and its "freshness" is something that everyone involved in its theatrical run would hope to maximize!
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With Friday as its starting day...
With Saturday as its second day...
And with Sunday as its third day...
Back to the Future's first-week run could be said to have been completed.
Audiences came and went... and finally got to know what the film had to offer!
In a simplified summary...
Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.
This was what the general audience had been set to expect...
On these three days, these were what they were expecting as they went to buy its tickets and enter its screening for the first time!
What they felt and experienced when they got out though... was a completely different picture... and completely up-ended view!
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What struck them first was the unforgettable opening sequence!
From the array of ticking clocks to Marty hitching a ride through Hill Valley, the opening sequence is the perfect introduction to the movie and Marty as a character.
It also made tiny guitars seem strangely cool!
The defunct DeLorean suddenly became unequivocally the coolest movie car of all time... in their opinions!
Marty McFly felt like a true hero for the ages! This felt overdone by other films before it but this film and its protagonist seem to take the win.
The entire movie is a personal journey for Marty in which he learns to believe in himself and proves his doubters (Principal Strickland) wrong. ‘If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything'.
Marty and Doc’s friendship is a special one. Their's is a strange bond, between a solitary old scientist and a young schoolboy, but it works perfectly. Two outsiders who fully understand and trust one another.
It presents a refreshingly nonchalant approach to terrorism!
Sure, Doc technically offered to build the Libyans a weapon, but it was a different time. It has Libyans as the bad guys for a start.
Luckily though they are incredibly inept at both firing weaponry and driving at speed, so it all turned out OK in the end.
The recreation of 1950’s Hill Valley is perfect.
From the record store, petrol station, and bustling diner, to the jingly sounds of Mr. Sandman playing in the background, it’s a treat.
The viewers may not know what the old place really looks but the setting and its feel really depicted what the 50s truly were.
Of course, settings and moods aside, there's also the father McFly character that stood.
He’s the perfect balance of charismatic and awkwardly geeky. The serious Stoltz of the set may have just established a lasting impression of his own! Maybe even more so... when he switched up his geekiness to the suave that successful George McFly had in a new time.
For a few viewers as well... Biff Tannen may just be the perfect movie bad guy!
The actor truly played a character is a bully, a jerk, and a total moron who you can’t wait to see get his comeuppance.
He also deserves extra credit for expert delivery of the insult ‘butthead’.
This made it only more satisfying when Biff became a lackey in the end.
To give credit to both actors and their characters... the glorious scene where George finally finds his courage and socks Biff square in the chops!
T'was a perfect feel-good movie moment!
Then there was Marty’s performance of Johnny B. Goode and his bringing of Rock and Roll to 1950s schoolkids is just plain awesome.
The entire Enchantment Under the Sea Dance sequence is great fun, but Marty’s showstopping rendition of Chuck Berry’s hit is its crowning glory.
‘I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.’ With that cheeky line... it perfectly sets the story as the time-churner that the film is.
Michael J. Fox truly gave a one-of-a-kind performance in the lead role. It was quite unique from how Family Ties fans expected him to be.
The final clock tower sequence is breath-taking cinema at its finest!
He may have successfully brought his parents together, but as the storm rages on, Marty still needs to get himself back to the future.
The DeLorean not starting and the Doc desperately trying to connect the unplugged cables remains surprisingly stressful, but it all makes for a gripping finale.
It has one of the all-time great closing lines!
All together now: ‘Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads’.
Of course... that line may not be the very last line as "To be Continued..." seems to equate to that as well.
Both lines were technically the end of the film but they also built a crazy anticipation for what's to come next!
This first part was already crazy good and overturned their expectations... how were they to react to what comes next?!
Their worry of explosive excitement wasn't even eased yet as the movie’s score played along with the credits...
It felt like a brilliant emphatic signature fanfare that embody the theme of the film that they watched and what they were feeling as they digested all of it.
It really felt up there among the very best movie theme tune that they've heard!
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With all these hyped moments that seem to highlight the great 80s decade they are in... Back to the Future became the hubbub of the film industry.
Not just the movers and big players of the film industry... as it may have just riled up the film-watching crowd that was attracted by what Back to the Future had to offer!
In a considerable span of just three days in the theaters, $11,152,500 were already accrued at the box office for BttF technical first week!
It was not Stallone's First Blood: Part II with an absurd $20,176,217 for its opening weekend...
However... it is already a tad better than the $9,105,913 of The Goonies and A View to a Kill's $10,687,114 in their opening weekends.
If the correlation between these sampled film's tracks and their opening box office is any indication, then Back to the Future is on its way to being a success of its own.
Against the still-going-strong and relatively high-momentum-ed Cocoon and Pale Rider, BttF's $11,152,500 topped its first box office charts.
Suffice to say... in this blockbuster-heavy summer file... Back to the Future made full use of its given summer spot!
Its spot in summer may have just become a beaming spotlight against all else.