"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." — Dr. Emmett Brown, Back to the Future

Introduction

Let’s go back in time. 1985 was a weird and wild year for Hollywood. The U.S. box office was filled with senior citizen aliens, teenage time travelers, African safaris, “Brat Packs,” and treasure-hunting children. Meanwhile, the dominance of the VCR was on the rise, Japan’s equivalent to Disney was born and Cold War fears continued to drive many studio productions.

The film industry was entering a pivotal transition as viewers gained more control over how and where they watched movies. While the summer blockbuster formula pioneered by Jaws and Star Wars continued to dominate the mainstream, the industry also saw a surge in large-budget, esoteric fantasy films. Though many of these ambitious projects struggled to find an audience in theaters, they would soon be rediscovered and transformed into cult classics on the rental store shelves.

The Vital Stats

• Average Ticket Price: $3.55 (~$10.50 adjusted for inflation)

• Ticket Sales: 1.06 billion sold (down from 1.2 billion in 1984, a year driven by massive hits like Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop)

• Rise of the VCR: Approximately 30% of U.S. households owned a VCR by the end of the year.

• Video Rental Revenue: Hollywood earned roughly $5.37 billion in rentals by the end of ‘85, significantly outpacing the ~$3.75 billion in annual domestic box office revenue.

The Industry

After Disney narrowly avoided a corporate takeover and subsequent restructuring in 1984, they faced another financial crisis in ‘85 when The Black Cauldron and Return to Oz failed to return on their investments. The company’s animation department was eventually set on a path to recovery by Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, though the “Renaissance” would not fully bloom until later in the decade.

In June of ‘85, Hayao Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli, Japan’s massively successful answer to Disney, following the success of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Rupert Murdoch acquired 20th Century Fox, paving the way for the creation of Fox News. Meanwhile, Ted Turner engaged in a turbulent buyout of MGM/UA. Though he eventually sold much of it back, he retained the massive film library that would eventually become the backbone of Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

Blockbuster Video opened its first store in Dallas, Texas, in October 1985. This paved the way for a revolution in home media, allowing studios to take greater risks knowing films could find a second life on VHS even if they underperformed at the box office.

As a result of this home video boom, the WGA went on strike in 1985 over residuals for video sales. They eventually settled for a 0.3% share of gross home video sales—a decision that created a ripple effect impacting the strikes of 2007 and 2023.

The Scorecard

Box Office Takeaways

The box office winners of 1985 aren’t especially surprising in hindsight. Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future introduced an innovative and effective way to bring time travel to the big screen, wrapped in a perfect script. Rocky and Rambo were major franchises that were easy to market, despite their increasing absurdity. The Color Purple benefited from being Steven Spielberg’s follow-up to the previous year’s Temple of Doom. Out of Africa was a classic “prestige” epic, sold on the star power of Robert Redford and Meryl Streep.

Notably, Back to the Future is the only film to land in both the Box Office Top 10 and the Letterboxd Top 10 for the year. Alongside The Goonies, it remains perhaps the most fondly remembered film of ‘85, still a staple of repertory theaters and outdoor movie nights nationwide.

Critical Consensus

Contemporary critics and modern cinephiles often hold a contrasting view to the box office hits of the time. The films rated most highly by Letterboxd viewers today are overwhelmingly bleak, complex, or international.

Come and See is a devastating anti-war masterpiece from the Soviet Union. Shoah is a landmark nine-hour Holocaust documentary composed entirely of interviews. Ran is Akira Kurosawa’s sumptuously colorful samurai epic based on King Lear. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is a highly stylized American-Japanese co-production about the life of the controversial author. This dichotomy exemplifies 1985 perfectly: the public sought escapist entertainment, while the “Greatest” films of the year were wrestling with the heaviest themes of the 20th century.

Statues & Snubs

The big winner of the 58th Academy Awards was Out of Africa, which swept 7 Oscars, including Best Picture. In a shocking turn, Spielberg’s adaptation of The Color Purple was snubbed entirely, winning zero Oscars despite a record-tying 11 nominations. Some critics at the time suggested its chances were hurt by controversies regarding its portrayal of certain themes from Alice Walker’s novel.

Best Foreign Film when to Argentina’s The Official Story—none of the nominees are in the Letterboxd top ten. Paul Newman received an honorary award for his work on and off screen. Meanwhile, the Coen Brothers quietly made the debut with a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for their film Blood Simple. The Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival went to Yugoslavian film, When My Father Was Away on Business. Best Artistic Contribution went to Mishima and the Grand Prix went to Alan Parker’s Birdy.

Overlooked Gems & My Two Cents

Several films from 1985 were overlooked at the time but have since achieved legendary status. John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club is now considered a definitive high school masterpiece. Albert Brooks’s Lost in America remains one of the smartest comedies of the decade. Clint Eastwood’s sole Western of the 80s, Pale Rider, is all too often forgotten, though it was also the highest grossing Western of the 80s.

Based on a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, The Runaway Train went criminally underwatched despite spectacularly directed action sequences. Amazing, over the top action film Commando has garnered quite the cult following, deservedly so. The Legend of Billie Jean flew under the radar as a fantastic low-budget “feminist” action film. In comedy, Fletch and Brewster’s Millions have both maintained strong cult followings. Finally, George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead was a modest hit that is now viewed as a high-water mark for practical horror effects.

Weirdness of ‘85

If the 1980s were whimsical, 1985 may have been the peak. The sheer variety of “cult” oddities is staggering: Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Return to Oz, Re-Animator, Teen Wolf, Better Off Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Weird Science, Crimewave, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Even the Bond franchise got weird with Roger Moore’s final outing, A View to a Kill.

Technological Milestones

As THX expanded after its 1983 debut, Lucasfilm pushed boundaries with the first fully computer-generated character (the Stained Glass Knight) in Young Sherlock Holmes. The success of this proof-of-concept helped George Lucas eventually spin off his computer division into an independent company: Pixar Animation Studios.

Social Impacts

The Cold War heavily influenced 1985’s output. Tensions were reflected in blockbusters like Rocky IV, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Spies Like Us, as well as more harrowing films like Threads, Come and See, and White Nights.

The year also saw the release of Buddies, the first feature film to explicitly address the AIDS epidemic. Its director, Arthur J. Bressan Jr., tragically died of AIDS-related complications only two years later.

Curiosities

• The Brat Pack: The term was coined by David Blum in a June 1985 New York magazine article, referring to the core group of young actors (Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, etc.) appearing in films like St. Elmo’s Fire and The Breakfast Club.

• PG-13’s First Full Year: After its introduction in mid-1984 with Red Dawn, the PG-13 rating enjoyed its first full calendar year in ‘85. This new rating was designed to bridge the gap for films that were too intense for PG but not explicit enough for R. Prominent films that carried the new rating this year included The Jewel of the Nile, National Lampoon’s European Vacation, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and Enemy Mine.

In Memoriam

• Orson Welles: The visionary behind Citizen Kane, often cited as the greatest film ever made. He left behind a legacy that includes Touch of Evil, The Lady from Shanghai, and The Magnificent Ambersons.

• Rock Hudson: A beloved Hollywood heartthrob and star of Douglas Sirk melodramas (All That Heaven Allows) and romantic comedies (Pillow Talk). His death brought massive public attention to the AIDS crisis.

• Yul Brynner: The Russian-born, Oscar-winning star of The King and I, The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, and Westworld.

• Sam Spiegel: A legendary three-time Oscar-winning producer known for his collaboration with director David Lean. He won Best Picture for Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and On the Waterfront.

The following is the first entry in the flagship series this Substack was primarily created for. The idea is to create one entry for every year in the history of cinema (the late 19th century will be a special bundle), slowly compiling an Almanac of film.

I grew up loving armchair reference books like the Times World Almanac and as my appreciation of film grew deeper I found myself wishing there was a Film Almanac. I pored over books both old and new and even scoured websites for resources that satisfied my desire, to no avail. There are many great books and websites and we even have AI chatbots now to provide all the information we can dream of. But I didn’t find any that were satisfyingly browsable or curated well enough, year by year. My wish is that one day, when all my entries are complete and perfected, the whole thing can be published into that browsable armchair companion I’ve always wanted.

The years will not be released chronologically. I want to keep it fresh for both myself and my readers by jumping around, back and forth, between the 13 or so decades of film history. I’m starting in 1959 because I find it to be an interesting time for the art of cinema, the business of film, and the culture in the United States and the World at large. There are also a good handful of films from ‘59 that are some of my favorite films of all time.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy following along on this journey as much as I enjoy embarking on it.

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Introduction

Nearly the halfway point between now and the birth of cinema, 1959 was a year of major transition for the film industry. The year is full of dichotomies: from small budget box office successes that are now largely forgotten, to big budget successes that will forever be remembered, and to the failures finally becoming recognized now as classics.

The industry was in turmoil as theater ticket sales dwindled and television sales reached all time highs. Industry executives, desperate to fill seats, attempted to innovate, giving people a reason to make the trip to their local palace. Drive-Ins, 3D, CinemaScope, and Smell-O-Vision are all examples of part of the creative innovation used to combat the rise of TV in the 1950s. As the battle for viewership continued 1959 saw consolidation of power within industry giants and it saw unions strike for higher residuals from television.

The year produced one of the biggest Oscar winners in history, Disney’s most visually ambitious film, the greatest comedy ever made, a Hitchcock masterpiece, and a few of my all time favorites. As Sinatra would say, “It was a very good year.”

The Vital Stats

Average ticket price: $0.51 ($5.35 adjusted for inflation)

Television Domination: 82% of US households owned a television set (up from just 9% in 1950), forcing studios to fight harder for eyeballs.

The Drive-In Theaters: Outdoor theaters reached their peak with roughly 4,000 locations, accounting for 25% of all ticket sales.

The Scorecard

Below is a breakdown of what the public paid to see versus what history has deemed a classic (via my personal favorite film rating community, Letterboxd). Note the stark divide between the comedies that made the big bucks and the international dramas that captured critics and contemporary viewers’ imaginations:

I’ve compiled every film mentioned in this post into a comprehensive list on Letterboxd:

View 1959 List on Letterboxd

Box Office Takeaways

MGM scored big with William Wyler’s big budget roadshow tentpole and religious epic, Ben-Hur, saving MGM from financial ruin. It was far and away the year’s biggest earner as well as becoming the biggest Oscar winner ever with 11 statues, a record now shared with Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). Disney, on the other hand, though it sold many tickets, lost on its gamble with Sleeping Beauty. The budget proved too high to achieve the innovation Walt Disney sought (among other things, his first 70mm and stereo film), though he did produce Disney’s most beautiful film for years to come. Comedies like Operation Petticoat, Darby O’Gill and the Little People, and The Shaggy Dog, though big earners, are now largely forgotten. Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot and Hitchcock’s North By Northwest proved to be both huge financial and critical successes and maintain their classic classifications today. John Cassavetes Shadows helped form the independent film movement with its tiny budget and comparatively large box office returns. On the European side, Francois Truffaut’s terrific The 400 Blows, along with Chabrol’s Les Cousins, help jump start the French independent film movement coined, Nouvelle Vague, aka The French New Wave.

Critical Consensus

Though it is beyond the scope of these pieces to analyze the box office numbers and critics from around the world, we can take a look at the Letterboxd community and renowned critic Roger Ebert as a small sample of which films from 1959 have maintained respect, regardless of their box office grosses. Notably, six of Letterboxd’s top 10 films from ‘59 are international productions. Two are French (400 Blows and Hiroshima), two are Japanese (The Human Condition and Good Morning), one is Indian (Apur Sansar), and one is Soviet Russian (Ballad of a Soldier). These films didn’t get much play in the United States at the time, but thanks to the hard work of preservationists, many have been restored and have been enjoying a second life of high praise among the film enthusiast community.

My Two Cents

What films I love from ‘59

There is a lot to love about this year in film. I watched Ben-Hur at a young age and remember being enthralled by the epic (I’m looking forward to a new restoration on 4k being slated to be released soon). I’ve been a fan of Disney animated films since I was a child and even though Sleeping Beauty was released over 20 years before I was born, it always felt fresh and exciting - I’ve only grown to appreciate it more as I’ve aged. Some Like It Hot was the first black and white movie I really fell in love with and it helped pique my interest in classic cinema. Later in life I finally watched Satyajit Ray’s The Apu Trilogy, or, The World of Apu (it wasn’t available for years - the history of its existence is itself a fascinating story) and the trilogy are now some of my favorite films of all time. The final installment, ‘59’s Apur Sansar, it probably my favorite of the three. Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition is another groundbreaking work I discovered later in life that became an all time favorite. I believe Rio Bravo is one of the greatest westerns ever made and Howard Hawks is one of the greatest directors. Douglas Sirk’s technicolor melodramas were never something I thought I’d enjoy, let alone adore, but here I am citing Imitation of Life as a favorite. The 400 Blows, North By Northwest, Anatomy of a Murder - what can I say? They’re all indelible classics. I’m also a huge jazz fan and, interested in the genre or not, Jazz on a Summer’s Day is a fantastic documentary to enjoy, volume turned up, in the summertime.

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Overlooked Gems & Oddities

There are some films that didn’t reach any of these lists worth mentioning. Ride Lonesome (of Ranown fame - one of Budd Boetticher’s best), The Hanging Tree, Last Train from Gun Hill, and Day of the Outlaw, while not living up to the high standards of Rio Bravo, are often criminally overlooked Westerns. The World, the Flesh, and the Devil is fascinating look into a post-apocalyptic world, wonderfully produced with Harry Belafonte’s best performance. House on Haunted Hill and The Mummy are funky little horror films that were ably produced. Gidget ushered in the surf film movement and really a countercultural surfing movement as a whole, especially in California.

The Industry

• Deal of the Decade: Talent agency, MCA (Music Corporation of America) buys Universal Pictures, consolidating production and talent into a single powerhouse. This move effectively creates the modern Hollywood business model. The move bolsters the studio’s ability to package big budget movies with great talent to draw in audiences, hoping to lure them away from their televisions.

• The Labor Wars: In November, SAG and the WGA voted to strike (beginning Jan 1960), fighting for higher minimum salaries and residuals from television. The battle has a lasting impact on industry labor and bears a striking resemblance to the fights for residuals from streaming by the WGA in 2007 and again in 2023.

• RKO Shutters Doors: Once considered a major studio of Hollywood’s “Golden Age” (having produced classics like Citizen Kane and King Kong), RKO Studios succumbs to financial ruin. In March they released their final film, Verboten!, to little fanfare.

Technological Milestones

Studios tried every gimmick imaginable to pull people off their couches:

• The Ultimate Test of 70mm: Super Panavision 70 enters the fray with its first film, The Big Fisherman, offering an improvement to Ben-Hur’s Ultra Panavision 70 (which itself was a higher quality answer to CinemaScope), ultimately winning the battle in long term popularity. Super Panavision 70 would go on to photograph films like Lawrence of Arabia, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and West Side Story.

• The “Battle of the Smellies”: Documentary Behind the Great Wall introduced “AromaRama,” leading Variety to dub the feud with the rival “Smell-O-Vision” (debuting in early 1960 with Scent of Mystery) as “The Battle of the Smellies”. AromaRama piped the scents through the theater’s air conditioning units, whereas Smell-O-Vision employed a complex and expensive series of tubes that snaked under the seats. Audiences complained that either the scents mixed together or they were underwhelmed by what they smelled. The box office numbers stank.

Social Impacts

Many films in 1959 sought to influence social developments of the times. Nuclear disarmament was on many people’s minds. Before Kubrick directed Peter Sellers playing three characters about nuclear war in Dr. Strangelove (1964), Sellers balanced three roles in Jack Arnold’s The Mouse That Roared, about a small country intentionally at war with the United States, which also explores themes of atomic weapons. Both Stanley Kramer’s On the Beach and The World, the Flesh, and the Devil depicted the aftermath of nuclear war, while the latter also explored how race would play out as a factor in that harrowing situation. Other terrific films that explored race in ‘59 are Cassavetes’ Shadows, Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life, Samuel Fuller’s The Crimson Kimono, Robert Wise’s Odds Against Tomorrow, and Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus.

The Dept. of Curiosities

• The Worst Movie Ever: After a bumpy limited release schedule, Ed Wood finally widely released his sci-fi epic, Plan 9 from Outer Space. The movie was a flop and later became a cult classic for being dubbed “The Worst Film Ever Made” by Michael and Harry Medved in 1980.

• The End of an Era: The Three Stooges released their final film, marking the end of the classic slapstick shorts era.

• TV Landmark: Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone premiered, changing the landscape of on-screen science fiction forever. In 1983 Steven Spielberg teamed up with John Landis, Joe Dante, and George Miller to direct and produce an anthology feature film, The Twilight Zone: The Movie, to mixed reviews (I am not a fan). Comedian and critically acclaimed horror film director Jordan Peele would later produce a TV reboot in 2019.

In Memoriam

• Errol Flynn: Swashbuckling hero and womanizing hedonist, Flynn was as controversial a lead man as they get. He’s known for films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Captain Blood (1935).

• Cecil B. DeMille: A giant of the Golden Age of Hollywood, DeMille produced and directed some of the biggest movies in Hollywood for 5 decades. He’s known for films such as The Ten Commandments (1956), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), and The King of Kings (1927).

• Lou Costello: Of Abbott and Costello fame, Lou and Bud worked as a team in television and film for over 20 years. They’re famously known for their “Who’s On First” bit.

• Raymond Chandler: Detective novelist and screenwriter whose hard-boiled style defined the film noir genre. His work is stamped on classics including The Big Sleep (based on his novel), Double Indemnity, and Strangers on a Train.

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