Once assumed to be a time of year where it was difficult to bring in a larger audience, the rise of the summer season as the place to release many of the biggest blockbuster movie hopefuls of the year rose up in the 1970s thanks to the massive success of both Jaws and Star Wars, and became standard operating procedure through the 1980s. Huge hits like Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, and Top Gun were all summer releases, opening amongst an increasing onslaught of new movies throughout the summer months. And naturally, as franchise fever increased at the studios, there was also a fair amount of summer sequels included in the mix, such as Rocky III and IV, Aliens and multiple new entries for Star Wars and Superman. But Summer 1989 brought things to a whole new level, as the amount of sequels released between May and August hit the double digits.
And while some were small scale, like Fright Night Part 2 or Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!, several were huge releases, intended for – and in many cases achieving – blockbuster status. Even the very biggest movie of the summer, both in pre-release hype and eventual box office, while technically a “Part 1,” was also essentially continuing a franchise and reimagining it in a way that also would set the stage for what was to come in terms of familiar IP getting countless new versions. (We’re talking about Tim Burton’s Batman, folks.
) With the 35th anniversary of th.
