The decade of the 1980s in Western cinema saw the return of studio-driven pictures, coming from the filmmaker-driven New Hollywood era of the 1970s. The period was when the "high concept" picture was popularized by the likes of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, where films were expected to be easily marketable and understandable. Therefore, they had cinematic plots that could be summarized in one or two sentences. Since then, this method has become the most utilized formula for modern Hollywood blockbusters. At the same time in Eastern cinema, the Hong Kong film industry entered a boom period that significantly elevated its prominence in the international market.
Trends The cinema of the 1980s covered many subgenres, with hybrids crossing between multiple genres. The course strengthened towards creating ever-larger megahit films, which earned more in their opening weeks than most previous movies due in part to scheduling releases when there were less competition for audience interest. Action: In the 1970s, action films usually focused on maverick police officers. However, the genre did not become dominant in Hollywood until the 1980s, when it was promoted by action stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, and Bruce Willis. Schwarzenegger built an iconic career out of action classics such as The Terminator (1984), Commando (1985), and Predator (1987). Stallone starred in First Blood (1982) about a returning Vietnam War veteran fighting a small town sheriff, as well as its sequels Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III. Previously seen as a taboo in the 1970s, Vietnam War flicks like Oliver Stone's Platoon and Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket made the conflict a popular subject in the 1980s. Norris starred in the Missing in Action trilogy (1984, 1985, 1988) about a Vietnam veteran going back to rescue POWs. The release of Die Hard in 1988 was particularly influential on the development of the genre in the subsequent decade. In the film, Willis plays a New York City police detective who inadvertently becomes embroiled in a terrorist take-over of a Los Angeles office building. Riding the buddy cop wave that was boosted by the likes of the Lethal Weapon franchise, Stallone and Kurt Russell's Tango & Cash became one of the two last Hollywood films to be released in the 1980s. Meanwhile, Hong Kong action cinema was being revolutionized by filmmakers Jackie Chan, Tsui Hark, and John Woo; garnering increased attention all over the world with the likes of Project A (1983), Police Story (1985), A Better Tomorrow (1986), and The Killer (1989). Which featured increasingly complex martial arts and gunfight choreography with generally unsafe and most often uninsured stunt work. Blazing the trail for newer types of action movies like the heroic bloodshed subgenre. Animation: In the 1970s, full-length animated films usually focused on adult fare due to the influence of Ralph Bakshi films. However, even though they didn't become popular until the late-1990s and 2000s due to public preference of TV animation, some well-known films were made during the 1980s, especially with Don Bluth. After he left Disney in 1979, Bluth formed his first animation studio and produced the moderately-successful The Secret of NIMH (1982). Bluth later teamed up with Steven Spielberg to produce An American Tail (1986) and The Land Before Time (1988) which both became box-office successes, and proved there was still confidence in animation for theaters. After breaking up with Spielberg, Bluth independently produced All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989). Meanwhile, the Disney studio was having horrible times and the box-office failure of The Black Cauldron (1985) almost put the studio in jeopardy. However, in later years, the modest success of The Great Mouse Detective (1986), and their collaboration with Spielberg on the live-action/animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) directed by Robert Zemeckis, which was a critical and box office hit, gave Disney enough confidence in its feature animation division. A year later in the penultimate month of the 1980s, the studio released The Little Mermaid (1989), directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, which eventually started an era known as the Disney Renaissance. Inspired by the success of 1979's The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, Looney Tunes compilation films continued with The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981), Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982), Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island (1983) and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988). That decade also saw a brief resurgence of popular-toys-based films. Nelvana's The Care Bears Movie (1985) was successful enough to warrant two sequels: Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (1986) and The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987). Additional well-known popular-work based films include Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!) (1980), Heavy Metal (1981), The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985), The Secret of the Sword (1985), The Transformers: The Movie (1986), The Chipmunk Adventure (1987) and The BFG (1989); While other well-known original films include The King and the Mockingbird (1980), American Pop (1981), The Last Unicorn (1982), The Plague Dogs (1982), Rock & Rule (1983), Fire and Ice (1983), Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985) and The Brave Little Toaster (1987). The '80s also saw a resurgence of Japanese anime films: Inspired by the rarely successful release of his first film 1979's The Castle of Cagliostro, Hayao Miyazaki went to produce Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) for Topcraft. The film's huge success convinced Hayao Miyazaki to form Studio Ghibli which would then produce several critically acclaimed films of the decade including Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Kiki's Delivery Service (1989). Other well-known anime films of that decade include Golgo 13: The Professional (1983), Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984), Lensman (1984), Vampire Hunter D (1985), Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (1987), Akira (1988) and Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989). Additionally, the first-ever theatrical animated franchise: the Doraemon film series (based on the anime and manga series of the same name) began in 1980 with the release of Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur (1980). Blockbusters: The decade started by continuing the blockbuster boom of the mid-1970s. The sequel to 1977's Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, opened in May 1980 becoming the highest-grossing film of the year. It is considered among the greatest films of all time (being the highest rated 1980s film on IMDb). It was followed by Return of the Jedi (1983) finishing the Star Wars original trilogy. Superman II was released in Europe and Australia in late 1980, but not distributed in the United States until June 1981. Though now seen as campier over the original 1978 Superman, Superman II was received with a positive reaction. From the success of The Empire Strikes Back, creator George Lucas teamed up with director Steven Spielberg to create one of the most iconic characters in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark starring Harrison Ford, who had also co-starred in The Empire Strikes Back. The story about an archaeologist and adventurer, Indiana Jones (Ford), hired by the U.S. government to go on a quest for the mystical lost Ark of the Covenant, created waves of interest in old 1930s style cliffhanger serials as well as treasure hunting adventures like 1984's Romancing the Stone. It became the highest-grossing film of 1981, leading to sequels all in the top-10 films of the decade. In 1982, Spielberg directed his fairy-tale, sci-fi family blockbuster E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which shattered all records, earning 40% more than any Star-Wars film, and double or triple the revenue of 46 of the top 50 films. Comedy: The disaster films of the past decade were spoofed in the gag comedy Airplane!, paving the way for more of the same style of humor in such releases as Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Top Secret! (1984) and The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988). Popular comedy stars in the '80s included Leslie Nielsen, John Candy, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Rick Moranis, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. Many had come to prominence on the NBC TV series Saturday Night Live, including Bill Murray, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase. Eddie Murphy made a success of comedy-action films including 48 Hrs. (1982) and the Beverly Hills Cop series (1984–1993). Also in the top-50 films were the romantic comedies "Crocodile" Dundee (1986), Crocodile Dundee II (1988) and Arthur (1981). Influenced largely by 1978's National Lampoon's Animal House, the decade also saw the continued rise of teen sex comedies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Porky's and Revenge of the Nerds (the later two of these had sequels). Also popular were the films of John Hughes such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). Heathers (1988) provided a tongue-in-cheek approach to the teenage comedy genre, showcasing the murders (disguised as suicides) of several popular students at a U.S. high school. Other notable comedies of the decade include the gender-swap film Tootsie (1982), Broadcast News (1987), and a brief spate of age-reversal films including Big, 18 Again!, Vice Versa and Like Father, Like Son. Also notable were the Police Academy series of broad comedies, produced between 1984 and 1993. Dance: Many movies during the 1980s were centered around dancing and heavily influenced by MTV music videos. Flashdance (1983), Footloose (1984), and Dirty Dancing (1987) were all extremely successful as well as their soundtracks. Drama: Among the historical, romantic, and dramatic films, several were well received at the box office, including Rain Man (1988), On Golden Pond (1981), Terms of Endearment (1983), The Color Purple (1985) and Out of Africa (1985). Also notable in critical success were Gandhi (1982), Sophie's Choice (also 1982) and A Passage to India (1984). Steven Spielberg's Always was one of the two last Hollywood films to be released in the 1980s. Fantasy: Fantasies saw a resurgence particularly in sword and sorcery films. In 1981, Dragonslayer and Excalibur started it off, but it was 1982's Conan the Barbarian which caused the fantasy explosion. The epic starred Arnold Schwarzenegger in his acting breakthrough as he began his ascent to stardom. Loosely based on the original tales by Robert E. Howard, the film was written by the unlikely pairing of Oliver Stone and John Milius. Its sequel followed in 1984 with the light-weight Conan the Destroyer. Schwarzenegger returned again to a similar sword-wielding role in 1985's Red Sonja. The same year as Conan the Barbarian, similar films followed such as The Sword and the Sorcerer, The Beastmaster and the Ator films. Fairy-tale fantasy was also popular with films such as The NeverEnding Story (1984), Legend (1985) and The Princess Bride (1987). Disney's Return to Oz, a big-budget sequel to 1939's classic The Wizard of Oz, was a major flop, yet became a major success on home video. Jim Henson's Labyrinth (1986) was not an initial success but has since become a major cult classic. Hong Kong's A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) blended fantasy with several other genres such as horror, action, comedy, and romance to great effect, becoming an international favorite all over Asia.