This Day in Movie History: January 6

On this day in Movie History – January 6 – Eli Roth’s Hostel opened domestically. The horror flick surprised box office prognosticators by taking in $19.5 million for its opening with an eventual gross of $47 million, against a meager $4.8 million budget. Hostel continued a genre that came to be known as “torture porn” in horror circles. That classification of film had started just three months before with megahit Saw and would continue with its many sequels, as well as two further sequels for Hostel.

As for birthdays, Rowan Atkinson is 59 today. The British comedian is best known for his TV work with “Mr. Bean” and “Blackadder”, but he translated that success with the film version of Bean (1997) and its sequel from 2007, Mr. Bean’s Holiday. He had another film franchise with Johnny English (2003) and Johnny English Reborn (2011). Other notable film appearances: Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Scooby Doo (2002), and Love Actually (2003).

Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi is 33 today. She broke through the American audiences in 2006 with her Oscar-nominated Supporting Actress turn in Babel and has continued to work stateside in The Brothers Bloom, Pacific Rim, and 47 Ronin.

As for Six Degrees of Separation between the two birthday performers:

Rowan Atkinson was in Love Actually with Chiwetel Ejiofer

Chiwetel Ejiofer was in 12 Years a Slave with Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt was in Babel with Rinko Kikuchi

And that’s today – January 6 – in Movie History!