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[alfredofroylan]

With the threads about wich movie is going to bomb this summer, I tought it'll be interesting to see how summer blockbusters have change in the last 4 decades. It'd interesting to see the differences in terms of money, kind of movies,etc.

July 19 - 26 1974

1 Chinatown R $2,359,496
Mr. Majestyk R
Death Wish R $6,987,776 (Released July 24th)
Where the Red Fern Grows G
Gone in 60 seconds PG
Uptown Saturday Night PG
The Parallax View R
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot R
My Name is Nobody PG
Thriller: A Cruel Picture R

First of all this list was retreived from an old magazine that listed the movies as "most popular films" so it's hard to know what number each movie had, I'm sure about Chinatown because Wikipedia listed it as the top grossing film of that week (Death Wish came later in that week and ended up making more money at the end). One interesting thing is that 5 of these films are rated R (something that's unthinkable in this day and age) also none of them ended up in the top 10 of 1974. Gone in 60 seconds is famous for destroying 93 cars in a car chase scene; Thunderbolt and Lightfoot was directed by Michael Cimino who later directed "The Deer Hunter" and much later "Heaven's Gate" Thriller: A cruel picture is a Swedish movie that was banned at Sweden and ended up in America as an edited version, Quentin Tarantino likes this film.

July 20 1984

1 Ghostbusters PG $130,135,144 7
2 Best Defense R $7,872,297 - 1
3 Gremlins PG $105,525,234 - 7
4 The Neverending Story PG $4,325,823 - 1
5 The Karate Kid PG $35,969,149 - 5
6 The Last Starfighter PG $12,700,134 - 2
7 The Muppets Take Manhattan G $11,979,757 - 2
8 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom PG $147,185,208 $28 9
9 Bachelor Party R $24,894,641 - 4
10 Conan the Destroyer PG Uni. $1,540,188

Thankfully Box Office mojo tracks as far as 1982. I saw most of this films as a kid and it's weird to think that it's been 30 years since Ghostbusters, Gremlins, etc. Anyway R rated movies are starting to fade out from summer lists and look at the number of weeks for Ghostbusters, it was detroned by Purple Rain the next week and it came back later. In total Ghostbusters was the #1 movie in the US for 10 weeks, Avatar (the most successful movie of our time) was 6 weeks as number 1. Also this year marks the creation of the PG-13 rating.

July 22 1994

1 Forrest Gump PG-13 $109,132,967 3
2 True Lies R $61,531,149 2
3 The Client PG-13 $17,174,262 1
4 The Lion King G $199,723,355 6
5 Angels in the Outfield PG $21,762,849 - 2
6 Speed R $100,059,711 7
7 Lassie PG $3,201,8431
8 North PG $3,036,050
9 I Love Trouble PG $26,429,089 - 4
10 The Shadow PG-13 $27,226,205

And so PG-13 was born and evertyhing was good, not really. To be honest I don't remember half of these movies (I remember all the films from 1984 but in this list ony the most famous like Spped, Forrest, True Lies and Lion King) True Lies and Speed are an interesting case they're rated R but compared with Death Wish or Thriller they look super tame, but hey Jamie Lee Curtis has one of the best scenes ever. Also the Lion King is IMO the pinnacle of 90's Disney movies. 1994 was also a "good" year to bring back old concepts and characters: Lassie, The Shadow, Little Rascals, Maverick and The Flintstones

 

[Subitai]

Should add one for 25 years ago. A lot of those movies are popping back up in the news as their anniversaries come and go.

 

[Wafflecakes]

That 1984 list is amazingly filled with classics.

94 list has a few as well.

 

[HighAmperage]

1982 will always be the GOAT year for movies for me.

 

[speculawyer]

80's wins. Great decade for movies.

 

[ratcliffja]

The crazy thing about 84 is that I've never even heard of Best Defense, yet 3-8 range from great to all-time classic movies.

 

[alfredofroylan]

Should add one for 25 years ago. A lot of those movies are popping back up in the news as their anniversaries come and go.

Ok.
July 21 1989

1 Lethal Weapon 2 R $13,022,249 3
2 Batman PG-13 $187,521,450 5
3 When Harry Met Sally... R $11,085,052 - 2
4 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids PG $87,002,099 - 5
5 License to Kill PG-13 $18,134,933 - 2
6 Peter Pan (Re-issue) G $14,333,560 2
7 Dead Poets Society PG $70,020,395 8
8 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade PG-13 $172,107,395 9
9 Ghostbusters II PG $98,489,868 6
10 Weekend at Bernie's PG-13 $18,058,053 - 3

Good Ol' Batman, that summer was crazy Bats was everywhere, the interesting thing is that the capaign was focused in the character rather than the movie, a lot of merchandise had the Batman logo but it wasn't the logo from the movie, also was "When Harry Met Sally" a R rated film? I barely remember that one. Disney re-released Peter Pan and for most people they were done after "Oliver and his gang" this year Disney released the Little Mermaid in November. A special note UHF was released this week, it ended at place 11

 

[winjet81]

Heh... in July 1984, I saw a Revenge of the Nerds/Best Defense double bill at my local drive-in. How time flies.