Looking back, the 90's might've been the best decade in movies:

Cafe Society
22

The 90’s was a huge period of change in the movie exhibition industry, which has affected the production industry.

During the 90’s the smaller regional chains consolidated into the few larger chains we have now. In the early 90’s a 12 screen complex was considered “HUGE”. Now 18 is more normal if not 24.

Films then started opening on more screens. The same number of ‘locations’ but you had more multiple prints at each location. Which is great for the movie consumer. Why, back when I was boy, movies sold out and you had to come back next week or stand around for three hours for the next show. Now, if one screen is sold out, it’s starting 15 minutes later on another screen. This is why movies get ‘played out’ quicker. Supply is able to meet the demand opening weekend. When was the last time you couldn’t get in to see a movie? So now the movies are able to make all their money in 4 to 6 weeks rather than four months.

So the distribution has changed. There is much more money spent on advertisement because you have to make money opening weekend. Word of mouth is for netflix views or DVDs. (do people still buy DVDS?) Movies need that ‘hook’ that will guarantee opening weekend numbers. (More remakes, sequels, the need for a ‘marquee’ name star or director)

23

It looks like the 60s and 80s start to peter out after ~20.

The 70s, 90s, and 00s seem to start drifting off after ~30.

I wouldn’t feel confident of my knowledge of movies before the 60s to make any sort of judgement. But certainly given the relative quantity of films that were produced during the 70s vs. the 90s, I’d have to give the 70s the win. Granted, they won it more out of random experimentation than guided quality, but for a creative endeavor that’s not a bad methodology I guess.

24

[Pete] That don’t make no sense!" [/Pete}

(to quote an awesome 2000 movie character)

The 80s had some good movies too… Raising Arizona, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, Blade Runner, Fatal Attraction, Conan the Barbarian (a guilty pleasure of mine), Dragonslayer, The Shining, Gandhi, Sophie’s Choice, Rainman, The Princess Bride, Alien, Aliens, The Fly, Risky Business, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Full Metal Jacket, and Platoon, just to name a few.

25

I loves me some

Planet of the Apes
Soylent Green
The Omega Man
Silent Running
Colossus the Forbin Project
Westworld
Andromeda Strain

Didn’t care much for Logan’s Run.

26

It’s certainly 70’s vs. 90’s end of discussion. I’d side with 90’s, truthfully.

27

Saturday Night Live was arguably at it’s best in the 70’s and 90’s so i’m sure that played a big part on why there were some classic comedys during those two decades. Although alot of 1970’s alum had movies carry over into the 80’s.

Resovoir Dogs is another classic 90’s film too. (Not sure if it was mentioned.

28

SNL is kind of cyclical; once a decade or so, for about 2-4 years, the cast will really have chemistry, and it’ll be hysterically funny.

The rest of the time, it’ll suck balls, like it does now.

29

I liked Logan’s Run (even if it ripped off half its plot from Glen and Randa).

Other SF movies from that period:

Barbarella
Black Moon
A Boy And His Dog
Charly
A Clockwork Orange
Coma
Crimes of the Future
Dark Star
The Day of the Dolphin
Death Race 2000
Demon Seed
Fantastic Planet
The Final Programme
The Happiness Cage
The Illustrated Man
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Marooned
The Monitors
Moon Zero Two
No Blade Of Grass
The Noah
Phase IV
The Power
Project X
Quest for Love
Rollerball
Slaughterhouse Five
Sleeper
Solaris
The Stepford Wives
The Terminal Man
THX 1138
Wild in the Streets
World on a Wire
Zardoz
ZPG

These obviously weren’t all great movies. But you could feel they were at least trying.

30

Because of this thread, I’m going to have to side with the 70’s. While there may be fewer good movies, the 70’s is going to influence filmmaking forever.

Horror: Jaws, Halloween, Night of the Living Dead.
Scifi: Star Wars, Alien.
Drama: Godfather 1 and 2.
Romance: A love story.

Just these 8 movies above get echoed 4-9 times a week, every week, week after week. The Matrix and Titanic had it’s imitators, but they quickly faded. In terms of influence, I don’t think you can beat the 70’s on today’s cinema.

31

Living Dead was 1968.

32

Maybe he meant Dawn of the Dead?

33

Superhal writes:

> Oh, another thing to throw into the discussion: there were a lot more movies made
> since the 90’s than any other time in history.

I tried to figure out if this is true. It’s possible to use the Advanced Search page on the IMDb to get numbers on this. The following is the number of feature films made in each year. This doesn’t include TV series or episodes or miniseries or movies or films that aren’t feature-length:

2013: 8,748
2012: 8,149
2011: 7,734
2010: 7,048
2009: 6,773
2008: 5,696
2007: 4,922
2006: 4,736
2005: 4,362
2004: 3,867
2003: 3,742
2002: 3,782
2001: 3,748
2000: 3,572
1999: 3,591
1998: 3,444
1997: 3,435
1996: 3,249
1995: 3,218
1994: 3,163
1993: 3,211
1992: 3,357
1991: 3,357
1990: 3,497
1989: 3,186
1988: 3,255
1987: 3,189
1986: 3,077
1985: 3,049
1984: 3,027
1983: 3,019
1982: 3,029
1981: 2,887
1980: 2,951
1979: 2,964
1978: 2,819
1977: 2,744
1976: 2,770
1975: 2,758
1974: 2,806
1973: 2,841
1972: 2,971
1971: 3,085
1970: 3,255
1969: 3,026
1968: 3,226
1967: 2,852
1966: 2,573
1965: 2,544
1964: 2,449
1963: 2,261
1962: 2,306
1961: 2,322
1960: 2,241
1959: 2,174
1958: 2,205
1957: 2,158
1956: 2,062
1955: 1,926
1954: 1,914
1953: 1,856
1952: 1,795
1951: 1,692
1950: 1,681
1949: 1,641
1948: 1,468
1947: 1,334
1946: 1,211
1945: 1,030
1944: 1,134
1943: 1,238
1942: 1,363
1941: 1,442
1940: 1,592
1939: 1,687
1938: 1,735
1937: 1,736
1936: 1,762
1935: 1,673
1934: 1,598
1933: 1,483
1932: 1,560
1931: 1,619
1930: 1,491
1929: 1,455
1928: 1,572
1927: 1,594
1926: 1,550
1925: 1,541
1924: 1,537
1923: 1,492
1922: 1,808
1921: 2,168
1920: 2,337
1919: 2,102
1918: 1,993
1917: 2,056
1916: 1,994
1915: 1,568
1914: 1,083
1913: 669
1912: 364
1911: 222
1910: 162
1909: 159
1908: 33
1907: 16
1906: 16
1905: 10
1904: 5
1903: 9
1902: 5
1901: 3
1900: 12
1899: 10
1898: 22
1897: 0
1896: 0
1895: 2
1894: 1

To summarize, there was a quick increase (with some random variation) in the number of feature films from the point of their invention till the year 1917. After that, there wasn’t much change for a couple of decades, just some random variation in the numbers from year to year, until 1937. Then there was a decrease in the number of films until the year 1945. Then the number of films slowly increased for almost five decades with again a little random variation, until about the year 2003. Since then there has been a very fast increase in the number of films made each year. But I don’t know if these numbers really represent the true number of films made or if this is just an artifact of what films the IMDb knows about.

34

The 1930s:

  1. Gone With the Wind - (1939, Victor Fleming) (Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard)
  2. The Wizard of Oz - (1939, Victor Fleming) (Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger)
  3. The Rules of the Game - (1939, Jean Renoir) (Roland Toutain, Nora Gregor)
  4. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - (1939, Frank Capra) (James Stewart, Claude Rains)
  5. City Lights - (1931, Charles Chaplin) (Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers)
  6. M - (1931, Fritz Lang) (Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Otto Wernicke, Inge Landgut)
  7. Modern Times - (1936, Charles Chaplin) (Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard)
  8. King Kong - (1933, Merian C. Cooper) (Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot)
  9. All Quiet on the Western Front - (1930, Lewis Milestone) (Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim)
  10. Grand Illusion - (1937, Jean Renoir) (Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim)
  11. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - (1937, William Cottrell) (Adriana Caselotti, Lucille La Verne)
  12. Little Caesar - (1931, Mervyn LeRoy) (Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.)
  13. The 39 Steps - (1935, Alfred Hitchcock) (Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim)
  14. It Happened One Night - (1934, Frank Capra) (Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Alan Hale)
  15. Stagecoach - (1939, John Ford) (John Wayne, Claire Trevor, John Carradine)
  16. L’Atalante - (1934, Jean Vigo) (Michel Simon, Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Gilles Margaritis)
  17. Scarface - (1932, Howard Hawks) (Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, George Raft, Boris Karloff)
  18. Bringing Up Baby - (1938, Howard Hawks) (Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Barry Fitzgerald)
  19. Frankenstein - (1931, James Whale) (Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Frederick Kerr)
  20. Freaks - (1932, Tod Browning) (Wallace Ford, Harry Earles, Olga Baclanova)
  21. The Adventures of Robin Hood - (1938, Michael Curtiz) (Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland)
  22. The Bride of Frankenstein - (1935, James Whale) (Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive)
  23. Duck Soup - (1933, Leo McCarey) (Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres)
  24. The Public Enemy - (1931, William Wellman) (James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Joan Blondell)
  25. Grand Hotel - (1932, Edmund Goulding) (Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford)
  26. Dracula - (1931, Tod Browning) (Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners)
  27. The Thin Man - (1934, W.S. Van Dyke) (William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O’Sullivan)
  28. I Am a Fugitive from A Chain Gang - (1932, Mervyn LeRoy) (Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell)
  29. A Star is Born - (1937, William Wellman) (Janet Gaynor, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou)
  30. Wuthering Heights - (1939, William Wyler) (Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, David Niven)
  31. My Man Godfrey - (1936, Gregory La Cava) (William Powell, Carole Lombard)
  32. Angels With Dirty Faces - (1938, Michael Curtiz) (James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart)
  33. They Won’t Forget - (1937, Mervyn LeRoy) (Claude Rains, Lana Turner, Otto Kruger)
  34. A Tale of Two Cities - (1935, Jack Conway) (Ronald Colman, Elizabeth Allan)
  35. Manhattan Melodrama - (1934, W.S. Van Dyke) (Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy)
  36. Little Women - (1933, George Cukor) (Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas)
  37. The Prisoner of Zenda (1937, John Cromwell) (Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll)
  38. Zemlya (aka Earth) - (1930, Alexander Dovzhenko) (Stepan Shkurat, Semyon Svashenko)
  39. A Night at the Opera - (1935, Sam Wood) (Marx Brothers, Kitty Carlisle, Margaret Dumont)
  40. A Day in the Country - (1936, Jean Renoir) (Sylvia Bataille, Georges D’Arnoux, Jane Marken)
  41. The Four Feathers - (1939, Zoltan Korda) (John Clements, Ralph Richardson)
  42. You Can’t Take It With You - (1938, Frank Capra) (Jean Arthur, James Stewart)
  43. The Front Page - (1931, Lewis Milestone) (Pat O’Brien, Adolphe Menjou, Mary Brian)
  44. Trouble in Paradise - (1932, Ernst Lubitsch) (Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall)
  45. Top Hat - (1935, Mark Sandrich) (Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton)
  46. 42nd Street - (1933, Lloyd Bacon) (Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Ginger Rogers)
  47. The Blue Angel - (1930, Josef von Sternberg) (Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings)
  48. Young Mr. Lincoln - (1939, John Ford) (Henry Fonda, Marjorie Weaver, Alice Brady)
  49. Alexander Nevsky - (1938, Sergei Eisenstein) (Nikolai Cherkasov, Nikolai Okhlopkov)
  50. The Roaring Twenties - (1939, Raoul Walsh) (James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart)
  51. Les Misérables - (1935, Richard Boleslawski) (Fredric March, Charles Laughton)
  52. Zero for Conduct - (1933, Jean Vigo) (Jean Dasté, Robert le Flon, Du Verron)
  53. The Stars Look Down - (1939, Carol Reed) (Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood)
  54. Osaka Elegy - (1936, Kenji Mizoguchi) (Isuzu Yamada, Seiichi Takegawa)
  55. Of Mice and Men - (1939, Lewis Milestone) (Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr.)
  56. Jezebel - (1938, William Wyler) (Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Brent)
  57. The Informer - (1935, John Ford) (Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, Preston Foster)
  58. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - (1939, William Dieterle) (Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Hara)
  59. The Good Earth - (1937, Victor Fleming) (Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly)
  60. Dodsworth - (1936, William Wyler) (Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, David Niven)
  61. David Copperfield - (1935, George Cukor) (W.C. Fields, Lionel Barrymore, Elsa Lanchester)
  62. Show Boat - (1936, James Whale) (Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Hattie McDaniel)
  63. The Great Ziegfeld - (1936, Robert Z. Leonard) (William Powell, Myrna Loy, Fanny Brice)
  64. Gold Digger of 1933 - (1933, Mervyn LeRoy) (Warren William, Joan Blondell, Ginger Rogers)
  65. The Gay Divorcee - (1934, Mark Sandrich) (Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady)
  66. The Scarlet Pimpernel - (1934, Harold Young) (Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Nigel Bruce)
  67. Mutiny on the Bounty - (1935, Frank Lloyd) (Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Donald Crisp)
  68. Gunga Din - (1939, George Stevens) (Cary Grant, Sam Jaffe, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.)
  69. Captains Courageous - (1937, Victor Fleming) (Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer Tracy)
  70. Captain Blood - (1935, Michael Curtiz) (Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone)
  71. Love Affair - (1939, Leo McCarey) (Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya)
  72. Camille - (1936, George Cukor) (Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore)
  73. Destry Rides Again - (1939, George Marshall) (James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich)
  74. Vampyr - (1932, Carl Theodor Dreyer) (Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel)
  75. Son of Frankenstein - (1939, Rowland V. Lee) (Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Basil Rathbone)
  76. The Mummy - (1932, Karl W. Freund) (Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners)
  77. Island of Lost Souls - (1932, Erle C. Kenton) (Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen)
  78. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - (1931, Rouben Mamoulian) (Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins)
  79. Lost Horizon - (1937, Frank Capra) (Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, John Howard)
  80. Animal Crackers - (1930, Victor Heerman) (Marx Brothers, Lillian Roth, Margaret Dumont)
  81. Twentieth Century - (1934, Howard Hawks) (John Barrymore, Carole Lombard)
  82. Nothing Sacred - (1937, William Wellman) (Carole Lombard, Fredric March)
  83. Ninotchka - (1939, Ernst Lubitsch) (Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Bela Lugosi)
  84. Holiday - (1938, George Cukor) (Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Lew Ayres)
  85. The Awful Truth - (1937, Leo McCarey) (Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy)
  86. À Nous la Libertén - (1931, René Clare) (Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand)
  87. The Invisible Man - (1933, James Whale) (Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan)
  88. Queen Christina - (1933, Rouben Mamoulian) (Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith)
  89. Pygmalion - (1938, Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard) (Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller)
  90. Dark Victory - (1939, Edmund Goulding) (Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, George Brent)
  91. Three Comrades - (1938, Frank Borzage) (Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan)
  92. Fury - (1936, Fritz Lang) (Spencer Tracy, Sylvia Sidney, Walter Brennan, Walter Abel)
  93. The Scarlet Empress - (1934, Josef von Sternberg) (Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge)
  94. A Farewell to Arms - (1932, Frank Borzage) (Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, Adolphe Menjou)
  95. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse - (1933, Fritz Lang) (Oscar Beregi Sr., Paul Bernd)
  96. The Lady Vanishes - (1938, Alfred Hitchcock) (Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave)
  97. The Mystery of the Wax Museum - (1933, Michael Curtiz) (Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray)
  98. Love Me Tonight - (1932, Rouben Mamoulian) (Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald)
  99. A Day at the Races - (1937, Sam Wood) (Marx Brothers, Maureen O’Sullivan)
  100. The Big House - (1930, Paul Fejos, G.W. Hill) (Chester Morris, Wallace Beery)
35

Back to Futures
Raiders of the Lost Arks
Star Wars
Romancing the Stone
National Lampoon Vacations
John Candy movies (Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck)
Molly Ringwold (Candles, Pink, etc)
Silverado

What the 80’s lacked in quantity they made up for in quality.

36

^
strange, you’re not very fond of 80’s blockbusters.

Rocky 3-4
Rambo 1-3
Star Treck 2-3
Beast Master
E.T. the Extraterrestrial
Ghandi
Indiana Jones anthology (mentioned)
Marty Macfly anthology (mentioned)
Goonies
Terminator 1
All Brat Pack movies
Aliens (2)
Top Gun
Broadcast News
The Untouchables
Predator 1
The Naked Gun

37

Bunch of slackers.

38

Not an officianado of films this far back, but I have the feeling like this one is starting to lose strength around the 10 mark.

39

Decades are arbitrary periods. It doesn’t really work to divide movie history into them. I would say that the best periods for films were the following, in this order:

1937 - 1946
1967 - 1976

40

Captain Courageous
Lost Horizon
Gone with the Wind
Adventures of Robin Hood
Citizen Kane
Cassablanca
It’s a Wonderful Life
[That’s all I know]

In the Heat of the Night
The Graduate
Oliver!
Romeo and Juliet
Midnight Cowboy
Hello Dolly
Love Story
Patton
Fiddler on the Roof
The Godfather 1&2
Deliverance
The Exorcist
Jaws
Rocky 1
Taxi Driver
[Wish you’d extend it to '78 so it’ll include Star Wars and The Deer Hunter]

Me next!

1981-1984
1990-1994

41

You couldn’t be more wrong. The 30s list doesn’t even have masterpieces like Footlight Parade, Man’s Castle, Only Angels Have Wings, Shanghai Express, The Crime of M. Lange, Make Way for Tomorrow, Shall We Dance, It’s a Gift, Land without Bread, The Tale of the Fox or anything by Ozu, all of which I would take over 2/3 of the 70s list. In fact, the biggest selling point of the 70s is what the list posted is missing–the major foreign language films from all around the world that came to prominence around that time (the list posted has fewer than 10).

I’d say a list from the 1950s would also beat the 1970s listed posted, despite it being a truly fantastic decade.