4 months ago 18th Jul 16:12
The seventies may have seen the birth of the blockbuster but the eighties is where they really dominated the box office with the likes of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg leading the way.
The studios were now seeing the financial rewards of the big budget picture and the franchise was born as studios packaged up their movies and released them along with a merchandising campaign that secured the film's success.
The most financially successful movies of the decade proved to be the blockbusters as Lucas produced two more Star Wars movies: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and Return of the Jedi three years later, both of which grossed in excess of $200 million at the global box office.
And while Harrison Ford was having fun playing Han Solo it was his second franchise of the decade that made him, and his character a cinematic icon.
Churning out three movies in nine years Indiana Jones, part time teacher and adventurer dominated the box office as all three films: Raider of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade feature in the top ten grossing films of the eighties.
Other franchises that were kicked off this decade were action series Rambo, buddy cop films Lethal Weapon and science fiction favourite Back to the Future.
Cinema go-ers also saw the continuation of Rocky, Star Trek and Superman franchises, that all began in the seventies.
The drama movie also did well at the box office as there were a string of Oscar nominated pictures, including Gandhi, Rain Man, Terms of Endearment and On Golden Pond, that found success striking a chord with film fans.
The films tackled sensitive, yet everyday subjects, such as family rifts, mental illness and terminal cancer.
The popularity of seventies horror movies spilled over into the following decade as some of the genre's most iconic movies and characters were brought to the big screen for the first time as the era of Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger and Friday the 13th began.
The eighties also saw the rise of teen movies, popular in the fifties with the likes of Rebel Without A Cause, this era proved to be the golden age for this genre as big named directors came on board when John Hughes and Cameron Crowe made The Breakfast Club and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
The decade wasn't without it's controversies though and that came in the form of the thriller with many having an erotic nature as nudity on film increased.
Erotic drama nine and a half weeks raised eyebrows in 1986 amidst rumours that many scenes were cut as they were deemed to be too "psychologically damaging". Blue Velvet, which was also released in 1986 was criticised for its 'vulgar approach to sexuality and violence'.
However it was 1987's Fatal Attraction that caused the biggest stir when it was released, but went on to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.
Set in 1936 Dr. Jones is a respected archaeologist and professor at a college in New England. But Jones is pitted against the Nazis as they try to discover the location of the ark of the Covenant, which is believed to contain the Ten Commandments, in a bid to make their army invincible.
Raiders was the biggest grossing film of 1981 and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture but lost out to Chariots of Fire.
An extra-terrestrial is accidentally left behind on Earth and is befriended by a young boy and his brother and sister.
As Elliot attempts to help his extra-terrestrial companion contact his home planet so that he might be rescued, the children must elude scientists and government agents determined to apprehend the alien for their own purposes...which results in an adventure greater than any of them could have imagined.
E.T. was a timeless story of friendship and, along with Return of the Jedi was the biggest grossing movie of the decade, but lost out to Gandhi for best Picture at the Oscars.
Return of the Jedi was the third, and many thought final, movie in the franchise and the second Star Wars movie of the eighties.
Luke (Mark Hamill) must save Han Solo (Harrison Ford) from the clutches of the monstrous Jabba the Hut, and bring down the newly reconstructed, and even more powerful, Death Star.
The film was the most successful, in terms of box office gross, of the three pictures taking $252.5 million.
Platoon was Oliver Stone's 1986 Vietnam movie and Best Picture Oscar winner. Platoon is an unsympathetic film it doesn't gloss over the troubles in Vietnam to suit and American cinema going audience.
Stone depicts some soldiers as violent killers who struggle with seeing their friends injured and killed and take out their rage on a nearby village.
Stone also showed controversial issues within the U.S. army such as drug abuse, which has largely been speculated upon in recent years, the bullying behaviour by more experienced soldiers on the new, inexperienced recruits and the killing of unpopular officers.
Since it's release Platoon has widely become to be regarded as one of the finest war movies ever brought to the big screen.
Gotham City is suffering under the iron grip of Carl Grissom, a mob boss. And stories of a masked crusader are being investigated by journalists Vicki Vale and Alexander Knox.
Grissom's second in command Jack Napier is sent to carry out a raid on a chemical factory but is set up by Grissom over an affair with his mistress.
After an altercation with Batman Napier falls into a vat of toxic waste which shapes his face into a hideous and permanent grin, turns his skin white and his hair green.
Adopting the name of The Joker he kills Grissom and takes over his empire.
Despite fans of the comic voicing their disapproval over the casting of Keaton the film grossed over $400 million at the worldwide box office, breaking the $100 million in just ten days.
The film was backed by the biggest marketing campaign in film history at the time, the film itself only costing $40 million to make.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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