The Pop Dose website has published an article titled Box Office Flashback: August 27, 1987 listing the top-ten movies playing in the theaters. I have listed them in order of final box-office earnings, from least to most.
Masters of the Universe -- opened on August 7 -- earned $17.3 million.
Born in East LA -- opened on August 21 -- $17.3 million
Can't Buy Me Love -- opened on August 14 -- earned $31.6 million
The Lost Boys -- opened on July 31 -- earned $32.2 million
No Way Out -- opened August 14 -- earned $35.5 million
The Living Daylights -- opened on July 31 -- earned $51.1 million
RoboCop -- opened on July 17 -- earned $53.4 million
La Bamba -- opened July 24 -- earned $54.2 million
Dirty Dancing -- opened August 21 -- earned $63.4 million
Stakeout -- opened on August 5 -- earned $65.6 million
This list does not include the movie The Big Easy, which opened on August 21, because it earned only $16.4 million and so was not in the top ten.
If you lived in large city, the above movies were your main choices to watch in the movie theaters when Dirty Dancing opened.
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During the first week of Dirty Dancing, August 21-27, the top earners at the box office were:
Stakeout = $8.4 million
Can't Buy Me Love = $6.5 million
Born in East LA = $6.4 million
Dirty Dancing = $6.4 million
No Way Out = $5.8 million
The Living Daylights = $5.4 million
La Bamba = $4.9 million
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Much more popular than Dirty Dancing in the movie theaters that month was Stakeout.
(Click on Watch this movie on YouTube.)
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The other top-ten movie featuring music was La Bamba.
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Dirty Dancing earned so much at the box office not because it earned well in its opening weeks -- but rather because it continued to play in the theaters for an extraordinarily long time -- at least 21 weeks.
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See also my follow-up article Dirty Dancing During the Holiday Season of 1987.
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