More movie musings

Here's something one of my boys brought up to compare movies then (when JAWS was released - see previous post) and movies now (from 2000 - 2010 at least).  The top movies of the year in the 1970s vs. those in the 2000s.  BTW, these are based on the receipts of about 10 years ago before Netflix and DVD may have skewed things for the older movies.  Some of those could have changed, and of course inflation as always.  So it's based on the number one films at the time.

Number 1 Movies from 2000 - 2010:
2000  Mission: Impossible II
2001  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
2002  Lord of the Rings: Two Towers
2003  Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
2004  Shrek 2
2005  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2006  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
2007  Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
2008  The Dark Knight
2009  Avatar
2010  Toy Story 3


Number 1 Movies from 1970 - 1980
1970  Love Story
1971  Fiddler on the Roof
1972  The Godfather
1973  The Exorcist
1974  The Towering Inferno
1975  Jaws
1976  Rocky
1977  Star Wars
1978  Grease
1979  Kramer vs. Kramer
1980 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Pretty telling.  And it might mean something when pondering my boy's reaction to Jaws.  It's worth noting that in 1981 it was Raiders of the Lost Ark, 82 E.T., 83 Return of the Jedi, 84 Ghostbusters, and 85 Back to the Future.  So there is clearly a trend from earlier.  By now the Summer Blockbuster was in full swing.  It seems to have died down some in the late 80s and early 90s, as movies not necessarily aimed at Summer Blockbuster teens found their way to the top (Rain Man for instance).  But on the whole, from the 70s on, the trend in what movies make the top of the list gets pretty predicable, and once you get to the 00s, there is a definite content similarity if you get right down to it.