WEEKEND BOX OFFICE FLASHBACK: September 16-18, 1983

Counting down the 

Top 10 Movies from 

thirty years ago 

this weekend, 

September 16-18, 1983.

Coming in at #10 is the sequel to 1977's Saturday Night Fever, Stayin' Alive.  In it's tenth week in theaters, the film slips from Ninth to Tenth place and would finish the year as the 8th top-grossing film.

At #9 for the weekend is the Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd comedy, Trading Places, in its fifteenth week of release. Originally conceived as a Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder project, Pryor dropped out and was replaced by Murphy, who reportedly forced Wilder out because he didn't want to be seen as Pryor's replacement.  The film ended up in 4th place for the year.

Return Of The Jedi, the third and, in HERC's eyes, FINAL film in the Star Wars saga comes in at #8.  After 17 weeks in theaters, the film was still smashing box office records on its way to #1 highest-grossing film of the year.

Boosted by a solid-selling soundtrack, Flashdance held the lucky #7 spot after an incredible 23 weeks of release.  At the end of the year, it would be the third highest-grossing film behind Jedi and Terms Of Endearment.

Originally written and filmed as episodes of the television series Darkroom, Nightmares found its way into theaters when it was deemed "too intense" for the small screen and ended up #6 for the weekend.   The film, a horror anthology of four stories along the lines of The Twilight Zone or Night Gallery, would end up way down at #83 on the year-end rankings.

The Rodney Dangerfield vehicle Easy Money was the week's #5 film for the second consecutive week.  Bill Murray was originally signed to play a supporting role ("Maddy") but dropped out before filming began to work on Ghostbusters. At year's end, Easy Money came in at #26; in 1984, Murray's Ghostbusters finished up at #2 for the year, grossing nearly ten times as much as Easy Money did.

After eight weeks in the Top 10, National Lampoon's Vacation was at #4 for the second week in a row.  The movie would finish the year as the #11 highest-grossing film and spawn several sequels.

On just 432 screens, Revenge Of The Ninja came in at #3. It was the second film in Cannon Films' Ninja trilogy: Enter The Ninja was the first film and the third film was Ninja III: The Domination.  The second Ninja film finished #54 in year-end rankings.

Risky Business comes in at #2 - the same spot it held the week prior.   The movie would lock up the tenth spot on the year-end list, grossing ten times its $6.2 million dollar budget.

The Number One film of the weekend was Mr. Mom for the third week in a row.  Michael Keaton had turned down Splash! to make Mr. Mom, which was John Hughes's second major screenplay after National Lampoon's Vacation.  The movie would earn just over a million dollars more than Risky Business for the year, ending up in ninth place.

Any 1983 movie memories you want to share?  Hit HERC up in the Comments.