What Was the All-Time Best Summer for Movies?

[Editor's note: Your devoted Flavorwire team is taking Memorial Day off, but we've left you with some of our favorite summer-related features that you may have missed the first time around. This post originally ran April 24, 2012. Enjoy!]

We’ve made clear, on several occasions, our deep affection for Austin’s (and soon to be New York’s) Alamo Drafthouse, a venue that has, year after year, taken cinema obsession and programming ingenuity to new heights. This summer, however, they’ve outdone themselves: they’re paying a 30th anniversary tribute to the summer of 1982 with a series of 35mm screenings, timed to the original opening weekends of the movies that made up, in their words, “the greatest summer of movies… ever.”

That, friends, is a tall claim, and one that we felt required further investigation. After the jump, we’ve assembled ten possible contenders for that crown, along with the highlights of that particular season of movie-going; cast your ballots (or add your own alternates) in the comments.

1982
HIGHLIGHTS: E.T., Poltergeist, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Thing, TRON, The Road Warrior, Conan the Barbarian, Rocky III, The Secret of NIMH, Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Okay, we kinda see what the Drafthouse guys were getting at here. That’s a bumper crop of fun, iconic movies, and it’s a little astonishing to see them all lined up like that: two quintessential Spielberg movies, the best of the Star Trek flicks, the movie that made Arnie a star, and the Phoebe Cates bikini scene. Then again, it was also the summer when Annie came out, and good luck getting that song out of your head now.

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1989 and 1984 were terrific, as were 1993 (Jurassic Park, In the LIne of Fire) and '82. But my vote goes to 1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman II, For Your Eyes Only, Clash of the Titans, and The Empire Strikes Back in re-release. Greatest summer for movies for a 9 year old ever.

When i think "summer movies", i think "over the top." So, i would like to nominate 1996. We are talking Twister. We are talking the first Mission: Impossible. We are talking Independence Day and The Rock. Add in The Cable Guy & Jack (over the top acting by Jim Carrey and Robin Williams respectively), a star-studded A Time to Kill and cult-favorite The Crow. Top it off with Eraser and Tin Cup, and there was a little something for everyone that summer.

No way !! How could you have possibly forgotten the great Summer of 1989 ?!?!??! May 24 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (by far my favorite Indiana Jones adventure) June 9 - Star Trek V: The Final Frontier June 13 - Licence to Kill June 16 - Ghostbusters II Then…. there was…… June 23 Batman You youngsters can never experience this film in its context, only from the perspective of comparing it to its sequels and the Nolan remakes. All we had until that point in history was Adam West and Super Friends. This was a phenomenal change in tone and appearance.

You forgot Blade Runner, which came out the summer of '82. And Ghost Dog came out the winter of '99, not summer. Plus, there's the fact that it blows.

I think 1985 wins, 1980 comes in second, and though you didn't list 1996, that one is probably 3rd. 1985 was really good, too.

Someone must be an 80s baby. Not nearly enough love for 70s summer blockbusters.

I thought how could they forget 1994? Then I realized Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption came out in the fall. Still it was a pretty good summer even without those: Forrest Gump, The Crow, Speed, The Lion King, Wolf, Wyatt Earp, True Lies and Natural Born Killers. Your list does show how the 1980's were at least a great decade for movies.

What about the summer of 1989? Tim Burton's "Batman," "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "Do the Right Thing," "Dead Poets Society," "UHF," "When Harry Met Sally," "Casualties of War," "sex, lies and videotape," "The Abyss," "Road Freakin' House"! Did you totally dismiss that summer because it also had "Weekend at Bernie's," "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" and "Ghostbusters II"? It's a legitimate argument.

Nothing captures the "summer movie" vibe more than standing in line for Star Wars on a summer evening in 1977. That has to be the benchmark.