Back in Action: August 1991

This year, I’m taking a month-by-month look at the action movies released globally in 1991, talking about the trends and individual titles that made the year in the genre and comparing them to the releases in 2026. You can read the previous monthly entries here.

Let’s take a look at the state of action in August 1991 and August 2026, with expanded thoughts on specific movies at the bottom for paid subscribers.

The numbers

I found 38 action movies in August 1991 from 10 filmmaking nations. (Here’s a Letterboxd list.)

In August 2026, I found 35 action movies from 10 filmmaking nations. (Here’s another Letterboxd list.)

Both August 1991 and August 2026 saw a dip in the number of action movies produced globally compared to the earlier summer months. It kind of makes sense – August has become a pseudo January/February-style dead zone for big releases, caught in between the biggest summer blockbusters and the awards contenders/holiday season blockbusters. What sticks out the most to me about this data is that India’s action industry did not slow down at all, making about 40% of all the action movies released in August 2026.

Crime was once again the most popular-sub genre in 1991 (15 movies), but there were also plenty of action-comedies (7), martial arts movies (6), action dramas (6), and sci-fi action movies (6). There were also three revenge movies, three periods pieces, and two superhero movies.

Crime was also the most popular sub-genre in August 2026 (14), followed by thriller (7) and drama (7). There were five action comedies, four period pieces, and two superhero movies. There were also at least three new action movies that prominently used generative AI, per audience and critic reports.

Who were we fighting?

1991’s action movie dominance by cop protagonists continues, making up a little more than a quarter of the action heroes (10) this month. The next most popular protagonist type was martial artist (6), with a few Hong Kong movies and a few American movies chasing that Hong Kong feeling, followed by criminal (5). The most unique action hero role this time around was inventor/factory co-op manager (Aditya 369).

The same three categories we usually see on the antagonist side were once again ever present in August 1991, led by criminals (12), corrupt officials (6), and soldiers (4). The most common criminal type this time around were drug-based and murderers (3 each).

In August 2026, the numbers for cop protagonists (now just 5) and criminal protagonists (10) swapped from August 1991. It's a poetic continuation of a trend that we've seen all year, with significantly less action movies in 2026 with cop protagonists and more led by criminals and normal joes.

The antagonists in this month’s action movies were led by criminals (12), followed by corrupt officials (4) and soldiers (3). The most common type of criminal antagonist this month dealt in drugs (5), followed by human trafficking (2).

In August 1991, 71% of action heroes had a background in violence, while 24% didn’t. In July 2026, 66% had a background in violence, while 26% didn’t. (In both years, there were a few where it was unclear and I wasn’t able to watch the movie to find out.)

In August 1991, 95% of action heroes were men, and 11% (were women). In August 2026, 82% were men, and 20% were women. (In both years, there were action movies with a man and woman as co-leads).

America

August 1991

Action movies at the box office were led by two July releases: Hot Shots! (released on the last day of July, to be fair) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The biggest new release American action movie was the second Sheldon Lettich-Jean Claude Van Damme movie of the year, as the Bloodsport pairing followed up Lionheart with Double Impact. It brought in $22 million (third among all August Hollywood releases), and no other new action movie made a dent at the box office.

Other releases of note include the very fun buddy cop movie Showdown in Little Tokyo (an old favorite I didn’t have time to catch up with this time), starring Dolph Lundgren and the Hollywood debut of Brandon Lee. There was also yet another biker movie (Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man), continuing a micro-trend from summer 1991, and a few martial arts movies, including Albert Pyun’s Bloodmatch (where a kickboxer kidnaps other kickboxers and interrogates them in the ring about his brother’s death).

August 2026

This year’s August box office was also led by two July releases: Spider-Man: Brand New Day (also released on the last day of July!) and The Odyssey. Like in 1991, American action movies felt the August drop-off extremely hard. Mutiny, yet another human trafficking action movie, was the biggest presence at the American box office at all ($14.4m, #5 among August releases). That’s not a great return on its $40 million budget, and also the movie is not very good. The other new action movie at the American box office was Ridley Scott’s star-studded post-apocalyptic sci-fi The Dog Stars ($10.3 mil, #8 among August releases).

Other American releases of note include the Power Rangers-type project Legend of the White Dragon, featuring many people from the show, and two movies with reportedly heavy use of generative AI (The King of Cannabis, The Cully Hill Boys).

East Asia

August 1991

This month saw the release of one of the most influential martial arts movies of the late 20th century – Tsui Hark’s masterful Once Upon a Time in China. The Jet Li epic led to a huge uptick in period martial arts movies after cleaning up at the box office and winning four Hong Kong Film Awards. But while it was the #8 movie at the 1991 Hong Kong box office, it wasn’t even the top dog in August – that’d go to Stephen Chow’s God of Gamblers III: Back to Shanghai, as his reign of box office dominance continues (it was only his third-highest grossing movie of the year!). 

Other Hong Kong releases included Black Cat, which was intended to be a La Femme Nikita remake but had to pivot slightly after some rights issues, and the Hong Kong version of Island of Fire. That one is a star-studded Taiwanese-Hong Kong co-production with Jackie Chan and Andy Lau that had a 30-minute longer separate Taiwanese release in 1990.

Japan’s action output this month included four animated movies (Silent Möbius, and new movies in the Lupin, Locke, and Urusei Yatsura franchises), and some direct-to-video V-cinema movies.

August 2026

July animated release All Wishes Come True continued to do well at the Chinese box office in August, leaving largely DTV movies to sort through from this month’s output. In Japan, the most significant new releases were the animated manga adaptation Ribbon Hero and a live-action adaptation of the soccer manga Blue Lock.

South and Southeast Asia

August 1991

Two very different big blockbuster releases did well in Indian theatres: Saudagar and Aditya 369. Saudagar is a spin on Romeo and Juliet and was a massive success, finishing as the third-biggest hit in the country in 1991. Aditya 369 is an ambitious sci-fi movie that is considered the first Indian time travel movie.

Elsewhere in the region, there were three crime-action movies produced in the Philippines, a crime movie in Pakistan, and a historical epic in Indonesia.

August 2026

India’s box office also saw a downturn in August 2026, led by the gangster movies Awarapan 2 and Toxic, which finally got a release after months of delays. After an impressive opening day haul, the uber-expensive Toxic fell off massively at the box office.

Best poster:

Easy choice: the V-Cinema movie Tuff Part IV - Harvest of Blood.

For paid subscribers, I’ve written some thoughts about all the action movies I watched from August 1991 (Double Impact, Aditya 369, Once Upon a Time in China, Saudagar). I’m also keeping lists ranking the 1991 action movies and 2026 action movies I’ve watched while doing this project. And here’s a preview of the movies I’ll be looking at from September 1991.

August 1991 action movies

Double Impact

Is twice the Van Damme twice the fun? Not quite, but Double Impact has its charms. Inspired by an Alexandre Dumas novella, it’s a movie where the Muscles from Brussels plays long-lost twin brothers reunited in the Hong Kong crime scene (the premise of Van Damme playing twins would be repeated quite a few times in his career later on).