Special Report

The Most Successful Movies of the 1970s

The 1970s was a decade of disillusionment in the United States as the nation reeled from the traumas of the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, the gas shortage, and the Iranian hostage crisis. Movies such as “Three Days of the Condor,” “Coming Home,” and “All the President’s Men” captured the ethos of an era plagued with national self-doubt.

While these three films were box-office hits, however, they were not among the most successful of the decade. To identify the most successful movies of the 1970s, 24/7 Tempo reviewed the domestic inflation-adjusted box office gross for the 1,191 movies with available data released during the 1970s according to The Numbers, an online movie database owned by Nash Information Services. (See how the ‘70s hits compare with the most profitable movies of all time.)

Disaster films were popular in the 1970s, and three of them – “The Towering Inferno,” “The Poseidon Adventure,” and “Airport” – all won at least one Academy Award. Indeed, more than half of the movies on the list won at least one Oscar. “The Sting,” starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, took home seven statues, and “Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope” – the first film in the franchise, despite its retroactive numbering – picked up six.

Click here to see the most successful movies of the 1970s

Five comedies were among the decade’s most successful movies, two of them – “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein” – directed by Mel Brooks. (Both are among the funniest American movies of all time.)

The 1970s also saw the ascendency of the younger generation of directors. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas each helmed one of the biggest films of the 1970s, and Francis Ford Coppola directed his masterpiece, “The Godfather.”

Courtesy of Universal Pictures

25. Jaws 2 (1978)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $403.3 million
> Starring: Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Joseph Mascolo
> Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc
> Run-time: 116 minutes

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.

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Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

24. Young Frankenstein (1974)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $423.2 million
> Starring: Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle
> Directed by: Mel Brooks
> Run-time: 106 minutes

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.

Michael Ochs Archives / Handout / Getty Images

23. The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $436.4 million
> Starring: Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor, Victor Izay, Teresa Kelly
> Directed by: Tom Laughlin
> Run-time: 170 minutes

“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.

Courtesy of United Artists

22. Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $444.0 million
> Starring: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon
> Directed by: Norman Jewison
> Run-time: 181 minutes

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.

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Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

21. MASH (1970)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $482.8 million
> Starring: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman
> Directed by: Robert Altman
> Run-time: 116 minutes

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.

Courtesy of United Artists

20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $487.5 million
> Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco
> Directed by: Milos Forman
> Run-time: 133 minutes

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.

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Courtesy of Warner Bros.

19. Superman: The Movie (1978)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $501.2 million
> Starring: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando
> Directed by: Richard Donner
> Run-time: 143 minutes

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.

Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

18. The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $503.3 million
> Starring: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Red Buttons
> Directed by: Ronald Neame
> Run-time: 117 minutes

“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.

Courtesy of United Artists

17. Rocky (1976)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $504.7 million
> Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers
> Directed by: John G. Avildsen
> Run-time: 119 minutes

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.

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Courtesy of Universal Pictures

16. Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $521.2 million
> Starring: Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Mike Henry
> Directed by: Hal Needham
> Run-time: 96 minutes

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.

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

15. Billy Jack (1971)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $544.6 million
> Starring: Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor, Clark Howat, Victor Izay
> Directed by: Tom Laughlin
> Run-time: 112 minutes

“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.

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Courtesy of Universal Pictures

14. National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $554.9 million
> Starring: John Belushi, Karen Allen, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst
> Directed by: John Landis
> Run-time: 109 minutes

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.

Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

13. The Towering Inferno (1974)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $568.8 million
> Starring: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway
> Directed by: John Guillermin
> Run-time: 165 minutes

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.

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

12. Saturday Night Fever (1977)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $573.3 million
> Starring: John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller, Joseph Cali
> Directed by: John Badham
> Run-time: 118 minutes

“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.

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Courtesy of Warner Bros.

11. Blazing Saddles (1974)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $586.0 million
> Starring: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman
> Directed by: Mel Brooks
> Run-time: 93 minutes

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.

Courtesy of Universal Pictures

10. Airport (1970)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $594.5 million
> Starring: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Jean Seberg
> Directed by: George Seaton, Henry Hathaway
> Run-time: 137 minutes

“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.

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Courtesy of Universal Pictures

9. American Graffiti (1973)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $595.8 million
> Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith
> Directed by: George Lucas
> Run-time: 112 minutes

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.

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

8. Love Story (1970)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $629.5 million
> Starring: Ali MacGraw, Ryan O’Neal, John Marley, Ray Milland
> Directed by: Arthur Hiller
> Run-time: 99 minutes

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.

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

7. Grease (1978)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $655.8 million
> Starring: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway
> Directed by: Randal Kleiser
> Run-time: 110 minutes

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.

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Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $685.8 million
> Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon
> Directed by: Steven Spielberg
> Run-time: 134 minutes

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.

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

5. The Godfather (1972)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $725.3 million
> Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton
> Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
> Run-time: 175 minutes

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.

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Courtesy of Universal Pictures

4. The Sting (1973)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $826.9 million
> Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
> Directed by: George Roy Hill
> Run-time: 129 minutes

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.

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

3. The Exorcist (1973)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $1.1 billion
> Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb
> Directed by: William Friedkin
> Run-time: 121 minutes

“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.

Courtesy of Universal Pictures

2. Jaws (1975)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $1.2 billion
> Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary
> Directed by: Steven Spielberg
> Run-time: 124 minutes

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.

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Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

1. Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope (1977)
> Inflation-adjusted domestic box office: $1.5 billion
> Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness
> Directed by: George Lucas
> Run-time: 119 minutes

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.

 

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