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The decade of the 1980s in Western cinema saw the return of studio-driven pictures, coming from the filmmaker-driven New Hollywood era of the 1970s. [1] The period was when the "high concept" picture was established by producer Don Simpson, [2] where films were expected to be easily marketable and understandable. Therefore, they had short cinematic plots that could be summarized in one or two sentences. Since its implementation, this method has become the most popular formula for modern Hollywood blockbusters. At the same time in Eastern cinema, the Hong Kong film industry entered a boom period that significantly elevated its prominence in the international market.
The cinema of the 1980s covered many subgenres, with hybrids crossing between multiple genres. The course strengthened towards creating ever-larger megahit films, which earned more in their opening weeks than most previous movies due in part to scheduling releases when there were less competition for audience interest.
The decade saw an increased amount of nudity in film, as well as the increasing emphasis in the American industry on film franchises; especially in the science fiction, horror, and action genres. Much of the reliance on these effects-driven movies was due in part to the Star Wars films at the advent of this decade and the new cinematic visuals they helped to pioneer.
With the release of 1984's Red Dawn , the PG-13 rating was introduced in the U.S. to accommodate films that straddled the line between PG and R. Which was mainly due to the controversies surrounding the violence of the PG films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins from earlier that same year. [5]
Some have considered the 1980s in retrospect as one of the weaker decades for American cinema in terms of the qualities of the films released. Quentin Tarantino (director of Pulp Fiction ) has voiced his own view that the 1980s was one of the worst eras for American films. [6] Film critic Kent Jones also shares this opinion. [7] However, film theorist David Bordwell countered this notion, saying that the "megapicture mentality" was already existent in the 1970s, which is evident in the ten highest-grossing films of that decade, as well as with how many of the filmmakers part of New Hollywood were still able to direct many great pictures in the 1980s (Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma, John Carpenter, etc.). [8]
Rank | Title | Studio(s) | Worldwide gross | Year | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | Universal Pictures | $792,942,069 | 1982 | |
2 | Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back | 20th Century Fox | $538,375,067 | 1980 | |
3 | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade | Paramount Pictures | $474,171,806 | 1989 | |
4 | Batman | Warner Bros. | $411,348,924 | 1989 | |
5 | Back to the Future | Universal Pictures | $381,109,762 | 1985 | |
6 | Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi | 20th Century Fox | $374,593,074 | 1983 | |
7 | Top Gun | Paramount Pictures | $357,463,748 | 1986 | |
8 | Rain Man | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | $354,825,435 | 1988 | |
9 | Raiders of the Lost Ark | Paramount Pictures | $353,988,025 | 1981 | |
10 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | Paramount Pictures | $333,080,271 | 1984 | |
11 | Back to the Future Part II | Universal Pictures | $331,950,002 | 1989 | |
12 | Who Framed Roger Rabbit | Buena Vista / Touchstone Pictures | $329,803,958 | 1988 | |
13 | Crocodile Dundee | Paramount Pictures | $328,203,506 | 1986 | |
14 | Fatal Attraction | Paramount Pictures | $320,099,997 | 1987 | |
15 | Beverly Hills Cop | Paramount Pictures | $316,300,000 | 1984 | |
16 | Rambo: First Blood Part II | Carolco Pictures | $300,400,000 | 1985 | |
17 | Rocky IV | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | $300,373,716 | 1985 | |
18 | Look Who's Talking | TriStar | $296,999,813 | 1989 | |
19 | Ghostbusters | Columbia Pictures | $296,578,797 | 1984 | |
20 | Coming to America | Paramount Pictures | $288,752,301 | 1988 | |
21 | Tootsie | Columbia Pictures | $241,000,000 | 1982 | |
22 | Crocodile Dundee II | Paramount Pictures | $239,606,210 | 1988 | |
23 | Dead Poets Society | Buena Vista / Touchstone Pictures | $235,860,116 | 1989 | |
24 | Lethal Weapon 2 | Warner Bros. | $227,853,986 | 1989 | |
25 | Honey, I Shrunk the Kids | Buena Vista/Disney | $222,724,172 | 1989 | |
26 | Twins | Universal Pictures | $216,614,388 | 1988 | |
27 | Ghostbusters II | Columbia Pictures | $215,394,738 | 1989 | |
28 | Dirty Dancing | Vestron Pictures | $214,600,000 | 1987 | |
29 | The Gods Must Be Crazy | C.A.T. Films | $200,000,000 | 1980 | |
30 | Rambo III | Carolco | $189,015,611 | 1988 | |
31 | The Little Mermaid | Buena Vista/Disney | $184,155,863 | 1989 | |
32 | A Fish Called Wanda | MGM | $177,889,000 | 1988 | |
33 | Cocktail | Buena Vista / Touchstone Pictures | $171,504,781 | 1988 | |
34 | Three Men and a Baby | Buena Vista / Touchstone Pictures | $167,780,960 | 1987 | |
35 | Born on the Fourth of July | Universal Pictures | $161,001,698 | 1989 | |
36 | Beverly Hills Cop II | Paramount Pictures | $299,965,036 | 1987 | |
37 | Gremlins | Warner Bros. | $153,083,102 | 1984 | |
38 | Big | 20th Century Fox | $151,668,774 | 1988 | |
39 | Die Hard | 20th Century Fox | $140,767,956 | 1988 | |
40 | The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! | Paramount Pictures | $140,000,000 | 1988 | |
41 | Platoon | Orion Pictures | $138,530,565 | 1986 | |
42 | The Karate Kid | Columbia Pictures | $130,000,000 | 1984 | |
43 | The Karate Kid Part II | Columbia Pictures | $130,000,000 | 1986 | |
44 | An Officer and a Gentleman | Paramount Pictures | $129,795,554 | 1982 | |
45 | Gandhi | Goldcrest Films / NFDC India | $127,767,889 | 1982 | |
46 | Rocky III | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | $124,146,897 | 1982 | |
47 | Good Morning, Vietnam | Buena Vista / Touchstone Pictures | $123,922,370 | 1987 | |
48 | On Golden Pond | Universal Pictures | $119,285,432 | 1981 | |
49 | Shaolin Temple | Chung Yuen Motion Picture Company | $111,851,439 | 1982 | |
50 | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | Paramount Pictures | $109,713,132 | 1986 |
In the list, where revenues are equal numbers, the newer films are listed lower, due to inflation making the dollar-amount lower compared to earlier years.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed E.T., who is left behind on Earth. Along with his friends and family, Elliott must find a way to help E.T. find his way home. The film stars Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore.
The decade of the 1990s in film involved many significant developments in the industry of cinema. Numerous feature-length movies were specifically filmed or edited to be displayed not only on theater screens but also the smaller TV screens, like showing more close-ups and less wide shots during dialogue scenes. Moreover, the home video market grew into being a major factor on the total revenue of a theatrical film, often doubling the amount. An example of both cases is Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, which was initially planned to have a direct-to-video release.
Modern animation in the United States from the late 1980s to 2004 is frequently referred to as the renaissance age of American animation. During this period, many large American entertainment companies reformed and reinvigorated their animation departments, following the dark age, and the United States had an influence on global and worldwide animation.
A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic term for any horror film involving murder, film analysts cite an established set of characteristics which set slasher films apart from other horror subgenres, such as monster movies, splatter films, supernatural and psychological horror films.
The following is an overview of events in 1984 in film, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths.
The decade of the 1970s in film involved many significant developments in world cinema.
Christopher Joseph Columbus is an American filmmaker. Born in Spangler, Pennsylvania, Columbus studied film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where he developed an interest in filmmaking. After writing screenplays for several teen comedies in the mid-1980s, including Gremlins, The Goonies, and Young Sherlock Holmes, he made his directorial debut with a teen adventure, Adventures in Babysitting (1987). Columbus gained recognition soon after with the highly successful Christmas comedy Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).
A blockbuster is a work of entertainment—typically used to describe a feature film produced by a major film studio, but also other media—that is highly popular and financially successful. The term has also come to refer to any large-budget production intended for "blockbuster" status, aimed at mass markets with associated merchandising, sometimes on a scale that meant the financial fortunes of a film studio or a distributor could depend on it.
Dominique Ellen Dunne was an American actress. Born and raised in Santa Monica, California, she made her on-screen debut with the television film Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker (1979) and played recurring roles in the drama series Family (1980) and the comedy series Breaking Away (1980–1981). Her breakthrough role was Dana Freeling in the blockbuster horror film Poltergeist (1982). Afterwards, she headlined the Western film The Shadow Riders and the crime series CHiPs.
Kathleen Kennedy is an American film producer who has been president of Lucasfilm since 2012.
Peter Hyams is an American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer known for directing the 1977 conspiracy thriller film Capricorn One, the 1981 science fiction-thriller Outland, the 1984 science fiction film 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the 1986 action/comedy Running Scared, the comic book adaptation Timecop, the action film Sudden Death, and the horror films The Relic and End of Days.
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Kong filmmakers combined with elements from Hollywood and Japanese cinema along with new action choreography and filmmaking techniques, to create a culturally distinctive form that went on to have wide transcultural appeal. In turn, Hollywood action films have been heavily influenced by Hong Kong genre conventions, from the 1970s onwards.
Empire International Pictures was an American independent small-scale theatrical distribution company. Charles Band formed Empire in 1983, prompted by his dissatisfaction with distributors' handling of films made by his previous business, Charles Band International Productions. Empire produced and distributed a number of low-budget horror and fantasy feature films, including Re-Animator, Troll, Ghoulies, Trancers, and From Beyond.
Cinematic exhibition of the B movie, defined as a relatively low-cost genre film, has declined substantially from the early 1980s to the present. Spurred by the historic success of several big-budget movies with B-style themes beginning in the mid-1970s, the major Hollywood studios moved progressively into the production of A-grade films in genres that had long been low-budget territory. With the majors also adopting exploitation-derived methods of booking and marketing, B movies began to be squeezed out of the commercial arena. The advent of digital cinema in the new millennium appeared to open up new opportunities for the distribution of inexpensive genre movies.
Edward L. Montoro was an American film producer and distributor known for releasing exploitation films and B-movies during the 1970s and 1980s through his company Film Ventures International. Montoro became notorious for producing and promoting films such as Beyond the Door (1974) and Grizzly (1976) which were highly derivative of the 1970s blockbuster hits The Exorcist and Jaws, respectively.
The Disney Renaissance was a period from 1989 to 1999 during which Walt Disney Feature Animation returned to producing critically and commercially successful animated films. The ten feature films associated with this period are The Little Mermaid (1989), The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Mulan (1998), and Tarzan (1999).
Jaws is an American media franchise series that started with the 1975 film of the same name that expanded into three sequels, a theme park ride, and other tie-in merchandise, based on a 1974 novel Jaws. The main subject of the saga is a great white shark and its attacks on people in specific areas of the United States and The Bahamas. The Brody family is featured in all of the films as the primary antithesis to the shark. The 1975 film was based on the novel written by Peter Benchley, which itself was inspired by the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916. Benchley adapted his novel, along with help from Carl Gottlieb and Howard Sackler, into the film, which was directed by Steven Spielberg. Although Gottlieb went on to pen two of the three sequels, neither Benchley nor Spielberg returned to the film series in any capacity.
In his pluralism, [Roger] Ebert proved a more authentic cinephile than many of his contemporaries. They tied their fortunes to the Film Brats and then suffered the inevitable disappointments of the 1980s return to studio-driven pictures.
Back in the '80s, when movies sucked—I saw more movies then than I'd ever seen in my life, and the Hollywood bottom-line product was the worst it had been since the '50s—that would have been a great time [for Superhero films].
This was the beginning of the 1980s, the worst decade ever for American movies...
The Karate Kid (1984) and the sequel, The Karate Kid Part II, went on to gain critical acclaim and $130 million each at the box office