What Made Hollywood Unique in the 1970s?

During the 1970s, Hollywood experienced a rebirth and reached a high point in creativity. There were fewer restrictions on language, violence, and sexual content, and more risks taken than ever before. This decade made up most of the New Hollywood, which was also called the American New Wave.

The hippies, free love, rock ‘n roll, civil rights movement, and drug use of the 1960s paved the way for experimental film makers to let loose. This was the age of a whole new generation of film makers who extended boundaries and shattered conventional ways of doing things.

Some of the new directors that made their mark on movies were:

• Steven Spielburg
• George Lucas
• William Friedkin
• Francis Ford Coppola

During this time, there developed a “blockbuster mentality” after the huge success of movies like Jaws and Star Wars.  Studios began to see how they could make money from merchandise that was tied into the movies, other media like soundtracks, and sequels.

Just as big corporations were buying studios, hoping to make it big, the end was coming to the traditional Hollywood. After many failures, the era of the New Hollywood drew to a close by the end of the 1970s.  So what made Hollywood unique in the 1970s was not able to last for more than a few short years.

Jaws and Star Wars were the first movies that every made $100 million in rentals.  Remember that a movie ticket in the 1970s was between $1.65 and $2.50 with second run theatres charging $1.00.  In 1977 560 movies were released and that steeply declined to 354 in 1978.  Everything that made Hollywood unique in the 1970s, including the number of blockbuster hits, was declining.

Changing Roles of Movie Studios

One other thing that changed and made Hollywood unique in the 1970s was the role of the movie studio in the production of films.  Most of the older movie studios were no longer in direct control of production:

• Producers, agents, and independent studios took over parts of the financing, production, and filming of movies.
• Competition among agents increased, which was partly due to the founding of the Creative Artists Agency.
• Big investment corporations purchased some of the studio’s properties and they gained the power to make many decisions, like the number of movies made or which projects to do.

Another thing that added to all these changes was the cheaper costs of location shooting. Movies were becoming less formal and many directors and other roles were combining into dual roles, like actor-director or writer-producer.

The success of Rocky is a good example of some of these changes, especially in equipment.  It was one of the first films to use the Steadicam, a hand-held camera that produced fluid shots that weren’t jerky.      

Movies of the 1970s

These are the top ten films of 1970 according to critics as well as the top ten grossing movies. The year and the director are listed.  The “*” denotes the films that were on both lists.

Top Ten Films of 1970 According to Critics

• The Godfather*1972 Francis Ford Coppola
• Jaws* 1975 Steven Spielburg
• Star Wars* 1977 George Lucas
• Chinatown 1974 Roman Polanski
• One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest 1975 Milos Forman
• Taxi Driver 1976 Martin Scorsese
• Superman* 1978 Richard Donner
• The French Connection 1971 William Friedkin
• Alien 1979 Ridley Scott
• Annie Hall 1977 Woody Allen

Top Ten Box Office Films

• Star Wars* 1977 George Lucas
• Jaws* 1975 Steven Spielburg
• The Exorcist 1973 William Friedkin
• Grease 1978 Randal Kleiser
• The Sting 1973 George Roy Hill
• National Lampoon’s Animal House 1978 John Landis
• The Godfather* 1972 Francis Ford Coppola
• Superman* 1978 Richard Donner
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 Steven Spielburg
• Smokey and the Bandit 1977 Hal Needham

Hollywood moviemaking was unique in the 1970s with a rebirth, less restrictions and many movies which are still popular today.