I found this list of highest grossing for each year
http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/#tab=year
John Huston’s “The Bible” was the highest grossest film for 1966 but doesn’t seem to be one of these films you see at Christmas or Easter like you do for “Ben Hur” or “The Ten Commandments”
“Three Men and a Baby” was the best seller of 1987. You don’t see it much but you can argue tv shows like “Full House” copied it.
How many posts before someone mentioned *Brokeback Mountain *?
What I’ve learned from this thread-- “If I personally don’t love it or remember it, it didn’t have a lasting impact on the culture.”
This is why I’m not making suggestions…just pointing out ones I think are on the far side of crazy. There have been plenty mentioned that I saw, know made a buzz and don’t remember a damn thing from. But Miami Vice? They did a remake and one of the GTA games is based on it. Archer did a whole season called Archer Vice.
Cannonball Run? Deliverance? Smokey and the Bandit?..so basically everyone in the world has forgotten who Burt Reynolds is?
There are a lot of movies that have won Oscars for best picture/actor/actress, which may have been a big thing at the time, and since have sunk out of sight. Known only in listings in books now.
Not that it won any Oscars, but “On The Beach” (the movie) was a Big Thing back during Cold War days. It shows up on TV once in a great while. It was a product of its time. (still a GREAT movie, though. And book.)
I would add “Prizzi’s Honor”; I remember it being huge when it came out, with numerous Oscar nominations and the big deal that it was directed by John Huston. It seems dated now, like a lot of films of that era, and has (IMO) been overshadowed by “Goodfellas”, which seems like the definitive mob film.
Yes, I mentioned that one earlier. It does seem very dated. Even at the time it came out it seemed overrated to me. I think this is one of those situations where everyone involved with the film was very well-connected in Hollywood, and it consequently got rated more highly than it really deserved.
I noticed that too. I think a more objective measure of whether an older movie is still culturally relevant is how often it shows up on basic cable these days.
Just saw that-‘F’ for reading comprehension.
There are quite a few Oscar winners that limped over the finish line based on late-season hype nowadays.
Agreed. I remember my mother being strongly disappointed in it.
Speaking of Kathleen Turner, how about Body Heat or that really awful movie with Demi Moore and Michael Douglas(where she harasses him) which both got tons of coverage when they came out but neither of which had the kind if staying power as Fatal Attraction. Hell, I can’t even remember the name of the Douglas/Moore movie.
Shark Week would disagree with you. 26 years and going strong. Their first live host was Peter Benchley so they don’t hide the inspiration. Jaws is still hugely influential. I would debate the debatable.
It didn’t do jack for her sister Meg who was actually in the movie. 
Let me expand a little bit. Jaws was a movie that started a cultural phenomenon. It started the entire shark culture. This culture is still going strong; we have shark week and we just had 2 sharknado movies. Sharks have never left the cultural imagination since this movie came out.
This is like George Romero and Night of the Living Dead. The difference is that when you ask "what is the best movie ever made in your genre, you’ll get some argument with newer movies getting more love as they are more current and they’ve improved on the genre.
Not so with Jaws. I think if you asked what is the best shark movie ever you won’t get much argument. It’ll be Jaws in a landslide. What’s the second best shark movie ever? I haven’t ever seen another really good one and yet the shark phenomenon is still culturally relevant. That’s impressive.
If you played one of those word association games and someone said shark I’m betting Jaws will be the number one answer or in the running. That’s very impressive.
Disclosure, currently in rotation on premium cable.
What about The Truman Show? Popular when it first came out (and admittedly quite ahead of its time in terms of exploring the reality show phenomenon), but it seems it’s hardly talked about or discussed now.
I just saw a Truman Show reference on a current network show (probably a sitcom) in the last two weeks.
Thank you.
What I think is more important is that Jaws started the summer blockbuster idea.
Agreed. It’s hard not to see the cultural impact of Jaws all around us to this day.
I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible.
However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.