There were sequels in 1982, but they won't show up on anyone's list of fond memories. Sequels in the 80s were crap - made on the cheap and often with different actors and creative teams. Sequels as Hollywood's cash cow happened in the 90s after corporations took over and marketing depts. started calling the shots. Marketing figured the easiest thing to sell to the public was a sequel to a hit film. The hardest thing to sell was an original drama. Hollywood went for the easy sell.

Hollywood went for the easy sell because it had no choice. The cost of making movies skyrocketed, partly because of the blooming power of the unions and agencies. Plus actors and directors that spent the 80's making a name for themselves started to get dollar one gross participation. For every 40 million Tom Hanks pockets how many Tootsies could have been made? My theory is that because of this reality TV was used to lessen the star power of actors. Think about life BEFORE everyone was actually getting their 15 minutes of fame. Reality TV had a huge impact on the audiences perception of "fame" as well as shifting youth culture. It's all vey complex. End of the day anyone can make a fantastic movie on a very reasonable budget and deliver it to a very wide audience. But there is one thing that Hollywood can create that nobody else can and that's glamour. Glamour is what keeps folks lining top for a shot.

Too young to remember much about films in '82. But, I do consider '86 to be that magical summer for myself - you know, that one where everybody looks back at in their life with fond memories. For the movies, we had the following releases: Top Gun Platoon Aliens Ferris Bueller's Day Off Stand By Me The Fly Manhunter In the late summer (September) we had: Crocodile Dundee Blue Velvet There were a lot of lesser films and having a thirst for horror movies at that time, there were lots of those: Psycho III, Poltergeist 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Friday the 13th Pt. VI. Also, Karate Kid II, One Crazy Summer... And of course, there was Howard the Duck.

I don't know, seems like selective memory to me. From my perspective, every year seems to bring a good dozen or awesome movies: http://www.films101.com/y1971r.htm http://www.films101.com/y1999r.htm http://www.films101.com/y2010r.htm

'Round Midnight came out in '86... totally awesome movie, with a rare Martin Scorsese acting cameo (he was good, btw).

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