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Just missing the cut were minor winners like Deep Rising, Orange County, Assault on Precinct 13, Smokin’ Aces, Varsity Blues, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Body Snatchers, M3GAN, and Bad Boys for Life. And, of course, movies that debuted in a few theaters in December only to expand greatly in January did not count as January releases. So, which movies are both very enjoyable and lucrative examples of January release cinema? Let’s find out.
7) Cloverfield
Cloverfield was a success because of fantastic marketing, it’s as simple as that. The trailers and posters did a phenomenal job of shrouding what the film’s threat was. If you wanted to see it, you had to buy a ticket. And a lot of people did just that.
On $25 million the film raked in $172 million worldwide. It was a huge success. A big part of that was the curiosity factor but equally important was the fact it merged kaiju action with a boots-on-the-ground narrative about rescuing a loved one. It’s a movie that felt like it had real stakes, and we felt that for the characters because we were essentially seeing the events through their eyes. 10 Cloverfield Lane is a little bit better, but the first movie will always be one of the best examples of why high-concept stuff can thrive in January, especially if the budget is kept low.
Stream Cloverfield on MGM+.
6) Taken
There actually weren’t many expectations of Taken before it hit theaters at the very end of January 2009. But then it opened to $24.7 million, which was an impressive debut, but far from its big accomplishment. Instead, it’s biggest accomplishment was being such a word-of-mouth hit. All in all, it’s a pretty standard revenge actioner, but people really got to talking about the iconic phone call scene and just how much tension that built.
As for the numbers, its second weekend experienced an absolutely miniscule drop for an action movie to the tune of another $20.5 million. The drop was even smaller the second weekend, earning another $18.9 million. It continued to experience mercifully tiny drops until it left theaters with $145 million domestically and another $81.8 million from overseas markets. And the irony is that it wasn’t even a domestic film, it was French. Let this entry also represent The Grey, an even better Neeson movie that just missed grabbing the spot because it wasn’t quite as important to its actor’s career trajectory (or jaw-droppingly lucrative).
Stream Taken on Hulu.
5) Split
M. Night Shyamalan had a few rough years there. The Happening represented a nadir in the horror movie wing of his filmography (though he never intended for it to be straightforward horror) then The Last Airbender and After Earth ended up being similarly disastrous efforts into high budget filmmaking.
It was with The Visit in 2015 that audiences started to accept him as a clever filmmaker once more. It re-earned their goodwill, and then when Split came along the next year they didn’t feel as though they were bound to get burned. That feeling of safety was compounded by the film’s very solid marketing, which sold it as a tense affair with a go-for-broke performance by James McAvoy. And, in the end, it was something of an important film, considering it was as much a launching pad for Anya Taylor-Joy as The Witch from the previous year. Not to mention, the twist ending tag scene connecting it to Unbreakable was very exciting. It’s just unfortunate Glass, released three years later, totally failed to stick the landing even with Taylor-Joy, McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sarah Paulson all on the cast list.
Stream Split on HBO Max.
