We’ve seen a lot of great movies in recent history, and it seems like some years hit one blockbuster after the other. It seems like a silly thing to assume that there was a period in time or a certain year when movies were just objectively better, but thankfully box office statistics and the Oscars can give us a pretty decent idea of how heavy the competition was to be the movie of the year.
Let’s take a look at some years where we had a higher amount of good movies than average.
1982
This year is just going to be impossible to beat for everyone but mostly action movie fans. This year had – hold on to your seats here – Mad Max: Road Warrior, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Conan The Barbarian, Tron, E.T., Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, An Officer And A Gentleman, Rambo: First Blood, … This was truly a year where every movie fan had at least 2-3 movies to watch in theaters.
2012
We don’t usually respect recent years in cinematic history as much because it feels less epic if you can remember it clearly, but 2012 gave us – and especially the comic book fans among us – a pretty solid year: The Dark Knight Rises, Marvel’s The Avengers, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hunger Games, Life of Pi, Skyfall, …
1994
The mid 90’s had some amazing movies, but 1994 was easily the best year out of them all. We got Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump and The Lion King, so this year had top movies for everyone.
1984
Another big 80’s year, this year gave us a lot of action comedies that we’ll remember for decades: Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, Police Academy, Gremlins … And if that’s not good enough, it also had Terminator, Nightmare on Elm Street, Footloose, Purple Rain, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, … Just an amazing year.
2014
When it comes to making the Oscars exciting, there won’t be a year to beat 2014 anytime soon. Five years ago we had Nightcrawler, Boyhood, Ex Machina, Whiplash, Great Budapest Hotel, Birdman, Interstellar, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, … and we also had three of the best superhero movies in recent history: Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: Winter Soldier and X-Men: Days of Future Past.
1999
The Green Mile, Fight Club, The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, Boondock Saints, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, Cruel Intentions. The only thing keeping this year down is that it also started the Star Wars prequels.
1993
Where most big movies hit theaters in 1994, there’s a few that came out in 1993 that are hard to forget. Most memorable are Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, The Fugitive and Groundhog Day. Probably not a “huge” year, but all of these movies still hold up perfectly today.
