One doesn’t often consider opening weekend competition when looking back on an older film. Sometimes we are aware of other films that came out the very same year, but if we weren’t around to witness it first hand, seldom do we dwell on whether or not they were actually in direct competition with one another. Whether some of you remember it or not, the weekend of June 12th, 1981 was a bit of a heavy-hitter.
On the legacy side of things, Desmond Davis’ Clash of the Titans arrived in theaters. The last fantasy spectacle from producer/FX maven Ray Harryhausen, it was just as bombastic and steeped in mythology as his older work (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, etc.). A rollicking cinematic adventure if there ever was one and a film that quickly became a childhood staple for many a lad (myself included) later on in the decade.
Clash of the Titans debuted at #2 that weekend, earning $6.6 million. It ultimately compiled a worldwide total of $44.4 million. Not a slam dunk of a smash hit based on its $15 million budget, but not a flop either. It would have been nice to see another similar mythological adventure or two produced by Harryhausen afterwards, but as is, it remains a fine capper to that chapter of his career.
At #3 came Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part 1, itself earning $4.9 million. Budgeted at $11 million, the Mel Brooks historical sketch comedy raked in almost $32 million domestically; further cementing his reputation as a successful purveyor of great comedies at the time. Combined, both films seem like a wonderful double-feature that any younger genre fan (again, myself included) might have loved to have crafted for himself/herself at the time. The fun doesn’t stop there, however.
If two such classics came in at second and third place at the box office 35 years ago, then what pray tell was #1? All too often we look back upon such things and discover that most popular film at any given point in time might not necessarily be one that is still celebrated today. No such luck in this case.
So what beat out the esteemed and beloved likes of Ray Harryhausen and Mel Brooks at the box office? Indiana Jones. That’s right, folks! 35 years ago on June 12th, in addition to the two above classics, Raiders of the Lost Ark first exploded onto the silver screen and forever changed action cinema. The pulp adventure throwback debuted with an opening weekend of $8.3 million. It went on to gross almost $200 million domestically during its initial run and has tallied up even more in revivals ever since. To say the $20 million film was a hit is an understatement.
Going on and on about Raiders itself would be almost be pointless at this stage, since I really have nothing further to add on the subject that hasn’t already been covered by others elsewhere. Instead, I’ll simply let it at this: it was incredibly fitting that Harryhausen was beaten at the box office by the likes of Henry Jones Jr.
While Raiders of the Lost Ark (and its sequels) are more indebted to the pulp action serials of the 1930s, it’s impossible to argue Harryhausen’s influence on its creators, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. The Harryhausen touch rears its head more in some of their other celebrated works (namely Star Wars and Jurassic Park), but the free-spirited adventure of Sinbad, Jason, and Perseus can be seen within Indiana Jones himself. Furthermore, so can the tone of those classics be witnessed in Raiders.
Sure, the latter gets darker at times than those Greek and Arabian mythological fantasy films ever did, but that has more to do with (then) modern storytelling than anything else. At the end of the day, watching Harrison Ford battle dastardly villains and inhuman threats hits the very same pleasure centers of the action-loving brain that the likes of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and, of course, Clash of the Titans, did.
In time, we are all usurped by our descendants, be they of the biological or thematic variety. To that end, what better way for Ray Harryhausen to be defeated at the box office than to have such a blow come from the minds that brought us E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and the Star Wars saga? I’m sure the makers of Clash of the Titans would have liked to have brought home more of the bacon, so to speak, back in June 1981. After all, big success is always better than modest success. I cannot help be picture them begrudgingly accepting defeat at the ends of masterful talent virtually created in their own image, however. Clash may have lost the battle, but in the end we all won.
