A history of blockbusters

Summer has been the time of great blockbusters at least for the past 39 years. Before 1975, summer movies were a throwaway to the studios. No matter how hard they tried, movie attendance was always down in the summer, most likely due to Americans enjoying the outdoors. This momentum shifted in the summer of '75, when a movie about a man-eating shark hit the theater and attracted movie audiences at levels not seen before.

"Jaws," starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and, of course, a gigantic great white shark, terrorized audiences and set records at the box office at the time raking in $260 million. I was a bit too young to see "Jaws," at least in the theater, since I was 7 years old. I finally saw the movie a few years later on cable, and it was still pretty scary to me. The movie was made by a young Steven Spielberg who directed the blockbuster, the first of many. Spielberg would later take the lessons learned from "Jaws" and use them with much success through many summers since.

Spielberg went on to produce six of the top summer blockbusters, including "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Jurassic Park," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Saving Private Ryan." All are films I could sit and watch many times, and some I have.

I looked over a list of summer blockbusters since 1975 and I have to admit I have managed to see most of them. As the summer of 2014 opens, let's look back at many of the past blockbusters. How many of these movies have you seen?

1976: "The Omen." This was one movie I did not see for several years, but it was an excellent horror movie and quite terrifying.

1977: "Star Wars IV: A New Hope." The beginning of the meteoric rise of filmmaker George Lucas, and a film that I think almost everyone should have seen at least once.

1978: "Grease." This film is another of my favorites, which I must have watched several times as I was a big fan of a young John Travolta, and what teenage boy did not like Olivia Newton-John. Several top songs that summer came from the soundtrack.

1979: "The Amityville Horror." I have seen it a few times but I still like "The Omen" better. It makes you think twice about house shopping.

1980: "Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back." Who can help but shudder when Darth Vader utters that famous line about Luke's family line that shocked the world?

1981: "Raiders of the Lost Ark." After seeing Spielberg and Lucas separately be so successful, the world got the filmmaking dream team as these two legendary filmmakers joined to produce this epic God vs. Nazis blockbuster.

1982: "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." This fantastic film about a little visitor from outer space who just wants to return home scored big at the box office.

1983: "Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi." The Empire finally buys it at the hands of the Jedi, ewoks and Luke Skywalker finally redeems his father in this final chapter of the trilogy.

1984: "Ghostbusters." The tide turns from action/adventure movies to comedy as this hilarious movie took the box office by storm featuring Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver.

1985: "Back to the Future." The blockbuster returns to adventure as Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd time travel and score big with their DeLorean in this first entry of the trilogy.

1986: "The Karate Kid II." This sequel was a blockbuster that I saw one time, but is probably my personal least memorable blockbuster.

1987: "Beverly Hills Cop II." This sequel to the popular cop film starring Eddie Murphy was funnier than the first one.

1988: "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" This innovative live-action-animated mystery romp put Jessica and Roger Rabbit in the public eye as everyone spent the summer trying to figure out who stuck it to the famous bunny.

1989: "Batman." Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton teamed up to breathe a new, more serious life in the Dark Knight, moving him from the campiness of Adam West to the darker reality of Tim Burton in this action movie.

1990: "Ghost." was the greatest blockbuster love story since "Grease," and audiences hit the theater in droves to see that love never dies.

1991: "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." The second of the Terminator movies continued the time traveling science fiction thriller.

1992: "Batman Returns." Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito, along with Michelle Pfeiffer, return to thrill audiences in the dark, twisted sequel.

1993: "Jurassic Park." This movie adventure on a remote island with out-of-control dinosaurs scared and thrilled audiences with its look at what happens when man plays God.

1994: "Forrest Gump." "Life's like a box of chocolates" is one of the most memorable lines from this beloved film about a simple man and how his life touches so many. This film landed Tom Hanks his first Academy Award and landed a win for drama in the summer blockbuster category.

Next week we will look at the second half of the summer blockbusters and find more superheroes, more action and adventure and science fiction as we journey through the first 40 years of the summer blockbuster.

Till next time …