The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.
Top grossing films (U.S.)
| Rank |
Title |
Studio |
Gross |
| 1. |
Grease |
Paramount |
$96,300,000 |
| 2. |
Superman |
Warner Brothers |
$82,800,000 |
| 3. |
Animal House |
Universal |
$70,826,000 |
| 4. |
Every Which Way But Loose |
Warner Brothers |
$51,900,000 |
| 5. |
Jaws II |
Universal |
$50,432,000 |
| 6. |
Heaven Can Wait |
Paramount |
$49,400,000 |
| 7. |
Hooper |
Warner Brothers |
$34,900,000 |
| 8. |
California Suite |
Columbia |
$28,386,000 |
| 9. |
Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke |
Paramount |
$28,300,000 |
| 10. |
Foul Play |
Paramount |
$27,500,000 |
source: http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1978.shtml
Events
Awards
Academy Awards:
- Best Picture: The Deer Hunter - EMI Films/Cimino, Universal
- Best Director: Michael Cimino - The Deer Hunter
- Best Actor: Jon Voight - Coming Home
- Best Actress: Jane Fonda - Coming Home
- Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Walken - The Deer Hunter
- Best Supporting Actress: Maggie Smith - California Suite
- Best Foreign Language Film: Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Preparez vos mouchoirs), directed by Bertrand Blier, France
Golden Globe Awards:
- Drama:
- Best Picture: Midnight Express
- Best Actor: Jon Voight - Coming Home
- Best Actress: Jane Fonda - Coming Home
- Musical or comedy:
- Best Picture: Heaven Can Wait
- Best Actor: Warren Beatty - Heaven Can Wait
- Best Actress (tie): Ellen Burstyn - Same Time, Next Year
- Best Actress (tie): Maggie Smith - California Suite
- Other
- Best Director: Michael Cimino - The Deer Hunter
- Best Foreign Language Film: Autumn Sonata, Sweden
Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival):
- The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L'Albero degli zoccoli), directed by Ermanno Olmi, Italy
Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival):
- Trout (Las Truchas), directed by José Luis García Sánchez, Spain
- What Max Said (Las Palabras de Max), directed by Emilio Martínez Lázaro, Spain
Films released in 1978
- The Adventures of Jody Shanan
- Almost Summer
- American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince, directed by Martin Scorsese (documentary)
- Animal House
- Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
- Autumn Sonata
- The Bad News Bears Go to Japan
- Battlestar Galactica (Canada and most European countries only; released in U.S. theatres the following year)
- The Betsy
- Blue Collar
- The Boys from Brazil
- Bread and Chocolate
- The Buddy Holly Story
- Bye Bye Monkey
- La Cage aux Folles
- California Suite
- Capricorn One
- The Cat from Outer Space
- China 9, Liberty 37
- Comes a Horseman
- Coming Home
- Corvette Summer
- Cosi' come sei (aka Stay as you are)
- Damien: Omen II, starring William Holden
- Dawn of the Dead (Italy)
- Days of Heaven
- Death on the Nile
- The Deer Hunter
- The End
- Enter the Fat Dragon starring Sammo Hung
- Every Which Way But Loose
- Fingers (1978 film)
- F.I.S.T.
- Force 10 from Navarone
- Foul Play
- The Fury (film), starring Kirk Douglas and Amy Irving.
- Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Preparez vos mouchoirs), aka Get Your Handkerchiefs Ready
- Girlfriends, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner
- Grease
- Halloween, starring Jamie Lee Curtis
- Harper Valley PTA
- Heaven Can Wait
- Hooper
- Hot Lead and Cold Feet
- Interiors
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers, remake of 1956 movie
- International Velvet
- Jaws 2
- Lady on the Bus
- The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorsese
- The Late Great Planet Earth -(film only mentioned in article)
- Law of the Sixgun
- The Lord of the Rings, animated film by Ralph Bakshi
- Max's Words Golden Bear winner -(not found in searches under this title)
- Midnight Express
- Pretty Baby
- Rabbit Test
- Renaldo and Clara
- Return from Witch Mountain
- The Return of Captain Nemo
- Revenge of the Pink Panther
- The Star Wars Holiday Special
- Stevie (the 1978 film, there is also Stevie the 2002 film)
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
- Superman: The Movie, starring Christopher Reeve and Marlon Brando
- The Swarm
- The Tree of Wooden Clogs Palme d'Or winner
- Las Truchas (The Trout) Golden Bear winner
- The Small One
- Two Solitudes
- An Unmarried Woman
- The Water Babies
- Watership Down
- The Wiz
- You Are Not Alone
Births
Deaths
- January 5 - Sally Eilers, actress
- January 29 - Tim McCoy, cowboy actor, soldier
- March 24 - Leigh Brackett, science fiction writer
- August 24 - Louis Prima, bandleader, voice actor ("King Louie of the Apes" in The Jungle Book)
- August 26 - Charles Boyer, actor
- August 28 - Robert Shaw, actor
- September 9 - Jack Warner, Hollywood studio founder
- September 30 - Edgar Bergen, actor
- October 16 - Dan Dailey, actor
- October 19 - Gig Young, actor
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