July 4 Weekend Gross: $11,152,500
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: Fourth of July weekend was a big one for the Rubin clan—at least regarding the multiplex. (It was also a big weekend for almost getting hit by a wayward firework that launched itself at me, then veered away from my Michael Jackson muscle tee/half-shirt combo just in the nick of time, but that’s another story.) It’s when I saw Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and Speed—for which I was on crutches and also SUPER HIGH, though presumably my family didn’t know that at the time. But as great as those movies were, they were all just run-of-the-mill popcorn movies that were still in theaters when our annual All-Family Movie Tradition rolled around. Which is what made Back to the Future so special.
Summer matinees are about escape—from your daily grind, from the searing heat outside, even from time itself. Robert Zemeckis knew that, and catered to our needs on every level possible, from the visual to the literal. For kids, there was slapstick and a cool, relatable protagonist who gets to be a hero; for adults, there was the ultimate nostalgia trip of rewriting the past; for everyone, there were was an ’80s zeitgeist frappé of Libyan terrorists, Pepsi Free, Calvin Klein, and a revenge of the nerds that blew the actual Revenge of the Nerds out of the water. Even in its darkest moments, BTTF was relentlessly upbeat, and Huey Lewis made damn sure you knew it long after you left the theater. It wasn’t long after 1985 that action movies began to dominate the multiplex during the holiday weekend, and family comedies went on the wane. But that hadn’t happened yet: Marty and Doc might not have needed roads where they were going, but they made sure we could all come along. —Peter Rubin
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $2,723,211
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: When Big Trouble came out I had just turned one year old, so I wasn’t at the theater. But if I had known then what I know now, I would have army crawled to the nearest big screen on my tiny belly in my tiny footy pajamas and started my life the right way. The Jack Burton way. Between Burton and Snake Plissken, American Icon Kurt Russell may be one of our greatest domestically-harvested cinema badasses. And even though Plissken has that sweet eye patch and managed to escape the penal colonies of both New York and LA, it’s Burton who we’d most want by our sides on a dark and stormy night when the going gets weird. Jack might look like he’s all swagger and no smarts, but this unlikely hero is quick on his feet and knows how to surround himself with the right people to get out of tough jams—just like a certain beloved home country we know! Now, BTiLC may not be as overtly flag-waving as some other Independence Day releases, but the Pork Chop express and its cocksure captain are as red, white and blue as they come, and along with his high capable co-pilot Wang Chi, they do our apple-pie-lovin’ hearts proud. —Jordan Crucchiola
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $31,765,506
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: It seems almost unnecessary to explain why this film is epic, but here we go. Seven years after Terminator, the classic (but low-budget) ’80s film about apocalyptic murder robots from the future, T2 was an action extravaganza of bullets, explosions and a slippery, shape-shifting superkiller. T2 turned Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator from a villain to a reprogrammed hero, and turned Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor from a frightened waitress into a sinewy, shotgun-toting commando. While its special effects may seem prosaic now, at the time they were nothing less than astonishing. I vividly remember when my older brother and I—who had watched Die Hard more than 50 times on a worn, bootleg VHS tape—saw the T-1000 liquid morph through a helicopter windshield for the first time, we nearly lost our goddamn minds. Quite simply one of the best sequels—and action movies—of all time, T2 was the explosive apex of the franchise from which all other entries would sharply descend. —Laura Hudson
A League of Their Own (1992)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $13,739,456
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: It’s an unspoken truth—in both life and this list—that big summer blockbusters tend to be bro-heavy affairs. Enter: A League of Their Own. This celebration/fictionalization of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II was like Orange Is the New Black for cinema in the early ’90s (it’s even directed by a woman, Penny Marshall, which is also sadly rare among summer flicks). I don’t remember seeing it in theaters—in fact, I didn’t remember it being a July 4th release until compiling this list—but I’ve probably watched it every summer since. Everyone is at their peak here: Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Tom Hanks, Rosie O’Donnell, frigging Madonna. (This movie came two years after Dick Tracy and Evita notwithstanding was the pinnacle of Madonna’s acting career. It also gave us her fantastic ballad “This Used to Be My Playground.”) Nearly every scene in A League of Their Own is utterly perfect, and it gave us the timeless catchphrase “there’s no crying in baseball.” —Angela Watercutter
Boomerang (1992)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $13,640,706
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: The Eddie Murphy rom-com Boomerang might not have been epic in the way that, say, Independence Day was epic, but it will certainly be burned into my brain until the day I die. When it hit theaters in 1992 I was a kid at a summer camp, where the counselors—who undoubtedly were trying to be “cool” counselors—took all the campers to the movies and bought us tickets to R-rated movies. We had two choices: Universal Soldier, a story about genetically-enhanced soldiers beating each other to death, or Boomerang, a story about Eddie Murphy having explicit sex with lots and lots of women.
Anxious at the idea of gory, traumatizing deaths that would haunt me forever, I did something the MPAA would never agree with: I decided sex wasn’t as bad as violence, and chose Boomerang. It was … a confusing two hours for 11-year-old me. First, I saw Eddie Murphy have graphic, bewildering sex with a 65-year-old Eartha Kitt, then Robin Givens, then Halle Berry, then Robin Givens again, then Halle Berry again—scenes I can still recall in uncomfortable, gyrating detail. All in all, it was a pretty good Fourth of July for Eddie Murphy and a pretty weird one for me. Your mileage may vary. —Laura Hudson
Apollo 13 (1995)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $25,353,380
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: The Space Race couldn’t have been better tailored to July 4 blockbusters if they’d planned for it. It’s patriotic as hell—all about American exceptionalism without (usually) the taint of American jingoism—aspirational and triumphant, visually spectacular, and chock full of slow-motion hero-walk moments.
Apollo 13 brings all of that and a relatable underdog in Commander Jim Lovell, played by Tom Hanks. It’s dramatic, triumphant, really well made, and, aside from a few necessary concessions to schedule and format (Mattingly was good, but not that good), pretty historically accurate. For a perfect pre-fireworks double feature, pair this with 1983′s The Right Stuff (not a July 4th release, but we’ll make an exception), then cry because you are probably never going to get to walk on the moon. —Rachel Edidin
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $13,104,788
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: All hail Ivan Ooze, essentially a purple Hellraiser for the juicebox crowd, if Hellraiser was made out of Gak™. If you were in the target demographic when this movie came out in 1995, chances are there was a lot of commotion around you, from your parents or your friends’ parents or teachers or the media or whomever, about whether the “violence” of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was really appropriate for young children. This obviously made this movie the line in the playground-cred sand: The cool parents hired Power Ranger actors for their kids’ birthday parties; the uncool parents would forbid you from even playing Rangers Vs. Putties with their kids in the front yard. Sure, the acting in this movie about, seemingly, a prehistoric, purely evil alien dude “released” from a giant, buried, purple egg to hypnotize and dominate the human race was atrocious in every possible way, down to the individual line. And lord knows the martial arts, though technically real martial arts (as demonstrated by the current profession of the White Ranger), were hilariously vaudevillian. But in 1995 there was nothing more awesome than watching seemingly-enormous-but-actually-miniature robots and dudes in weird bird costumes fight to a soundtrack consisting of Devo, Shampoo, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers covering Stevie Wonder. Plus, the Rangers lose their powers and have to go into space to retrieve them. Also: the scene where Ooze electrocutes Alpha and attempts to murder Zordon, a time-warped consciousness, may have been the first time you felt the urge to cry during a movie … I mean, probably. I’m not crying, you’re crying. Shut up. —Devon Maloney
Independence Day (1996)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $50,228,264
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: Well, for starters it’s called Independence Day and it’s about the world coming together to battle an alien invasion on July 4th. So it pretty much couldn’t hit this nail more on the head with a laser sight. The fact that Will Smith flies an alien spacecraft and Jeff Goldblum somehow writes an extraterrestrial-software-compatible virus as part of this counter-offensive is just a bonus. (Double Bonus: Brent Spiner plays a scientist who works at Area 51.)
Independence Day came out when I was in high school. (Shut it.) I wasn’t supposed to see it when it came out, but when rain shut down the roller coasters at Cedar Point (the Lake Erie amusement park in Ohio known as “America’s Roller Coast”), I poured me and my soaked Nine Inch Nails T-shirt (shut it) into a car with some friends and headed to the theater. Everyone was seeing this movie, especially since rain meant there was nothing else to do in Sandusky, Ohio than go to the movies. It blew my mind. It blew everyone’s mind (or at least that’s my memory of it). And when President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) gave his rousing “today is our Independence Day” speech, I’ve never felt more patriotic. In fact, this entire day may have been the most American day I’ve ever had. —Angela Watercutter
Wild America (1997)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $1,810,586
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: There is really no reason for this movie—about three underage brothers who set out into the wilderness with a Super 8 camera to capture the country’s most dangerous wildlife for no reason other than kids lie to their parents and are sensationally stupid—should have been included on a list of best-performing, and therefore supposedly most beloved, Independence Day movies. I mean, firstly, it made less than $2 million over that long weekend, which even for 1997 is pretty terrible. (The Karate Kid Part III made $10.3 million over the same weekend in 1989, for crying out loud. Part III.)
More broadly, though, the movie isn’t exactly one about which I have spoken obsessively with my best milliennial buds, who are basically the only generation to give two damns about Jonathan Taylor Thomas. As an elementary schooler, I actually never truly understood the JTT-as-heartthrob thing, though it wasn’t for lack of trying; for some reason I adored that terrible, terrible Tom Sawyer adaptation Tom and Huck two years prior, but that was mainly for Brad Renfro (R.I.P.). Similarly, I was mostly invested in Wild America for Devon Sawa, both adorable and the first actor I’d ever encountered with my own name (a mix of emotions in its own lane of narcissism). But nevertheless, the film otherwise embodied a holiday vacation fantasy that most kids had no idea they even had until seeing it: Chasing down wild, possibly endangered animals; almost drowning in a river; having your siblings as babysitters (which also means you’re likely to die); and totally fleecing every adult in your life (except for a weird/pretty racist character known simply as Bigfoot Mountain Man?). Watch closely, though, and it may offer up some of the best advice you’ll ever get—especially if you find yourself trapped in a cave full of hungry, hibernating bears, because you are a child and therefore an idiot. —Devon Maloney
Armageddon (1998)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $36,089,972
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: Even if you don’t remember where you were physically when you first saw Michael Bay’s masterpiece, Armageddon, you remember where you were emotionally: wrecked. This movie had everything you could crave in a celebration of American independence in the late ’90s: alpha male Bruce Willis, hyper-chiseled Ben Affleck, flags!, nubile Liv Tyler, nuclear bombs, space shuttles, an iconic skyline being ripped apart by asteroids like it was made of crepe paper, an ultimate power ballad brought to you by Aerosmith, more flags!, a humanity uniting presidential speech and an ovary-squeezing slow-motion walk by a bunch of roughneck impromptu astronauts on their way to save Earth.
Deep Impact, which was released two months earlier, was clearly the superior apocalypse-by-meteor movie of 1998 (of ever?), but no one knows how to sex up the end of the world better than Bay, and so Impact will forever live in the shadow of its intellectually inferior, but way hotter bad boy twin. I mean, come on? Who would you rather have as your hero? World-class deep driller and No. 1 DILF Harry Stamper, dripping with pure Willis appeal, or amateur astronaut next door Leo Biederman as played by Elijah Wood? That’s what we thought. Our hearts raced; our tear ducts nearly broke, and our knuckles went white as Bay plucked at our every willing emotional string, like the brilliant, evil bastard he is. Even when we could barely see through our tears during the final act, we wanted to spend our lives in that sweet surrender, to stay lost in that moment—forever. —Jordan Crucchiola
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $11,335,889
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: Sure, after 17 years of South Park, the antics of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s foul-mouthed kids may seem commonplace, but back in 1999—after only two years on the air—they were still controversial and new, pushing hard on the bleeding edge of humor and good taste. The profanity had always been bleeped on TV, however, so when the F-bombs finally burst from the mouths of Cartman and Stan in all their R-rated glory (in a story about censorship, naturally) it felt like a transgressive revelation.
Thanks in part its brutal, take-no-prisoners satire and a glorious soundtrack that included songs like “Kyle’s Mom’s a Bitch” and the Academy Award-nominated “Blame Canada,” I laughed so hard that I fell out of my seat onto the grimy, sticky floor of the theater, couldn’t get back up, and didn’t care. After all, is there anything more ‘South Park’ than realizing just how funny it can be to get a just a little bit disgusting? —Laura Hudson
Superman Returns (2006)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $52,535,096
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: What could be more American than a Superman movie? It’s right there in his job description, after all—he fights for truth, justice and the American Way. So the prospect of seeing Clark Kent’s first big-screen outing in more than a decade on July 4 weekend seemed ideal, until I saw the movie itself. Perhaps Bryan Singer was making some kind of larger metaphorical point about America’s world standing by portraying Superman as a deadbeat dad who creepily stalks his ex after abandoning her years earlier, while enemies plot right under his nose, but even so. This wasn’t what anyone in the theaters signed up for, as you could tell from the crowds trying to convince themselves that what they saw wasn’t a massive disappointment as they left the cinema. Sorry, all: It really was that bad. There weren’t even any fireworks. —Graeme McMillan
Transformers (2007)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $70,502,384
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: OK, so I didn’t like Transformers: Age of Extinction, but the O.G. Transformers still holds appeal. Perhaps it was that full-throttle Michael Bay Burnout hadn’t hit yet, or maybe it was seeing those Transformers transform for the first time, but whatever it was, the first installment of Transformers was a huge thrill to see in theaters. (Re-watch value? Eh, maybe?) Some may argue, rightly, that 1986′s animated Transformers: The Movie is still a better movie for fans of the Autobots and Decepticons, but as far as live-action reboots go, this one got the job done. It also set the precedent for Bay’s Transformers movies making buckets of cash, a trend that continued right into this summer, with Age of Extinction bringing in a cool $100 million. —Angela Watercutter
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $64,832,191
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: Somehow, for some reason, Summit Entertainment decided to make the third Twilight installment a summer tent-pole movie when it had previously been a November staple. Maybe because it was the “action-packed” installment of the series? I guess when you look ahead at the calendar and see The Last Airbender as your only competition on a holiday weekend you seize that slot and don’t let go. All told, Eclipse wasn’t the worst this Saga had to offer. Bryce Dallas Howard sucked the marrow from her turn as villainess, and the baby vampire army was a little cool. But one thing we can never forgive or forget is that wig! For a franchise that had already grossed half a billion dollars from its first two movies, you’d think the hair and makeup department could have foraged a better wig for Kristen Stewart than the sad, lifeless pelt they glued to her head for Eclipse. Stewart was simultaneously playing Joan Jett in The Runaways while pulling Bella Swan duty, but even her glam punk mullet would have made more sense than this. “It’s just her hair,” you’re thinking, “this is a non-issue.” But the source of K. Stew’s raw awkward power is her hair: her voluminous, always-a-little-greasy-in-the-right-way hair. It’s like the Twilight higher-ups wanted us to know they were about to quit trying completely, so by the time we saw the CGI catastrophe of baby Renesmee in Breaking Dawn — Part 2 we would be inoculated against the producers’ only thinly veiled contempt for fans. Eclipse was a blockbuster to be sure, but should have stayed in its dreary winter home and saved the summer fun slot for something less snowy and sad. —Jordan Crucchiola
Savages (2012)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $16,016,910
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: We wanted Savages to work. We wanted it so badly! 2012 was supposed to be the year our man Taylor Kitsch became a top line Hollywood star—a bankable, biggest-name-on-the-poster kind of guy. John Carter got him off to a rough start, though—even if that movie was totally underappreciated—and Battleship didn’t do much to smooth out the ride after that. (Yeah, suddenly America got discerning with is monster-budget action movies. Whatever.) But Savages was going to be different. It was the credibility picture! Kitsch hitched his wagon to Oliver Stone (probably a better choice 20 years ago than it is now) and was going to kick ass, look hunky, and deliver poignant character drama all at the same time. But alas, there was no saving Savages. Even if Kitsch had changed his character’s name from Chon to Tim Riggins halfway through the movie and brought the full cast of Friday Night Lights with him to take down a vicious Mexican drug cartel, this movie would have still been excruciating. It was the Fourth of July equivalent of a fireworks boat that up and explodes before getting a single shot off. We got to see all the pretty colors, but it was just a hot mess of good intentions that left us feeling dissatisfied and confused. —Jordan Crucchiola
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
July 4 Weekend Gross: $62,004,688
Why It Made for an Epic Fourth of July: There were many reasons to anticipate this franchise reboot, despite the fact that the first Spider-Man trilogy had only wrapped five years prior, but it really only needed two of them to promise a success: Gwen Stacy, and Not Tobey Maguire. That Andrew Garfield was cast in the title role certainly did not hurt, either: Actually, the decision was yet another addition to the case being made among some enthusiasts that Marvel figured out that superhero-movie success could be achieved by catering specifically to a female audience. Truly, the screams and whoops that erupted in the theater where my best girlfriend and I saw this movie opening weekend seemed far more attuned to the various contours of a certain supersuit than it did about the appearance of the villain, as it might have in superhero movies past (though this villain was, to be fair, Lizard, which might have accounted for the lack on that end).
Of course, the movie ruled in other ways, too; for the first time, a teenaged superhero actually kind of acted like a teenager, and instead of a sort of wishy-washy Mary Jane (a very sad Kirsten Dunst) we got an actually-brilliant, decently written character in Gwen (the ever-endearing Emma Stone). That Garfield and Stone began dating in real life only added to the chemistry that made the film so much better than its 2002 counterpart. Plus, Sally Field and Jed Bartlett as Aunt May and Uncle Ben? Could there even be any better pairing? For a truly American weekend, the reds and blues that comprise this particularly sad-boy origin story certainly fit the bill. —Devon Maloney
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