GoldenJCJ

With the release of The Avengers: Infinity War this weekend I got to thinking about how the Summer movie season isn’t what it used to be. It seems like over the last decade or so studios have started pushing other times of the year for big movies rather than waiting for the summer months. It used to be that Memorial Day through the middle of August was prime “blockbuster” time. Now we’ve got the two most probable highest grossing movies of the year being released in February and April.

That then got me thinking about how great the summer movie seasons were when I was a teen in the 90s. They weren’t always great but I remember waiting all school year for the big movies to be released. Just of the top of my head we had:
Jurassic Park
The Rock
Twister
Face/Off
Independence Day
Armageddon
The Truman Show
Terminator 2
Speed
Men in Black
Air Force One
Saving Private Ryan
The Sixth Sense
Deep Impact

It’s too bad that the summer movie season isn’t what it used to be. It was such a fun time as a young teenager to see all those flicks while on summer vacation.

E Unit

Most of the summer's during the 80's I always thought were better than any summer of every other decade. But the 90's had some good ones. The first one of the 90's I remember, was The Hunt for Red October, released March 1990, but promoted as the summer's first action thriller of the decade.

Nick Danger

Those movies are okay, I guess. When I was a teenager, we got to see
Star Wars
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Alien
Apocalypse Now
Superman

Mike86

I think when you lump a bunch of hit movies from various years it’s not really fair. It seems like most years have ups and downs but some have more of one or the other.

GoldenJCJ

^ Some great movies but alas I was either not born yet or too young to see those in the theater. And of course Jaws, my personal favorite movie of all time.

There were plenty of summer movies in the 90s that weren’t very good but hold a special place for me because I enjoyed that time for movies so much. Why else would I have a soft spot for Congo?

stingermck

My stuff is better than your stuff!

Ash Ketchum

Two of my favorite movies were released in the summer I turned ten: JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS and THE GREAT ESCAPE. I remember seeing the billboards for those in Times Square on my tenth birthday, but I couldn't see them until they came to Bronx theaters that fall. KING KONG VS. GODZILLA came to my neighborhood theater that summer, but I was away at summer camp, where we saw a similar fighting duo, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in AT WAR WITH THE ARMY, from 12 years earlier, which was not nearly as funny as KK VS. G turned out to be.

Some great summer movies from the '60s and '70s: A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, HELP!, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, BONNIE AND CLYDE, DEATH RIDES A HORSE, WHERE EAGLES DARE, THE WILD BUNCH, KELLY'S HEROES, COTTON COMES TO HARLEM, BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, SHAFT, BLACULA, ENTER THE DRAGON, etc.

The Adam West Batman movie drew a big crowd on a weekday afternoon in August 1966. It was paired with RETURN OF MR. MOTO, starring Henry Silva, a talky British movie which made us all restless.

Hokeyboy

I was 11 in the Summer of 1982, and went to the movies almost every other afternoon after computer camp (!) until my Mom could come pick me up. She talked to the theater manager and gave her permission for me to see rated R films too.

I saw everything. Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, E.T., Firefox, Rocky III, The Thing, Poltergiest, Blade Runner, Tron, Road Warrior, Annie, even crap like Megaforce and Grease 2.

E Unit

Grease 2, a stain on the Summer of 82.

Hokeyboy

Megaforce made Grease 2 look like Grease 1.

Paul_SD

The Golden Age of anything was when you were 10-14.

Bluelitespecial

I would say the Summer of 1989 was the perfect summer movie season, than 1996, and 1997 right behind it.

AaronHernandez

Disagree man,the porn star's now are hotter and better perfomer's then the women who worked in porn in my junior high years.

Daytripper

Great list. However, "Close Encounters" and "Superman" were released in December the year they came out.

Daytripper

Agreed. THAT was the best Summer movie season ever. BuzzFeed said the same. I'd also like to add, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (my favorite Steve Martin film). Also, "Grease 2" was a guilty pleasure. And arguably started Michelle Pfiefer's career. Who was the only good thing about that movie.

Norm de Plume

Do you have a secret dossier on that? But seriously, I agree with you, though I would lower the age range a couple of years. The innocent, carefree years of childhood can never be recreated or relived, and most of our best memories derive from that time.

rw2516

Don't forget THE DIRTY DOZEN. Biggest hit of summer '67, beating out YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. Where I lived it was exclusive to a drive-in. Remember when drive-ins had a major movie just released and the newspaper ads read FIRST RUN! I seem to remember THE LOVE BUG being a big deal in summer of '69.

Mabuse

‘89 was insane.

Batman
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Ghostbusters II
Lethal Weapon 2
The Abyss
License to Kill (Bond)
Honey I Shrunk the Kids
Look Who's Talking
Casualties of War
Dead Poets Society
Do the Right Thing
Karate Kid 3
Nightmare on Elm Street 5
Parenthood
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Star Trek 5
Uncle Buck
UHF
When Harry Met Sally

You had Lethal Weapon, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, Batman, Star Trek, Bond, a James Cameron film, a John Hughes film, a Brian DePalma film, and if that's not enough the winner of the Palm d'or at Cannes...ALL IN ONE SUMMER!!!!
We are in a golden age of porn. The Japanese have stopped censoring, and the American girls will do anything. And the eastern bloc girls will do even more. You know who doesn’t make very good porn? The French.

GoldenJCJ

This may be true (Although I’d put it closer to 13-17 range). I think we can all agree that the summer movie season we all grew up with and loved is going away. Much like Saturday morning cartoons, kids growing up today won’t know the great feeling that was summer movies.

Shoveler

"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?” That line always brings a tear to my eyes, thinking of those friendships and how blissful we were in our ignorance of what life would be like.

JeffTheAlpaca

I thought the 2000's was the golden age with all the comic book movies?

Hokeyboy

1982 was tops. But 1984 destroys everything else:

Ghostbusters
Gremlins
Revenge of the Nerds
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Star Trek III
Red Dawn
The Last Starfighter
The Karate Kid
Buckaroo Banzai
Purple Rain
Top Secret!
Bachelor Party
Dreamscape

Hokeyboy

1985 was so bad in comparison, they had to bring back two of 1984's biggest hits (Ghostbusters and Gremlins) as re-releases, even bringing back E.T. from 1982. The only thing that kept that summer afloat was Back To The Future and Rambo.

Explorers, Return to Oz, Real Genius, My Science Project, The Black Cauldron, Red Sonja, The Bride, The Man With One Red Shoe... eesh.

Norm de Plume

Twelve was roughly the apogee of my life.

Goonies85

Disagree when it comes to 1985. The Goonies, To Live and Die in L.A., Day of the Dead, Fletch, The Breakfast Club, Year of the Dragon, Mishima: A Life in 4 Chapters, After Hours, Phenomena, Witness, Come and See, etc...It was a pretty solid year for movies...