Boxoffice® Pro - December 2013

FORREST GUMP
Hanks has
worked with
Steven Spielberg
three times:
Saving Private Ryan,
The Terminal, and
Catch Me If You Can
TOY STORY
his momentum. For the fourth consecutive
summer, Hanks delivered a crowd-pleasing hit
when he reteamed with Ron Howard—the
man who gave him his big-screen break in
Splash—for 1995’s Apollo 13. It outgrossed
every summer movie except Batman Forever.
Late 1995 also saw the feature-film debut
of Pixar, which cast Hanks and Tim Allen as
Woody and Buzz for Toy Story. The first entirely
computer-generated animated movie in history
earned $192 million at home and $362 million
globally. Hanks became the star of back-to-back
box office champs.
After dabbling in writing and directing with
1996’s That Thing You Do!, Hanks returned to
the summer box office in Steven Spielberg’s
Saving Private Ryan, a film that yielded the already-beloved
actor another Oscar nomination.
You’ve Got Mail, Toy Story 2, and The Green
Mile proceeded to become hits between 1998
and 1999, followed by 2000’s holiday blockbuster
Cast Away (which gave Hanks his fifth
lead-acting nomination from the Academy).
By this point, what else was left for Hanks
to do? His streak of commercially successful
hits continued on through Road to Perdition
and two more team-ups with Spielberg in Catch
Me If You Can and 2004’s more modest hit The
Terminal. The Coen Brothers’ 2004 remake of
The Ladykillers unfortunately marked Hanks’
first box office flop in eight years (and only his
second since 1990).
This point effectively marked a transition
for the veteran’s box office career. Taking fewer
roles and for more personal reasons, Hanks
churned out another animated favorite in
2004’s The Polar Express. After the disappointing
run of Charlie Wilson’s War, he landed his first
live-action franchise with 2006’s The Da Vinci
Code—a $218 million domestic/$758 million
global blockbuster. Audiences weren’t as thrilled
with the adaptation of the popular book, leading
to lower—but still respectable—returns for the
2009 follow-up, Angels & Demons.
Over the last few years, Hanks has again
seen the highs and lows of the box office. Larry
Crowne, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,
and Cloud Atlas all performed below hopes and
expectations. Conversely, 2010’s Toy Story 3
gave the venerable actor the highest-grossing
movie of his career with $415 million domestically
and $1.06 billion overall (topping Gump,
although certainly not when accounting for
inflation).
With very few dramatic roles since 2000’s
Cast Away, Hanks recently snapped the cold
42 BoxOffice ® Pro The Business of Movies DECEMBER 2013