From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Overview of the events of the 1990s in film
The decade of the 1990s in film involved many significant developments in the
industry of cinema .
[1] Numerous
feature-length
movies were specifically
filmed or
edited to be displayed on both
theater
screens as well as the smaller
TV screens, like showing more
close-up
shots during
dialogue
scenes in place of
wide-angle shots in a room. The
home video market also grew into being a major factor in the total
revenue of a theatrical film, often doubling the amount.
These particular ten years are notable for milestone advancements in
CGI technology, seen in such motion pictures as
Terminator 2: Judgment Day ,
Jurassic Park , and
Forrest Gump . 1995's
Toy Story became the first feature film to be completely
computer-animated , heralding the use of
3D graphics as a tool for
filmmakers to achieve new
visuals on-screen.
Stemming from the tail end of the 1980s, the mainstream successes of
low-budget
directors like
Quentin Tarantino ,
Robert Rodriguez ,
Kevin Smith ,
Paul Thomas Anderson ,
Gus Van Sant ,
Richard Linklater ,
Steven Soderbergh , and the
Coen brothers ; alongside the increased prominence of independent
movie studios such as
New Line Cinema ,
Miramax Films , and
Gramercy Pictures ; gave rise to a boom period of highly profitable
indie films that include
Pulp Fiction ,
Fargo ,
Boogie Nights ,
Good Will Hunting ,
The Big Lebowski , and
The Blair Witch Project .
The
Disney Renaissance began in late 1989 with
The Little Mermaid , reached peak popularity with
The Lion King in 1994, and ended in 1999 with
Tarzan . During its influential run, the mass appeal of
animated
musicals got exceptionally rejuvenated (as opposed to
The Rescuers Down Under in 1990, which contains no original songs and has been generally deemed a commercial disappointment even compared to its
1977 predecessor ), resulting in supposed emulations from
similar
production companies . However, merely three of said attempts proved to be lucrative, namely
The Nightmare Before Christmas by
Skellington ,
Anastasia by
Fox , and
The Prince of Egypt by
DreamWorks . Around six months prior to the decade's conclusion,
Comedy Central 's
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut prospered in part through
parodying the conventions of this trend.
1988's
Die Hard established what would become a common
plot scenario for many 1990s
action films , which is the matchup of an
everyman
hero against a colorful
villain who is threatening the lives of innocents in an isolated
setting , though with certain variations. Features of this kind, and the
sequels that followed some of them, are often referred to as "Die Hard on a _____":
Under Siege (battleship),
Cliffhanger (mountain),
Speed (bus),
The Rock (prison island),
Con Air (prison plane),
Air Force One (presidential plane), and so on.
A resurgence of
disaster films dominated the
box office with
blockbusters such as
Twister ,
Independence Day ,
Titanic , and
Armageddon .
Several leading figures of
1980s to mid-1990s Hong Kong action cinema migrated to
Hollywood with varying success:
Jackie Chan ,
Jet Li ,
Chow Yun-fat ,
Michelle Yeoh ,
John Woo ,
Yuen Woo-ping ,
Tsui Hark ,
Ringo Lam , etc. Updating
martial arts and gunfight choreography in American motion pictures with such releases as
Broken Arrow ,
Face/Off ,
Tomorrow Never Dies ,
Lethal Weapon 4 ,
Rush Hour , and
The Matrix . Three Western world directorial debuts of established Eastern filmmakers were for
Jean-Claude Van Damme
star vehicles , though these collaborations only performed moderately en masse at the global market.
Wes Craven 's
Scream revitalized the declining interest in
slasher films through satirizing the
subgenre with characters that are well-versed in its
clichés . Leading to studios capitalizing especially on the high school to college age demographic with the likes of
I Know What You Did Last Summer ,
Scream 2 ,
Urban Legend , and
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer . The three biggest hits among these movies were
written or
adapted by
Kevin Williamson , who also co-wrote the
sci-fi
horror
The Faculty , which
targeted the same audience as well.
List of worldwide highest-grossing films
Rank
Title
Studios
Worldwide gross
Year
Ref.
1
Titanic
Paramount Pictures /
20th Century Fox
$1,843,201,268
1997
2
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
20th Century Fox
$924,317,558
1999
3
Jurassic Park
Universal Pictures
$914,691,118
1993
4
Independence Day
20th Century Fox
$817,400,891
1996
5
The Lion King
Walt Disney Studios
$763,455,561
1994
6
Forrest Gump
Paramount Pictures
$677,387,716
1994
7
The Sixth Sense
Walt Disney Studios
$672,806,292
1999
8
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Universal Pictures
$618,638,999
1997
9
Men in Black
Sony Pictures /
Columbia Pictures
$589,390,539
1997
10
Armageddon
Walt Disney Studios
$553,709,788
1998
11
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
TriStar Pictures
$519,843,345
1991
12
Ghost
Paramount Pictures
$505,702,588
1990
13
Aladdin
Walt Disney Studios
$504,050,219
1992
14
Twister
Warner Bros. /Universal Pictures
$494,471,524
1996
15
Toy Story 2
Walt Disney Studios
$485,015,179
1999
16
Saving Private Ryan
DreamWorks Pictures /Paramount Pictures
$481,840,909
1998
17
Home Alone
20th Century Fox
$476,684,675
1990
18
The Matrix
Warner Bros.
$463,517,383
1999
19
Pretty Woman
Walt Disney Studios
$463,406,268
1990
20
Mission: Impossible
Paramount Pictures
$457,696,359
1996
21
Tarzan
Walt Disney Studios
$448,191,819
1999
22
Mrs. Doubtfire
20th Century Fox
$441,286,195
1993
23
Dances with Wolves
Orion Pictures
$424,208,848
1990
24
The Mummy
Universal Pictures
$415,933,406
1999
25
The Bodyguard
Warner Bros.
$411,006,740
1992
26
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Warner Bros.
$390,493,908
1991
27
Godzilla
TriStar Pictures
$379,014,294
1998
28
True Lies
20th Century Fox
$378,882,411
1994
29
Toy Story
Walt Disney Studios
$373,554,033
1995
30
There's Something About Mary
20th Century Fox
$369,884,651
1998
31
The Fugitive
Warner Bros.
$368,875,760
1993
32
Die Hard with a Vengeance
20th Century Fox/
Cinergi Pictures
$366,101,666
1995
33
Notting Hill
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
$363,889,678
1999
34
A Bug's Life
Walt Disney Studios
$363,398,565
1998
35
The World Is Not Enough
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
$361,832,400
1999
36
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
20th Century Fox
$358,994,850
1992
37
American Beauty
DreamWorks Pictures
$356,296,601
1999
38
Apollo 13
Universal Pictures/
Imagine Entertainment
$355,237,933
1995
39
Basic Instinct
TriStar Pictures
$352,927,224
1992
40
GoldenEye
MGM/
United Artists
$352,194,034
1995
41
The Mask
New Line Cinema
$351,583,407
1994
42
Speed
20th Century Fox
$350,448,145
1994
43
Deep Impact
Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures
$349,464,664
1998
44
Beauty and the Beast
Walt Disney Studios
$346,317,207
1991
45
Pocahontas
Walt Disney Studios
$346,079,773
1995
46
The Flintstones
Universal Pictures
$341,631,208
1994
47
Batman Forever
Warner Bros.
$336,529,144
1995
48
The Rock
Walt Disney Studios
$335,062,621
1996
49
Tomorrow Never Dies
MGM/United Artists
$333,011,068
1997
50
Seven
New Line Cinema
$327,311,859
1995