Will we ever see a year like 1984 in film again?

I rarely go to the movies, but 1984 was my big exception year.

From the OP's list I saw these:

Ghostbusters
Top Secret
This is Spinal Tap

as well as:

Local Hero
Reuben Reuben
Choose Me
The Gods Must Be Crazy

Choose Me wasn't very good but the others were all worthwhile.

 

What? No Shaggy D.A.???

 

Absolutely! 1999 was the best year for movies in my memory. You are not alone in this belief. Writer Brian Raftery wrote
Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen about this phenomenal year.

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Movie-Y...99+best+movie+year+ever&qid=1571198484&sr=8-1

 

All four great, I love choose me the most tho, i think my fave Alan Rudulph film, Keith Carradine and the lovely Lesley ann Warren

[/QUOTE]

 

Children Of The Corn and Firestarter were timeless? COTC was dreadful, bad AND lame. Firestarter was a waste of a talented cast and a lifeless adaptation of a very good King novel. All in all, the list does have some good entertainment type movies Ghostbusters (dated), Splash/Top Secret/Spinal Pap/Romancing The Stone (all funny) and, of course, The Terminator, on it but nothing I would call timeless tho Terminator and Spinal Pap come closest IMHO.

 

You have one glaring omission: Orwell's 1984 with Richard Burton (his last film) and John Hurt.

 

If you notice, most of those films are aimed at adults and children. It's a winning combination. It was a bit of a perfect year for boomers and their children to be just old enough to like the same thing. I'm sure Hollywood knew what it was doing. Make movies that people want to see more than once. Cable tv was taking off, videocassettes were coming around, and there were cheap theaters to play movies months after they came out. 1984 was also the best year for popcorn.

 

Must be your age? Almost every single one of those films are classics.

 

Eighties was not the decade for movies for me.
A few classics, that’s about it.

Saying that but the eighties was the best decade for getting down and boogie‘n. Clubs /nightlife on the disco floor. Amour.

 

The first one is Citizen Kane compared to the sequels too. I have a soft spot for it for childhood nostalgia reasons.

 

I admit, there is a lot of camp in there, and definitely not for everyone but the fact that Terminator is still lives as a franchise, Ghostbusters had a recent chapter and most likely another coming, Karate Kid has a current series, Gremlins is rumored to be coming back, etc, seems like they had some real winners that year that just won't die!

Most of those films you can mention to a lot of people and they won't hesitate or question that they have seen or know those movies.

Definitely not the best year for all of us (1999 was killer as well) but that is a ton of valuable IP all bundled into a single year of releases!

 

What I like about this list is the variety of different stories and story lines.
Not the same old characters in a dozen films...in one year!

 

This is what I thought the OP meant. #87 with a bullet.
Much of it might come true in our lifetimes.

 

The TOP 100 by Domestic Gross for 1984 - I don't think the year was particularly strong at all, a lot of popcorn movies in there which is no surprise.

1984 Yearly Box Office Results - Box Office Mojo

1 Beverly Hills Cop Par. $234,760,478
2 Ghostbusters Col. $229,242,989
3 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Par. $179,870,271
4 Gremlins WB $148,168,459
5 The Karate Kid Col. $90,815,558
6 Police Academy WB $81,198,894
7 Footloose Par. $80,035,402
8 Romancing the Stone Fox $76,572,238
9 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Par. $76,471,046
10 Splash BV $69,821,334

11 Purple Rain WB $68,392,977
12 Amadeus Orion $51,564,280
13 Tightrope WB $48,143,579
14 The Natural TriS $47,951,979
15 Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan WB $45,858,563
16 Revenge of the Nerds Fox $40,874,452
17 2010 MGM $40,400,657
18 Breakin' Can. $38,682,707
19 Bachelor Party Fox $38,435,947
20 Red Dawn (1984) MGM $38,376,497
21 The Terminator Orion $38,371,200
22 City Heat WB $38,348,988
23 All of Me Uni. $36,403,064
24 Places in the Heart TriS $34,901,614
25 The Killing Fields WB $34,700,291

26 Friday the 13th: Final Chapter Par. $32,980,880
27 Conan the Destroyer Uni. $31,042,035
28 Dune Uni. $30,925,690
29 The Gods Must Be Crazy Fox $30,031,783
30 Starman Col. $28,744,356
31 The Last Starfighter Uni. $28,733,290
32 Cannonball Run II WB $28,078,073
33 Teachers MGM $27,774,237
34 A Passage to India Col. $27,187,653
35 Pinocchio (Re-issue) (1984) BV $26,414,038
36 Protocol WB $26,186,631
37 Micki and Maude Col. $26,080,861
38 The Cotton Club Orion $25,928,721
39 The Muppets Take Manhattan TriS $25,534,703
40 A Nightmare on Elm Street NL $25,504,513
41 The Woman in Red Orion $25,308,147
42 Moscow on the Hudson Col. $25,068,724
43 The Flamingo Kid Fox $23,859,382
44 Sixteen Candles Uni. $23,686,027
45 The Jungle Book (re-issue) (1984) BV $23,456,945
46 Missing in Action Can. $22,812,411
47 A Soldier's Story Col. $21,821,347
48 Against All Odds Col. $21,689,062
49 Oh, God! You Devil! WB $21,538,850
50 Rhinestone Fox $21,435,321

51 Weekend Pass Crwn $21,058,033
52 Top Secret! Par. $20,458,340
53 Hot Dog... The Movie MGM $20,307,325
54 The Neverending Story WB $20,158,808
55 Unfaithfully Yours (1984) Fox $19,928,200
56 Best Defense Par. $19,265,302
57 Blame It on Rio Fox $18,644,570
58 Lassiter WB $17,513,452
59 Angel NW $17,488,564
60 Johnny Dangerously Fox $17,124,395
61 Firestarter Uni. $17,080,167
62 Beat Street Orion $16,595,791
63 Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo TriS $15,101,131
64 Children of the Corn NW $14,568,989
65 Night of the Comet Atl $14,418,922
66 Supergirl TriS $14,296,438
67 Ice Pirates MGM $14,255,801
68 The Evil That Men Do TriS $13,102,025
69 Irreconcilable Differences WB $12,414,210
70 Dreamscape Fox $12,145,169
71 Up the Creek Orion $11,708,269
72 The River Uni. $11,489,982
73 Tank Uni. $11,302,884
74 Falling in Love Par. $11,129,057
75 Hard to Hold Uni. $11,113,806
76 The Wild Life Uni. $11,020,375
77 Broadway Danny Rose Orion $10,600,497
78 Where the Boys Are (1984) TriS $10,530,000
79 Thief of Hearts Par. $10,435,015
80 Terror in the Aisles Uni. $10,004,817
81 Cloak and Dagger Uni. $9,719,952
82 Country BV $9,640,000
83 Bolero Can. $8,914,881
84 Body Double Col. $8,801,940
85 Oxford Blues MGM $8,793,152
86 The Bounty Orion $8,613,462
87 1984 Gold. $8,430,492
88 Reckless MGM $8,289,916
89 The Philadelphia Experiment NW $8,103,330
90 Streets of Fire Uni. $8,089,290
91 Just the Way You Are MGM $7,889,694
92 The Little Drummer Girl WB $7,828,841
93 Ninja 3: The Domination Can. $7,610,785
94 Iceman Uni. $7,343,032
95 Hardbodies Col. $7,121,719
96 Alphabet City Atl $7,035,585
97 The Pope of Greenwich Village MGM $6,836,201
98 Runaway TriS $6,770,587
99 Swing Shift WB $6,650,206
100 The Razor's Edge Col.

 

My first thought was...will we ever see a year with ideas as significant as those in 1984...again.

(And no, the Super Bowl McIntosh commercial isn't quite what I had in mind...)

 

Something tells me the OP came of age when those films came out, so they're locked into his brain as templates for what movies should be. Kinda like when people are stuck on music they listened to in their teens and early 20s and are convinced no good music came afterward. Just because you didn't engage with it while your brain was still forming doesn't mean it isn't good.

 

That is a particularly weak list.

 

I'm sure that could be said for all of us... and I don't disagree.
Sad thing is, many properties or franchises from the 70's and before are being forgotten and work from the 90's and later seem to be a lot of Pixar or other animated pieces that just get sequel after sequel into they go straight to VOD releases. I don't dare knock any generation, my movie collection goes back to the 1930's.

Maybe it is just the nostalgia thing or that retro never goes out of style. I've always had a theory that the late teens to early 20's crowd that a lot of entertainment is focused on sees the 'cool' period they missed as being 20 years prior. I was a teen in the 90's and the 70's were all the rage then. In the last 10-20 years, 90's nostalgia has been a big thing from what I see but when I look at the films of the 90's and even early 2000's, a lot of IP seems to die at some point, save for the mega hits like Harry Potter.

I think my original point was that of that year, so many of those pieces are still quite familiar with most generations where as if you take, say 2002, a year at random, how many of those movies will be remembered as vividly for the next 30, 40 or 50 years? Certainly, not 20+ of them like in the list I posted. Harry Potter? Sure. Minority Report and 8 Mile will be remembered but will they come back or actually keep making money as IP in the future?

 

I thought there were a lot better years after '84 for movies... 1989, 1993, 1994, 1995.... It does have a lot to do with what one grows up with, as we always have a fondness for their time, imho. I love the classics (1930s - 1970s), but grew up during the 80s and 90s, and these movies were more formative for me as I grew up in the culture. It doesn't hurt that I worked in a video store during high school and my brother worked at the local theater. Fond memories! But I agree, that those days of movie classics are a distant memory for the movie industry.

 

Geez, how can you have a John Candy avatar and not like 80's camp?
I am immediately suspicious of you, sir!

 

You and me have a very different idea of what camp is.

 

And let us never forget the brilliant "Office Space". Yup, 1999 was an awesome movie year!

 

Just pick the year you were a Junior in High School...old enough (or look like) to get into a R movie, and either had or had a friend with a drivers license and make your list.

 

Yes, there have been many average years since 1984.