Box Office Flashback: 1984

[movie masochist]

Hey where did you get this list?  Don't misinterpret me I completely believe it's legit I just like these kinds of lists and wonder if I can look up other years.  1984 was a good year.  Amazing when you consider how crappy the top 20 of 2010 would be...

[hudders]

Hey where did you get this list?  Don't misinterpret me I completely believe it's legit I just like these kinds of lists and wonder if I can look up other years.  1984 was a good year.  Amazing when you consider how crappy the top 20 of 2010 would be...

I'm guessing its Box Office Mojo, (e.g. http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2010&p=.htm), though The Numbers has some good stats for more recent years too, (http://www.the-numbers.com/market/2010.php).

[diamondwaspvenom]

Ah, 1984.

The year that brought us such classics as: Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and Amadeus.

If I remember, 1984 was when the PG-13 rating was born due to the suggestive violence found in Gremlins and Temple of Doom.

In music terms: this was the year that gave us Twisted Sister's "Stay Hungry", W.A.S.P.'s debut album, Mercyful Fate's classic "Don't Break the Oath" and Lizzy Borden's "Give 'Em the Axe" EP.

Too bad I was born in 1991. I would've loved to have been a young adult in the mid eighties.

[Newt]

1984. I got married.   

[Rev. Powell]

1984. I got married.   

I can only assume you were 12 years old at the time? 

[Newt]

1984. I got married.   

I can only assume you were 12 years old at the time? 

And quite often I still am!   

[ChocolateChipCharlie]

01. $234,760,478 - Beverly Hills Cop - Ok, not a huge fan but I see why it was popular.
02. $229,242,989 - Ghostbusters - Love this movie.  Freaking love it.
03. $179,870,271 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - Liked Last Crusade better, but that's probably because the heart-ripper guy scared the bejesus out of me as a kid.  And the Asian kid is annoying as hell.
04. $148,168,459 - Gremlins - Just doesn't do it for me.
05. $090,815,558 - The Karate Kid - Ok but not a huge fan.
06. $081,198,894 - Police Academy - Gutenberg......not a fan of the series.
07. $080,035,402 - Footloose - Cheesy 80s classic, but not one I particularly enjoy.
08. $076,572,238 - Romancing the Stone - Didn't care for it.
09. $076,471,046 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock - This was just awful, and not in the cool way that Wrath of Khan was awful.
10. $069,821,334 - Splash - Kinda liked this one.  Not sure why.  Probably mostly because early-80s Daryl Hannah was HOTT.

11. $068,392,977 - Purple Rain - No.  Just, no.
12. $051,564,280 - Amadeus - Enjoyable but I really hated the actor that played Mozart.
13. $048,143,579 - Tightrope - Sounds familiar but I haven't seen it.
14. $047,951,979 - The Natural - Pretty good.
15. $045,858,563 - Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan - Never heard of it.
16. $040,874,452 - Revenge of the Nerds - I like this one a lot.
17. $040,400,657 - 2010 - see below.
18. $038,682,707 - Breakin' - Haven't seen it, don't plan to.
19. $038,435,947 - Bachelor Party - Not a good movie by any standards, but campy fun.
20. $038,376,497 - Red Dawn - More campy bad movie fun.

2010 was interesting to me on a lot of levels.  It had a really good cast (Roy Scheider, Helen Mirren, John "Trinity" Lithgow, Prof. Yukrinsky from Spy Hard, etc.).  It had a decent plot that was pretty interesting.  The effects were ok (2001 actually had way better effects and looked much more "real" IMO).

There were some things that bugged me though.  Most of them revolve around a main theme of "80s viewers don't have the patience to watch a deliberate movie like 2001, and they're too lazy/stupid to think about movies enough to understand a subtle/interprative movie like 2001".  I really see 2010 as an allegory for the decline in society's attention span and intellectual curiosity. 

Scheider's voiceover narration is exhibit A.  This is all the stuff that Kubrick made you either figure out for yourself, or interpret the way you saw fit.  2010 just tells you what is going on.  There's no mystery, no subtlety, no thought required.  The soundtrack is exhibit B.  They put the 2001 theme (I forget the name of the classical track) in a couple spots, but they sped it up because again, it takes up too much time and 80s audiences would get bored listening to classical music without things exploding or cars flipping over or people emptying machine gun banana clips at each other.

On its own, 2010 is a decent movie and I sort of enjoy it.  Next to 2001, it looks like a pile of crap.  All of the things that are great about 2001 are missing from 2010.  The sweeping, elaborate visuals accompanied by the classical score.  The illustration of future technology and society with the baffling camera, filming, and setting techniques.  The physics of everything, how the ships move and how everything works, how people move in different gravities, Kubrick took such pains and dedicated so much screen time to it and 2010 just glosses over it.  Kubrick also realized that things happening in the vacuum of space would not produce sounds, whilst 2010 has lots of whirring and buzzing and explody noises that wouldn't actually exist in space.  Again, because the audience wants noises, and in the "Just Say No" era, people can't be expected to use their imaginations or think critically.

[Doggett]

Purple Rain made more than Amadeus ?

Its a sick, sick world we live in.

[Hammock Rider]

For me, all of these movies are worth watching. They're either certified classics(in my mind) or at the very least, cheesily entertaining. Greystoke and 2010 were kind of weak, but if I'm in the right mood I can overlook their problems and enjoy their good points. I'd say this was a very good year for movies.

[Psycho Circus]

Purple Rain made more than Amadeus ?

Its a sick, sick world we live in.

Oh come on dude. So you'd rather watch guys in wigs play piano for 3 hours, than a midget playing a funky guitar in sleazy bars for a digestable 90mins?

[Doggett]

Purple Rain made more than Amadeus ?

Its a sick, sick world we live in.

Oh come on dude. So you'd rather watch guys in wigs play piano for 3 hours, than a midget playing a funky guitar in sleazy bars for a digestable 90mins?

Well...

When you put it like that !

[akiratubo]

01. $234,760,478 - Beverly Hills Cop
Great movie.

02. $229,242,989 - Ghostbusters
Great movie.

03. $179,870,271 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
GREAT movie.  The best of the Indiana Jones movies by a longshot.

04. $148,168,459 - Gremlins
Scared the hell out of when I was little but I think it kind of sucks now.

05. $090,815,558 - The Karate Kid
Great movie.

06. $081,198,894 - Police Academy
Great movie.

07. $080,035,402 - Footloose
Meh.

08. $076,572,238 - Romancing the Stone
Great movie.

09. $076,471,046 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Great movie.

10. $069,821,334 - Splash
Meh.

11. $068,392,977 - Purple Rain
Never saw.

12. $051,564,280 - Amadeus
Long and uninteresting to me.

13. $048,143,579 - Tightrope
???

14. $047,951,979 - The Natural
Is this the movie about the baseball player?

15. $045,858,563 - Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan
Pretty good, except they used orangutans to stand in for gorillas, iirc.

16. $040,874,452 - Revenge of the Nerds
Easily the best of the 80s sex comedies.

17. $040,400,657 - 2010
A whole lot better then 2001.  At least it bears some resemblance to, you know, a movie.

18. $038,682,707 - Breakin'
???

19. $038,435,947 - Bachelor Party
Sucked.

20. $038,376,497 - Red Dawn
Silly but kind of entertaining.  In spots.

Wow!  What was in the water in 1984?  Talk about a lot of great movies!

[bob]

01. $234,760,478 - Beverly Hills Cop - really enjoyed this, haven't seen it in years
02. $229,242,989 - Ghostbusters - see above
03. $179,870,271 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - see above
16. $040,874,452 - Revenge of the Nerds - see above

I never saw the others