The Most Successful Movies of the 1970s

The sequel to the film that frightened filmgoers three years earlier brought back Roy Scheider as the sheriff of the fictional New England town of Amity, which is once again being stalked by a huge great white shark.

This is Mel Brooks’s hilarious send-up of the Frankensteins film of the 1930s, starring Boris Karloff. Gene Wilder starred as Dr. Frankenstein and co-wrote the screenplay with Brooks.

“The Trial of Billy Jack,” the third of four Billy Jack movies, is about a mixed-race former Green Beret who continues his defense of Native Americans and students and teachers at an untraditional Arizona school from intolerant locals after his release from prison. Tom Laughlin wrote, directed, and starred as the title character.

This is a critically acclaimed and lavishly produced adaptation of the stage hit about a poor Jewish milkman trying to retain family and religious traditions in the face of Russian pogroms at the turn of the 20th century. “Fiddler on the Roof” won three Academy Awards.

Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould starred as skilled surgeons attempting to keep their sanity near the frontlines of the Korean War by drinking heavily, chasing nurses, and exposing the incompetence of the U.S. military.

Czech immigrant Milos Forman’s film, based on the Ken Kesey novel of the same name, is about a Korean War veteran turned criminal who is institutionalized for pleading insanity and then organizes other inmates against a dictatorial nurse. The film won five Oscars.

Christopher Reeve played the Man of Steel, whose family sends him to Earth to escape his dying planet. He uses superhuman powers to fight crime in his new home. Marlon Brando played Superman’s father, and there were appearances by old-school film stars like Trevor Howard, Glenn Ford, Jackie Cooper, and Phyllis Thaxter.

“The Poseidon Adventure” is about a luxury liner struck by a tidal wave in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and a group of passengers who band together to try to survive. A well-cast ensemble that included Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Red Buttons, and Roddy McDowell and ever-escalating tension are the main reasons why one of the decade’s best disaster movies worked.

The ultimate underdog film, about a club fighter and sometime loan shark who gets the chance of a lifetime to fight for the world heavyweight championship, made Sylvester Stallone a star. Stallone also wrote the script, a tale of redemption that critics hailed as a tribute to the human spirit.

Audiences were thrilled and amused by the car chases and harmless auto wrecks of this good-ole-boy comedy. Burt Reynolds starred as a truck driver tasked with bringing a load of beer from Texas to Georgia within 28 hours and Jackie Gleason was a sheriff chasing him.

“Billy Jack” was the second of four Billy Jack movies (the first was called “The Born Losers”) and the most successful. The film is about a mixed-race former Green Beret who defends Native Americans and students and teachers at an untraditional Arizona school from bigoted locals. Tom Laughlin wrote, directed, and starred as the title character.

John Landis’ subversive comedy is about a dissolute fraternity that takes revenge on the college administration for trying to kick it off campus. Though he’s not in the movie for very long, “Saturday Night Live” star John Belushi’s outrageous behavior steals the film.

Besides the stars, this John Guillermin disaster movie about a San Francisco high-rise on fire at its opening ceremony featured an ensemble cast that included Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Wagner, Jennifer Jones, Robert Vaughan, and…O.J. Simpson.

“Saturday Night Fever,” about a young Italian-American man looking to break out of his suffocating family and neighborhood life in Brooklyn, launched John Travolta into stardom.The movie was released at the height of disco and is remembered as much for its soundtrack – featuring songs from the Bee Gees, Yvonne Elliman, and The Trammps – as for its plot.

Mel Brooks skewered Nazis (and Broadway) in “The Producers” and would go on to do the same for horror films with “Young Frankenstein” – but with “Blazing Saddles,” he took on Westerns. Brooks and comedian Richard Pryor co-wrote the farce, chock full of memorable scenes such as former football player Alex Karras knocking out a horse with one punch.

“Airport,” featuring an ensemble cast including Burt Lancaster, Helen Hayes,Dean Martin, George Kennedy, and Jacqueline Bisset, was the most successful disaster movie of the decade. It deals with a paralyzing snowstorm, a habitual stowaway, and a distraught man who sets off a bomb on a plane. Farces such as “Airplane!” based their plotlines on the drama.

This coming-of-age film set in the early 1960s – directed by George Lucas and the first production of his Lucasfilm (with Francis Ford Coppola as producer) – was a career-maker for Ron Howard, who was cast in the 1950s-themed situation comedy “Happy Days” the following year. Also noteworthy are early-career performances by Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford.

Based on the bestseller of the same name, “Love Story” is about a Harvard-educated lawyer (Ryan O’Neal) who falls in love with and marries a student (Ali MacGraw) from Radcliffe College, over the objections of his father (Ray Milland). Their idyllic life is thrown apart when it’s discovered that the young woman has a terminal illness. The film won an Oscar for Francis Lai’s wistful original score.

One of the most beloved and quoted musicals of all time, “Grease,” starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as 1950s’ heartthrobs at Rydell High School. Besides appearances by Frankie Avalon and Sid Caesar, Hollywood Golden Age stars Eve Arden and Joan Blondell also appeared.

Steven Spielberg’s humanist take on what contact with space aliens would be like, “Close Encounters” also taps into the era’s distrust of government. The story focuses on Roy Neary, a working-class man from Indiana, whose life is upended by a close encounter with a UFO. The episode turns into a cross-country quest for answers.

Considered to be not only the best mob movie of all time, but among the greatest films ever (it’s third on American Film Institute list of the 100 greatest American movies), “The Godfather” is an engrossing story about the choices people make in life to protect their family, and the costs they may incur in defending them. The epic won three Academy Awards, including one for Marlon Brando for best actor – an honor he famously turned down.

Commercials for “The Sting” implored movie goers to “see it from the beginning.” That’s because there are plot twists galore in this story about two con men conspiring to swindle a crime boss who’s murdered a mutual friend. Stylish, well-cast, and full of surprises, “The Sting” is understandably beloved by critics and audiences alike.

“The Exorcist,” about the demonic possession of a young girl and two priests’ efforts to free her from the demon, combined believable special effects, an eerie atmosphere, and a vivid depiction of the battle against evil to produce one of the most frightening movies ever made. William Peter Blatty wrote and produced the film, based on his novel of the same name.

The first of the true summer blockbusters, and a breakthrough film for Steven Spielberg, “Jaws” centered on three men tasked with defeating a giant great white shark that was terrorizing the mythical New England seaside town of Amity. Based on the bestseller from Peter Benchley, the movie won three Oscars and is remembered as much for its foreboding music as the scenes of terror. “Jaws” is one of three films on this list that featured Dreyfuss.

The space epic that started one of Hollywood’s most profitable and enduring franchises starred relative unknowns Hamill, Ford, Fisher, and Billy Dee Williams as rebels fighting the overwhelming forces of an evil empire. The movie also featured British acting icons Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing. “Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope” won six Academy Awards and is one of two films directed by George Lucas on our list.