Welcome to our latest recurring feature, The Year in Film! So much of our coverage is devoted to the here-and-now of movies, and that’s all well and good. We’re still going to be bringing you that coverage. But we also love film history, so we thought it would be good to do a weekly series where we look back at a random year and design what made it special. That includes looking at the top-grossing movies, the Oscar winners, and some gems that you should put on your radar.
This week we’re headed to 1975. Let’s kick things off with the top-grossing movies:
Top 10 at the Box Office
1. Jaws - $190,000,000
2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show - $112,892,319
3. One Flew Over the Cuckoos’ Nets - $108,981,275
4. Dog Day Afternoon - $50,000,000
5. Shampoo - $49,407,734
6. The Return of the Pink Panther - $41,833,347
7. Funny Lady - $39,000,000
8. The Apple Dumpling Gang - $36,853,000
9. Aloha, Bobby and Rose - $35,000,000
10. The Other Side of the Mountain - $34,673,100
1975 was the year the summer blockbuster was born, and it's all thanks to Jaws. This was burgeoning filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s chance to prove himself after a couple of smaller features and some TV work, and while the production was notoriously difficult, Universal Pictures put together one hell of a marketing campaign—including an at the time unprecedented $700,000 spend on national TV advertising. Indeed, while much has been written about the film’s production and success, the marketing for Jaws was groundbreaking—Universal gave it an unusually wide release, buzz was huge following the TV ad spend (which was also rare), and it expanded even wider in the weeks to come.
Jaws grossed $7 million opening weekend and in just 78 days it overtook The Godfather as the highest-grossing film ever—a title it would hold until Star Wars came along. The film was so popular it was theatrically re-released the following year, in 1976, and again in 1979.
So yeah, Jaws was massive and given its success as a summer event following its June release, studios flocked to the summer to showcase their blockbusters. And then there’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was not an instant success but which has technically never been pulled from theaters since its 1975 release, making it the longest-running theatrical film in history.
Oscar Winners
- Best Picture – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Best Director – Miloš Forman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Best Actor – Jack Nicholson, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Best Actress – Louie Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Best Supporting Actor – George Burns, The Sunshine Boys
- Best Supporting Actress – Lee Grant, Shampoo
The late, great Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is one of only three films in history to win all five major Academy Awards: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay. It still holds up to this day as a bona fide classic, and its win is all the more impressive given that it was up against Jaws, Dog Day Afternoon, Nashville, and Barry Lyndon. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg was famously upset that he failed to land a Best Director Oscar nomination for Jaws, although one would come only three years later with Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
History
1975 is smack dab in the middle of one of the best movie decades in history. The fact that a film as troubling, and with as downer an ending as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest won Best Picture is a testament to the vibe of the decade, and of 1975 in particular. You also had the release of Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon, which had Al Pacino playing a man robbing a bank who is in a relationship with a trans woman. For 1975 that’s pretty progressive.
But the year also marked the beginning of a turning point for the industry, and you have Jaws to thank for the blockbuster gut of the 1980s. Just two years later, in 1977, we get Star Wars, followed by Superman in 1978 and Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. Of course this time period also brought us All the President’s Men and Kramer vs. Kramer and The Deer Hunter, but after Jaws Hollywood was never the same—for better and for worse.
Classics
The Stepford Wives – William Goldman scripted this highly anticipated adaptation.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail – Merely a flesh wound!
Nashville – Filmmaker Robert Altman’s musical comedy-drama about the music business in Nashville, Tennessee would stand as a hugely influential piece of ensemble filmmaking.
Jaws – Dun-dun.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show – This cult favorite was widely panned upon its initial release, but midnight showings began in 1976 and never let up.
Dog Day Afternoon – This collaboration between director Sidney Lumet and star Al Pacino was even more fruitful than their 1973 film Serpico. Lumet would follow Dog Day Afternoon with another classic just one year later: Network.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Actor Kirk Douglas tried for years to get an adaptation of this Broadway play off the ground, but was unable to find a studio willing to make it with him. He eventually gave the rights to his son Michael Douglas, who produced the finished version and won the Best Picture Oscar.
Barry Lyndon – Coming off the insane success of Dr. Strangelove, 2001, and A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick kept his next project shrouded in secrecy. Once unveiled to the public, the epic-in-length Barry Lyndon was instantly hailed as a groundbreaking piece of cinema.
