1978 Movies


Jump To 1978 Movie Links (Mobile Friendly):
1. Box Office 2. Oscar Movies 3. Reviews 4. Top Stars of 1978 5. UMR Table

Finding box office information for movies made before 1980 is not an easy task.   For somebody looking for box office information on 1978 it is very very frustrating.  Over the years, we have researched and collected information on over 36,000 movies.  So we figured we would show all the 1978 movies in our database.

To make this list a movie had to be made in 1978.  This page will looks at 132 1974 Movies.  The movies are listed in a massive table that lets you rank the movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.    This only represents about 33% of the movies made in 1978….but should cover the top box office movies.

Our UMR Top 50 of 1978

1978 Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort 1978 Movies by movie titles and movie trailers
  • Sort 1978 Movies by the stars or in some cases the director of the movie.
  • Sort 1978 Movies by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort 1978 Movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each 1978 Movies received and how many Oscar® wins each 1978 Movies received.
  • Sort 1978 Movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking Score (UMR).  Our UMR score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
 

Jump To 1978 Movie Links (Mobile Friendly):
1. Box Office 2. Oscar Movies 3. Reviews 4. Top Stars of 1978 5. UMR Table

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22 thoughts on “1978 Movies”

  1. Hello,
    A very good page with a lot of informations
    My favorite is Grease, it is not like American Graffity but it is a little the same way; i saw it several times and the songs are always nice to hear
    Then i like very much Death on the Nil and the boys Of Brazil because i never see Sir Olivier playing a very bad character and Fool play with Goldie Hawn if i remenbered well it was funny and she was young … like me in that days!!!
    Without forgetting Just a gigolo with Bowie and Dietrich, the film was not box office at all anywhere but her last appearance was great to see but it missed Mr Orson Welles to get something like Touch of Evil,
    I saw a lot but
    I am surprised by the Eyes of Laura Mars, i thought it was a big succes in America
    Apparently not at all and it is regrettable because all the 70 decade was so great for Dunaway, i though the big mistake was Mommie Dearest
    Bye
    Pierre

    Reply

  2. I saw 30 including 12 of top 14. autumn sonata, the deer hunter, animal house(a favorite) are 10s.
    what a year for horror starting with autumn sonata , a horrifying look at family life, not recommended unless you love great directing, great acting, and gritty realism. a real downer. the deer hunter ,Halloween, jaws 2 , invasion of the body snatchers, dawn of the dead, Damien: omen 2. all top 50. horrifying . no hidden gems from me.

    Reply

    1. Hey bob cox. I like the way you have described Autumn Sonata….only seen that one once….and will probably never see it again….but you are so correct….”horrifying look at family life”. 30 is a decent total…..but a little behind the leaders in our tally contest. I actually just saw Damien:Omen 2…gotta admit…I was not too impressed with that one at all. Halloween scared me when I was a pre-teen. I discovered Dawn of the Dead at a midnight show in the mid 1980s….been a fan of that zombie movie ever since. Good stuff.

      Reply

  3. 2, 3The following numbers on your list I saw in the theater in 1978. I believe I saw 51 films in regular theaters that year, this would count some 1977’s and maybe older ones on double features. I also went to a revival theater for the first time at the end of the year, a double feature of Ziegfeld Follies (1946) with Words and Music (1948). I also recall going to a reissue of War off the Worlds (1953) with When Wor4lds Collide (1951) at the RKO Cinerama, I guess cashing in on Star Wars. Anyway the following numbers on your list I saw on the big screen – 2, 3, 5, 6 (1in 1981 in a revival), 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 23, 25, 27, 29, 36, 41, 42, 49, 50, 54, 62, 64, 65, 71, 74, 79, 86, 97, 108, 109, 111, 112, 129, 132 & 135. A couple of weeks ago I saw Kin with James Franco which so reminded me of Laserblast.

    The following 58 films ( yes only 58) from 1978 I saw for the first time since December 1992. Mosst of these are from more modern channels, no TCM.

    5 LADY VENOMS 1978 WORLD NORTHAL 6/29 2004 TAPE
    ALIEN FACTOR 1978 CINEMAGIC 8/15 2012 DVD
    ALIEN PREY (U.K.) 1978 TYMAR FILM PRODS. 9/27 2012 DVD
    ALPHA INCIDENT 1978 6/14 2012 DVD
    ALWAYS FOR PLEASURE (DOC.) 1978 FLOWER FILMS 8/1 2016 TCM
    BIG FIX 1978 UNI RICHARD DREYFUSS 3/31 1996 11
    BLUE COLLAR 1978 UNI RICHARD PRYOR HARVEY KEITEL 12/17 1996 11
    BLUE SUNSHINE 1978 CINEMA SHARES ZALMAN KING ROBERT WALDEN 5/11 2014 TCM
    BREAKOUT FROM OPRESSION (H.K.) 1978 1/12 2012 DVD
    BUDDY HOLLY STORY 1978 COL GARY BUSEY 5/24 1994 TMC
    CHINA 9 LIBERTY 7 1978 AA WARREN OATES 10/7 2001 WEST
    CHINESE CAPER 1978 XXX XXX 5/16 1995 55
    COMES A HORSEMAN 1978 UA JANE FONDA JAMES CAAN 3/12 1995 TNT
    COMING HOME 1978 UA JANE FONDA JON VOIGHT 3/21 1994 TNT
    CONVOY 1978 UA KRIS KRISTOFFERSON ALI MACGRAW 6/4 1996 TBS
    CORVETTE SUMMER 1978 MGM/UA XXX XXX 8/19 1995 TBS
    CREEPER, THE 1978 AQUARIUS 12/29 2014 DVD
    DEADLY DUO (H.K.) 1978 NINE CONTINENTS 8/27 1996 TAPE
    DEATH FORCE 1978 CATRICAN 3 XXX XXX 12/7 2011 DVD
    DEATH RACE 1978 S.J. INTL. 11/14 1995 7
    DEER HUNTER 1978 UNI ROBERT DE NIRO 3/25 1996 TNT
    DRAGON LEE VS. THE FIVE BROTHERS (H.K.) 1978 XXX XXX 6/14 2010 DVD
    ENCHANTED JOURNEY (JAP.) 1978 WB 9/7 1997 FLIX
    ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE 1978 WB 9/3 2015 TCM
    ENTER THE DEVIL (IT.) 1978 CAPITOL FILMS 7/19 2015 DVD
    F*I*S*T 1978 UA SYLVESTER STALLONE ROD STEIGER 7/7 1995 TNT
    FOREIGNER, THE 1978 AMOS POP VIS. 1/5 2013 TCM
    FRENCH QUARTER 1978 CROWN INTL 4/25 2012 DVD
    FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE WILDERNESS FAMILY PART II 1978 PIE 3/31 2012 EFAM
    GIRLFRIENDS 1978 WB 3/8 2017 TCM
    GOIN’ SOUTH 1978 PAR JACK NICHOLS0N MARY STEENBURGEN 1/30 1996 TBS
    HOOPER 1978 WB BURT REYNOLDS JAN-MICHAEL VINCENT 5/15 1994 55
    I MISS YOU, HUGS N’ KISSES (CAN.) 1978 ASTRAL FILMS ELKE SOMMER 10/18 1995 55
    I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE 1978 CINEMAGIC 4/21 2014 SUSP
    IF EVER I SEE YOU AGAIN 1978 COL XXX XXX 2/1 2005 LOVE
    INTERIORS 1978 UA DIANE KEATON 1/1 2004 ENC
    JAILBAIT BABYSITTER 1978 XXX XXX 8/22 1993 TAPE
    LAST WALTZ (CONCERT) 1978 UA XXX XXX 2/6 2006 IFC
    MAGNUM COP (IT-AUSTRIAN) 1978 JOAN COLLINS 3/16 2011 DVD
    MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE 1978 MOONSTONE ENT 12/22 2013 TCM
    MIRRORS 1978 FIRST AMERICAN XXX XXX 5/5 1995 55
    MOMENT BY MOMENT 1978 UNI JOHN TRAVOLTA LILY TOMLIN 10/12 2011 MAX
    ONE AND ONLY 1978 PAR KIM DARBY 4/22 1997 COM
    ORCHESTRA REHEARSAL (IT.) 1978 NEW YORKER XXX XXX 1/2 1996 BRAVO
    OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN PART 2 1978 UNI TIMOTHY BOTTOMS 1/2 2010 LOVE
    REMEMBER MY NAME 1978 COL GERALDINE CHAPLIN ANTHONY PERKINS 11/26 2010 MYST
    SEA GYPSIES 1978 WB XXX XXX 6/21 1997 A & E
    SECRETS OF THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE (DOCUMENTARY) 1978 WB XXX XXX 9/23 1996 FAM
    SHOOT, THE (U.K.) 1978 MGM ? ? 6/26 2010 TCM
    SLOW DANCING IN THE BIG CITY 1978 UA XXX XXX 11/2 2003 LOVE
    STAR PILOT (IT.) 1978 MONARCH FILM 9/30 2012 DVD
    STRAIGHT TIME 1978 WB DUSTIN HOFFMAN TERESA RUSSELL 7/9 1995 BRAVO
    THE BETSY 1978 AA LAURENCE OLIVIER KATHARINE ROSS 3/20 1997 FLIX
    THIRTY NINE STEPS 1978 RANK ROBERT POWELL DAVID WARNER 3/27 1995 BRAVO
    TRAUMA (IT. – W. GER. – SP.) 1978 3/19 2015 DVD
    UP IN SMOKE 1978 PAR XXX STACY KEACH 2/8 1998 COM
    WAR OF THE ROBOTS (IT.) 1978 7/20 2012 DVD
    WEDDING, A 1978 FOX GERALDINE CHAPLIN 1/14 1995 TMC

    Reply

    1. Hey Dan….thanks for sharing your 1978 movies watched list. 58 is still the top tally count. Seeing 51 movies in one year in theaters is a damn good average. I am sure in my college days I averaged close to 1 movie a week in theaters…..compared to my 10 a year I see in theaters now.

      Interesting that Kin reminded you off Laserblast. I will have to track down that trailer and see how Laserblast looks. 1978 saw Steve going to his first sci-fi convention and you going to your first revival theater….sounds like a year of firsts.

      Looking at the ones you saw in theaters….it looks like you saw some very good movies. 60% of the Top 10….and 55% of the Top 20. Pretty sure I saw 4 of the Top 20 in theaters….Grease, Hooper, Superman and Foul Play.

      As always…thanks for sharing this information.

      Reply

  4. I’ve seen 42 of the 135 films on the chart, less than I thought. Looking at my files I have 62 1978 films in my movie collection.

    My favorites are –

    Battlestar Galactica
    Boys from Brazil ,The
    Capricorn One
    Convoy
    Damien Omen II
    Dawn of the Dead
    Deer Hunter ,The
    Every Which Way But Loose
    Force 10 From Navarone
    Fury ,The
    Game of Death
    Halloween
    Hooper
    Invasion of the Body Snatchers
    Jaws 2
    Lord of the Rings
    National Lampoon’s Animal House
    Revenge of the Pink Panther
    Superman The Movie
    Wild Geese ,The
    zz-China – Drunken Master
    zz-China – Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow

    Good to see my favorite zombie movie – Dawn of the Dead – almost topping the critics chart, I wonder if my ratings sources would be as generous.

    Superman, Grease and Animal House were massive box office successes that year. I saw all three at the cinema. I saw 60 films on the big screen that year, that includes repeat viewings and reissues.

    Looking at my files I saw 2001 A Space Odyssey at the ABC Shaftesbury Avenue in July that year, must have been a special 10th anniversary reissue. This year that classic was celebrating its 50th anniversary!

    I also saw Close Encounters for the first time when it premiered in London in April 1978. 5 months after it’s US release! I saw it two more times that year.

    I went to my first sci-fi convention that year in central London, watched Night of the Living Dead, The Wicker Man, The Thing (1951) and Dark Star (1974). memooorieeees

    Another top movie year page Bruce. Vote Up!

    p.s. a suggestion, what you could do on these yearly pages is at the bottom of the charts place an arrow pointing to a link for the next years page and a reverse arrow pointing to the previous year. We had something like that on our hubs at hubpages if you remember, connecting similar subjects so the reader will be tempted to move on to the next page and so on.

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve….thanks for checking out our 1978 movie page. I have seen 49 of the movies listed here. So I have you by just a wee bit. I have seen 18 of your favorites. With Dawn of the Dead, Hooper and Animal House being in my Top 10. I was surprised when Days of Heaven and Dawn of the Dead topped the critics charts. I am not a fan of Days of Heaven at all….I was bored to death with that movie. Dawn of the Dead is the Citizen Kane of zombie movies…so glad it got such respect.

      Your files are pretty impressive….dare I say….close to Dan’s files. I am sure I saw Close Encounters for the first time in 1978 as well. Little Stevie going to sci-fi conventions….good memories for sure.

      We (WoC and I) love the suggestion of the arrows…..trying to find a widget that does that the best. Good feedback.

      Reply

  5. In 1978 the decade was nearing its end with still more solid box office hits that continued the trend of the lucrative earlier years of the seventies. In terms of adjusted domestic grosses seven of the top grossing movies in your chart were around the $300 million or greater mark and the top 3 went past the half billion mark in the US.

    1978 was the year that saw John Travolta in Grease consolidate the enormous box office status that he had acquired the year before with another mega hit, Saturday Night Fever.
    1978 was also the year in which Joel types seemingly everywhere got their k******* in a twist about Brando’s “exorbitant” fee for Superman which got into the Guinness Book of Records that year.

    However I was at that time beginning to lose interest in the type of films that were being produced and I note that of you top 10 critically reviewed ones I have never seen more than 3 – Halloween, Superman and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

    I have never seen even The Deer Hunter, regarded by many as a classic. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like war movies and indeed probably not have watched Apocalypse Now the following year if The Overpriced One had not been in it.

    Anyway a warm welcome to this comprehensive 1978 Review and please accept my congrats on reaching the Big 50 in reviews. You prove the old adage that hard work pays off and the 50 Annual Reviews [and the decade ones] that are now available on this site are a huge credit to you. Your reviews have now become indispensable to me in the private statistical exercises that I conduct.

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob
      1. Thanks for checking out our 1978 Yearly Review.
      2. 1978 was when “blockbuster” grosses were starting to be expected. After Jaws, Star Wars and Close Encounters broke the bank…..the studios started the search for the next summer popcorn hit.
      3. Travolta had a wonderful back to back movies…as Saturday Night Fever and Grease pretty much secured his star status.
      4. Interesting that you have only seen 3 of the Top 10 critic hits.
      5. Wow…shocked you have not seen The Deer Hunter….granted it is not a fun movie to watch…but I do watch it about every 7 or 8 years.
      6. Thanks for the kind words about our 50th straight yearly review…in my mind this connects our pages with Box Office Mojo….as Mojo starts having grosses from 1980 to today.
      Good stuff.

      Reply

      1. HI BRUCE Thanks for the feedback on my post about your 1978 review. I too recognized that you and Mojo had begun to link up regarding post seventies movies. For me the two sites complement each other in that Mojo bases its inflation adjustments on estimated future price whereas you I think stick to known current prices. Mojo currently bases its estimate on an average ticket price of $9.27 whereas I assess that your are possibly around the $8.97 mark.

        Mojo’s estimates are often wrong and I’ve seen the site having to change them maybe even a couple of times in the one year. Your figures are therefore the more reliable and stable but I still enjoy seeing what the future MIGHT hold for the box office grosses concerned.

        Your site does though give a more comprehensive run down of other factors that interest me personally. For example Mojo doesn’t do [at least not that I’ve seen – it may do them in a link that I’ve not picked up]] critical ratings. UMR type scores and ranking of individual stars in comparison with each other, nor does it provide viewers comments.

        Certainly for me your site brings together all those factors in a way that they can be quickly identified and easily digested. In short the Mojo pages that I’ve seen are a helpful but cold statistical analysis of movie grosses whereas your site has “heart” in that it is a two way communication that the viewer feels a persona part of and which provides viewers the opportunity of interacting with each other.

        However every cloud has a silver lining as they say and I have never bumped into Joel on Mojo nor has it yet proclaimed Myrna its box office Queen – and Steve’s not there to chastise me every other day!

        With that parting shot across your bows I’ll take my leave but as always it’s been great chewing the fat with you.

        Reply

        1. Hey Bob….your compliments about UMR are always appreciated. Makes all the work involved in running the website worth it. The comments here can be overwhelming at times…but they are still the best part of the page. Good feedback.

          Reply

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