Which film did everyone go and see post 9/11?

September 8, 2015 2:53 AM

I remember back in that September reading a news story about how people seemed to be going to see a film in the days and weeks following 9/11 to take their mind off the awful things which were happening resulting in the film receiving better than expected box office. For years I've thought it was the Mariah Carey film Glitter but that was considered a failure. Any ideas?
posted by feelinglistless to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

mathowie and I (and a bunch of other people) saw Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
posted by jessamyn at 4:24 AM on September 8, 2015 [2 favorites]

I don't think there was a single film that people used as consolation like that: it was more that many people used DIFFERENT films, films in general rather than a specific film, as their escapism.

(I myself stuffed in a VHS tape of 'Singin' In The Rain' to help me deal with the emotional overload of that day.)
posted by easily confused at 4:31 AM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: No direct answer, but here's IMDB's list of top grossers for 2001.

Then I found this:

Theater attendance dipped substantially after the attacks for a couple weeks but began to rebound. In fact, 2001 would substantially outdo 2000, with $8.5 billion at the box office, up from $7.7 billion.

The strongest performers were comedies, fantasy fare and action movies with no reference to terrorism. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was 2001's top grosser, at $267.8 million. The other top films were the cartoon Shrek, $267.7 million; the actioner Rush Hour 2, at $226 million; another animated feature, Monsters, Inc., at $220 million; and The Mummy Returns, at $202 million. Other winners were the movie version of J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Training Day, a raw police drama set in Los Angeles, also was a winner.

posted by quinndexter at 5:16 AM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

I don't know, Glitter did really well at the box office two weeks after 9/11.
posted by General Malaise at 5:16 AM on September 8, 2015

Right, Glitter was a flop--I remember because Mariah Carey seemed to take 9/11 very personally and seemed sure her movie would have flourished at any other time.
posted by mermaidcafe at 5:16 AM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Here are the releases of September 2001 and how well they did at the box office. Here is October.

Don't Say A Word. Zoolander. Hardball. Musketeer. Hearts in Atlantis.

October: Training Day, KPax, Serendipity, Bandits, 13 Ghosts, From Hell.

Not all were escapist fare.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:51 AM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Id' say Zoolander - that's when I saw it. I had a pretty big appetite for comedy as an escape valve.

The second night after 9/11, when the shock was starting to wane but the fear and sadness were growing larger, I went to my best friend's house and we watched a video of Pee Wee's Big Adventure.
posted by Miko at 8:43 AM on September 8, 2015

Anecdata on the reminiscence angle, I went to see "Ghost World" on 9/11 to get away from the news.
posted by rhizome at 10:11 AM on September 8, 2015

I remember this. I believe it was Serendipity because it mostly takes place in NY and you could still see the towers in the movie. It came out in early Oct. It wasn't that great of a movie plot and writing wise but it showed the NY and way of life in NY people knew before 9/11.
posted by WinterSolstice at 11:29 AM on September 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Zoolander definitely. A ton of bloggers were in SF for Fray Day and I remember seeing Zoolander with a group of 10 or 12.
posted by bendy at 1:13 PM on September 8, 2015

As a side anecdote: the movie "Big Trouble," an adaptation of a novel by Dave Barry, was supposed to come out around the same time. But since the end of the movie features a bomb on a plane, the movie was delayed. It ended up doing terrible.

But you should seek it out! It is really funny and features Tim Allen, Rene Russo, a pre-famous Zooey Deschanel, Andy Richter, and others. I really recommend it.
posted by tacodave at 2:25 PM on September 8, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks everyone!
posted by feelinglistless at 2:32 PM on September 8, 2015

It's true that it was in november, but as someone who was a tween in 2001, i really really associate that post-9/11 fall with Harry Potter, and from the few times it's come up so do some of my friends.

Even though Zoolander is a more memorable movie to me now, i'd have had to look it up to tell you it was from 2001. Harry potter is definitely that year and time to me. As much if not moreso as SW: episode I is 1999.
posted by emptythought at 7:31 PM on September 8, 2015

My household of dirtbags drank a 30 pack and watched Die Hard. True story.
posted by TheCoug at 8:37 PM on September 8, 2015