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Summer Is Here… and we are free!

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By Judith Oehman

Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 6/24/21 – As we begin to enjoy the theaters being open, as we struggle with the chose to watch on the TV or leave home I offer you memories.  Summer months are synonymous with blockbuster films.  Delight in the thought of having family/friends over to reunite with the The 10  Biggest Summer Blockbuster of all time. It may be fun to keep a list and see if a new film breaks the sound barrier.

The Heights is a rocket flash of dance and music, Cruella de Vil gives us greed, vanity and evil, and there are many others on the summer screen but these may never, truly be dethroned 

JAWS  $471 million worldwide

Was the first to burst in flames. In 1975 Spielberg’s thriller was the first movie to earn over $100 million. The great white shark terrorizing a small New England town.  Hollywood has never been the same. This film is studied in film classes and still is an influential thriller.  Seen it lately?  It is still a pulse racer. 

It took two summers for the galaxy to move into space and knock the crown off of Jaws.

STAR WARS 

EPISODE IV:A NEW HOPE   $775 million Worldwide

Sent us on a new adventure as the soap, opps, space opera continued. 1977, George Lucas epic franchise had quickly become a world-wide pop-culture phenomenon

These two films causes the modification of the movie industry.  Blockbusters model took shape. Prior to their phenomenal successes, studios didn’t have any formula for when and how to release their biggest offerings: 

Gone with the Wind (1939) was released in December,  The Godfather (1972) came out in March.
 

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982): $793 Million Worldwide

Spielberg reclaimed the crown. In a short five years. E.T. make bikes the only way to fly and became apart of our childhood. No matter your age when viewing, you came to your youth. 

Back to the Future (1985): $382 Million Worldwide

Robert Zemeckis’s, whom Spielberg began mentoring after seeing his student film,  Back to the Future was a modest budget film of just $19 million. Few films captured the collective imagination and featured prominently in the lives of countless ’80s kids like this one. I want a DeLorean.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991): $521 Million Worldwide
James Cameron’s original Terminator wasn’t huge  (1984), but he said ‘I’ll be back!”

Terminator 2: Judgment Day had price tag between $94-102 million, it was the one of the most expensive films ever made. It was a wise investment. Any complete list of the best movies in the action genre will have its film on or near the top.

Jurassic Park (1993): $1 Billion Worldwide

E.T. held the title for more than a decade until it was dethroned by Jurassic Park, which was destined to be big: Michael Crichton’s novel inspired a Hollywood bidding war before it was even published, with Spielberg acquiring the rights for $1.5 million..film made $912 million and tons more as it launched a franchise that now looks poised to reign as long as the dinosaurs did.

Independence Day (1996): $817 Million Worldwide
this film had revolutionary special effects: Audiences were wowed by Independence Day’s eye-popping visuals, which made everything from the destruction of globally recognizable landmarks to the invaders themselves feel uncomfortably real. The results speak for themselves: The movie grossed enough to make it the second-highest-grossing ever at the time.
 

The Sixth Sense (1999): $673 Million Worldwide

The Sixth Sense was a worldwide sensation like few others, with its most quotable line “I see dead people” instantly becoming the subject of imitations and parodies. M. Night Shyamalan’s supernatural thriller looked beyond the veil and found a certain kind of beauty, as well as phenomenal success.

The Dark Knight (2008): $1 Billion Worldwide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXeTwQWrcwY www.youtube.com

The Dark Knight was the most anticipated film of 2008. If you weren’t following along at the time, it can be difficult to convey just how excited fans were to see Ledger’s take on the iconic Joker. The Dark Knight maybe the greatest superhero movie ever made. The Dark Knight set a record by grossing $158 million during its opening weekend

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 (2011): $1.3 Billion Worldwide An erro
Harry Potter was a box-office sensation the moment the first adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s young adult series hit theaters 20 years ago. As tends to be the case, the final movie was also the most anticipated — and the most financially successful. Deathly Hallows — Part 2 set records for highest-grossing opening weekend worldwide on its way to becoming the highest-grossing film of 2011 and third of all time.

Avengers: Endgame (2019): $2.8 Billion Worldwide

Over the last decade or so, sequels, reboots, and franchises have come to define summer blockbuster season like never before. Nothing exemplifies that trend quite like the Marvel’s with Avengers: Endgame. An April would appear to disqualify it, but it has several box-office records that make it “THE BLOCKBUSTER “… Endgame set: highest opening-weekend gross ($1.2 billion), quickest movie to $500 million, $1 billion, $1.5 billion, $2 billion, and $2.5 billion, and highest-grossing movie of all time. 
 
A 2021 re-release of Avatar in China means James Cameron’s epic now holds the all-time box office record  but don’t be surprised if Endgame enters theaters down the road to reclaim its record — Disney, which now owns both properties, will be happy either way.