The 5 Best And 5 Worst Years In Box Office History

You'd be a billionaire if you could perfectly predict the movie business. Many have tried, many have succeeded, but even the best Moneyball-style prognosticators don't get it right 100% of the time. Moviegoers are a fickle lot, and there's no telling what movies will hit — and what movies will fail. Sure, we live in the IP and Cinematic Universe era, where every film in a series must have a built-in fan base and be tied into a larger multi-film franchise. Sounds foolproof, right? Just ask Universal after they released Tom Cruise's The Mummy about that. 

Movie producers try to mitigate risk when they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a movie, and making sequels, prequels, reboots, and spin-offs to proven properties seems like a safe bet. However, while some of the biggest box office years in history were headlined by original stories, some of the worst were suffocated with sequels. 

Instead of basing our list on total grosses (in which case this list would be exclusively 2010s vs. 1970s thanks to inflation) we based our "Best" and "Worst" years on the specific year's plus-or-minus percentage compared to the year before. Put simply, if the overall box office was up or down considerably from the year before, it made the list. Based on some of the big hits that came out in down years, even we were surprised by the entries on this list — and you will be, too. Here are the 5 best and 5 worst years in box office history!

Star Wars changed movie history in 1977, continuing what Jaws began in 1975 and establishing the summer as Hollywood's most profitable movie season. So it's no surprise moviegoers were really, really looking forward to Star Wars' sequel in 1980. It's hard to remember now, but there was a time when Star Wars wasn't ubiquitous across the pop culture galaxy. Except for a poorly received (and promptly buried) Star Wars Holiday Special, fans had to wait three years to see Star Wars on the screen. 

The wait was worth it: The Empire Strikes Back dominated 1980 with $209 million, more than the combined gross of the second and third-place finishers 9 to 5 ($103 million) and Stir Crazy ($101 million). But think about that for a second — two comedies came in the top three at the box office, earning more in 1980s dollars than most comedies do today. Accounting for inflation, 9 to 5 sold $324 million worth of tickets in today's dollars, while Stir Crazy sold $318 million. That's nuts! Original comedies just don't dominate like that anymore. In fact, seven of the top ten earners in 1980 were comedies, so the movie business laughed all the way to the bank and was up 17.4% from the previous year.

Despite Raiders of the Lost Ark topping the charts with $212 million, 1981 was actually a down year at the box office (though not even close to being the worst ever), earning 0.7% less than 1980. Maybe Steven Spielberg took that personally, as a Spielberg movie once again did the heavy lifting in 1982, and the result was not only one of his biggest hits ever but one of the most successful years in box office history. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was the perfect film for all ages, and pretty much all ages went to go see it, earing it $359 million, more than $966 million today. 

Take a second to process that: E.T. earned nearly a billion dollars when adjusted for inflation. E.T. didn't fly high alone, as the top five earners in 1982 all made more than $100 million – Tootsie with $177 million, An Officer and A Gentleman with $129 million, Rocky III with $124 million ... and Porky's with $105 million. Yes, more people paid to see Porky's than Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ($78.9 million). Now take time to process that! E.T. was, of course, the big winner that year, out-earning the combined grosses of the second and third-place finishers and carrying 1982 to a 25.6% increase from 1981.

Looking through a modern lens, 1979 is the strangest year on this list, as pretty much none of its top ten would place that high on the year-end chart today. It just goes to show how much moviegoers' tastes have changed in 40 years. Nevertheless, 1979 is one of the best in box office history, with a per-film average of $23 million and ending 26.1% above 1978 — and 1978 was nothing to sneeze at either, as it was up 13.1% with Grease and Superman: The Movie topping the charts. 

So was the biggest hit of 1979 a hip musical starring red-hot young stars or a big-budget spectacle featuring the world's most famous superhero? Not even close. It was Kramer vs. Kramer, which earned $106 million, more than $379 million when adjusted for inflation. Imagine if Marriage Story not only topped the box office in 2019 but earned $379 million (or even $106 million, for that matter). It's unfathomable. Almost as amazing as Kramer vs. Kramer was The Amityville Horror's second-place finish with $86 million, just ahead of Rocky II's $85 million. The biggest hit that year wasn't Alien, Apocalypse Now, or even a sequel to Rocky but a cheesy horror movie and a heartbreaking drama about divorce. Yep, 1979 was a strange year indeed.

You know what they say — what goes up must come down. The opposite is also true, at least when it comes to the box office in the early 1980s. Even with Return of the Jedi at the top, 1983 was a down year, and while 1984 could have continued the trend, instead, it became one of the most successful box office years ever. While none of 1984's top five earned more than Return of the Jedi's $252 million, the top two films came close, and four of the top five earned more than $100 million. Five big hits beat one blockbuster.

Really, 1984's top five is an all-star class of 1980s classics: The Karate Kid with $90 million, Gremlins with $148 million, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with $179 million, Ghostbusters with $229 million, and Beverly Hills Cop with $234 million. You read that right — the biggest hit of 1984 was not a big-budget blockbuster but an R-rated star vehicle headlined by one of the most successful comedians ever, Eddie Murphy. In fact, since 1977, only five years have been headlined by R-rated movies: American Sniper in 2014, Saving Private Ryan in 1998, Terminator II in 1991, Rain Man in 1988, and Beverly Hills Cop in 1984. There wasn't one mega-hit in 1984 but several, with a per-film average of $20.2 million and an incredible 26.2% growth over 1983.

It was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away — 1977 to be exact, one of the most significant years ever for the movie business. But as a Star Wars fan, you already knew that. George Lucas' space opera obliterated all expectations for how much money a movie could make, earning $307 million in its original release, or $1.3 billion adjusted for inflation. Read that again – $1.3 billion. And that doesn't even include its multiple rereleases, all of which make Star Wars the second biggest ticket-seller of all time, behind only Gone With The Wind. Star Wars carried the year, but it didn't do it alone. 

Smokey & The Bandit, the film predicted to be that summer's big winner, managed a boffo $126 million ($540 million adjusted for inflation), Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind earned $116 million ($497 million adjusted), Saturday Night Fever earned $94 million ($403 million adjusted), and A Bridge Too Far earned $50 million ($214 million). It was a very, very good year. Without Star Wars, 1977 still would have been huge at the box office and probably would still have been number one on this list. With Star Wars, 1977 had an insane per-film average of $39.2 million and was up 76.5% above 1976 ... 76.5%!!!! The Force was strong with 1977, the best year in box office history.