History GenreTurningPoint / LiveActionFilms

* 2014's ''Film/JohnWick'' set a new standard for the Action Movie genre, which was previously held by films like ''Film/TheBourneSeries'' and ''Film/{{Taken}}''. With its stylistically fluid and tightly choreographed fight scenes using advanced [[GunKata gunplay]] and finding a balance between over-the-top violence with surprising moments of [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome realism]], it was a breath of fresh air after years of the two former's shaky-cam brawls (which was beginning to show its age as losing the immersive energy it once had, becoming simply disorienting and confusing).
** John himself was seen as a minor return to form for the HollywoodActionHero, after the ''Film/DieHard'' series thoroughly deconstructed and replaced it with the ActionSurvivor template (which both ''Bourne'' and ''Taken'' played with). Instead, while John is human and isn't [[DentedIron totally invincible]], he is so ''[[TheAce astoundingly]] competent'' that he might as well be.

* The most immediate impact of ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' in 2009 was to spawn a second boom in FoundFootageFilms, but in the longer term, its greatest legacy came in its rejuvenation of supernatural horror in TheNewTens, fueled in part by a backlash against the worn-out tropes of TorturePorn. 2011's ''Film/{{Insidious}}'' and 2013's ''Film/TheConjuring'' (both directed by Creator/JamesWan) went on to codify what a "modern" supernatural horror film was supposed to look like, ironically by [[GenreThrowback drawing on distinctly old-fashioned horror tropes]] from TheSeventies. Furthermore, it marked the beginning of the rise of Jason Blum as one of the most important horror producers of the 2010s, as the success of this film codified his model of low budgets and maximum creative freedom that put his production company Creator/{{Blumhouse|Productions}} at the center of the decade's "horror renaissance" and earned him comparisons to Creator/RogerCorman.

* 1986's ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' was the UsefulNotes/HongKong action film for which the term "HeroicBloodshed" was coined. While the genre was already taking shape with earlier films, director Creator/JohnWoo's highly [[GunFu kinetic, violent, and stylized gunfights]] not only spurred the creation of Hong Kong's [[MediaNotes/MediaClassifications film rating system]] (and earned its first Category [=IIb=], equivalent to the MPAA's R rating), they influenced a generation of action filmmakers who realized just how stylish a shootout on film could be, an influence that soon flowed far beyond Hong Kong thanks not only to Woo's work there but also through rising Western directors like Creator/RobertRodriguez, Creator/LucBesson, Creator/QuentinTarantino, and Creator/TheWachowskis.

* 1986's ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' was the UsefulNotes/HongKong action film for which the term "HeroicBloodshed" was coined. While the genre was already taking shape with earlier films, director Creator/JohnWoo's highly kinetic, violent, and stylized gunfights not only spurred the creation of Hong Kong's [[MediaNotes/MediaClassifications film rating system]] (and earned its first Category [=IIb=], equivalent to the MPAA's R rating), they influenced a generation of action filmmakers who realized just how stylish a shootout on film could be, an influence that soon flowed far beyond Hong Kong thanks not only to Woo's work there but also through rising Western directors like Creator/RobertRodriguez, Creator/LucBesson, Creator/QuentinTarantino, and Creator/TheWachowskis.

* ''Film/TheFly1986'' was this trope not for BodyHorror, but film marketing and [[{{Tagline}} Taglines]], as argued by [[https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/afraid-afraid/ Empire Magazine]]. Beforehand, it was fairly common for ads and posters to have ''paragraphs'' worth of text just to explain premises, The memetic "Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid" was so short, catchy, and perfect, it was instantly memorable and quotable, and marketers started following suit for other films.

These factors, especially the latter, will become quite clear as we take a look at Cyberpunk films of the '90s over the next few weeks and months. In ''Film/UniversalSoldier'' and ''Film/TheCrow'', for instance, we have a man becoming a "machine" becoming a man, all while riding hard upon the back of Cyberpunk stereotypes. In ''Film/TheProfessional'', we have a "killing machine" who strives to become more human through his encounter with a small child. In the anime classic ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'', we have a cyborg who's trying to find a sense of humanity. In ''Film/AlienResurrection'', we have a human/alien hybrid Ripley (a cyborg of sorts) who's also trying to find the human she once was. And in ''Film/TheMatrix'', the concept of releasing oneself from inside the machine and experiencing the truth of humanity is an obvious way to cap off the decade.

* 1978's ''Film/AnimalHouse'' was probably the first "teen" movie to combine youthful angst with zany comedy -- which, in the ensuing decades, resulted in teen comedies becoming not only a lot more common, but a lot more serious as well. Also, while there were similarly shocking comedies before it (''Film/PinkFlamingos'', ''Film/BlazingSaddles'', ''The Kentucky Fried Movie''), it was the first mainstream hit comedy to fully take advantage of the loosened restrictions of the post-[[MediaNotes/TheHaysCode Hays Code]] era, allowing it to hit audiences with explicit sex jokes that would never have flown even a decade prior as opposed to just [[DoubleEntendre innuendos]]. This set off a boom in the American SexComedy genre in the late 1970s and [[TheEighties early 1980s]] as other such films pushed that much further with their comedy. Beyond film, it's also been [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2023/08/15/animal-house-national-lampoon-anniversary/ credited]] with [[TheRedStapler reviving fraternities on American college campuses]], and the [[{{Fratbro}} various]] related [[WackyFratboyHijinx tropes]].

* Together, the World Wars are a big part of the reason why the US attained such a commanding position over the global film industry. Before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, France and Italy had been major centers of film production, only for all of that to be put on hold by the war and never really recover in the aftermath, and while Germany saw the boom of its own film industry during the [[UsefulNotes/WeimarGermany Weimar era]] with the rise of the [[GermanExpressionism Expressionist movement]], [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany the Nazis]] and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII put the kibosh on that. The British film industry was also prolific during the interwar years, but was handicapped by the Cinematograph Films Act 1927, a law that was ironically supposed to protect it from American competition,[[labelnote:Short version...]]It mandated a quota for British cinemas to show a certain number of British films. American film studios [[LoopholeAbuse responded]] by opening British and Canadian subsidiaries, technically following the letter of the law even as all the profits went back to Hollywood. During the '30s, the British film industry fell into a deep slump, plagued by the scourge of the "quota quickies", turgid, NoBudget [[BMovie B-movies]] made for the British/Commonwealth market (many were simply recordings of music hall and variety acts) by studios that didn't give a damn. An {{urban legend|s}} claims that British theaters used the quota quickies as time to clean and vacuum the theater floors, since there were no patrons watching the films who would complain about the noise. Some critics, however, have reevaluated the quota quickies, arguing that their low budgets and studio apathy brought a measure of creative freedom not seen in bigger-budgeted productions while noting that many great British filmmakers cut their teeth making these films.[[/labelnote]] with World War II doing it no favors either. The US, however, was far away from the fighting, and its economy and studios were left largely untouched. This left Hollywood room to thrive in an environment where, outside of [[UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} India]], Latin America (with Mexico and to a lesser extent Argentina having important industries), and the closed-off Eastern Bloc, serious foreign competition had been all but wiped out twice over and wouldn't seriously challenge them in the mass market until the British and Italian film industries boomed in TheSixties.

* 1927's ''Film/TheJazzSinger'' wasn't a particularly good film beyond [[DancingBear its gimmick]], but that gimmick, the use of sound as a means of the storytelling rather than just accompaniment as in the case of ''Film/{{Don Juan|1926}}'', changed the film industry across the world. The arrival of sound introduced more realistic acting, putting an end to the careers of many stars who came to prominence in the silent era. Silent comedy of the likes of Creator/BusterKeaton and Creator/HaroldLloyd was left in the lurch, while Creator/CharlieChaplin became far less prolific and more cautious. It also rendered permanent Hollywood's global rise to prominence. Formerly, simply replacing the intertitles from one film in local translation made it possible for Italian, French, Russian, and Swedish movies to have global audiences, though UsefulNotes/WorldWarI had devastated the European and particularly the French film industry, consolidating Hollywood's dominance. Now, though, the language barrier led to the greater hegemony of English-language cinema around the world, as Hollywood, with its vast American and British markets far outstripping the smaller, linguistically-restrained national cinemas of other countries, was able to field the biggest budgets for the biggest movies. By the time the technology for dubbing and subtitles caught up, Hollywood was well into [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood its Golden Age]], and there was no looking back.

* Creator/KennethAnger was a seminal influence on Hollywood's counterculture from the [[TheForties late '40s]] up through TheSeventies. He helped write much of the language of gay cinema and American gay male culture in general, in particular codifying {{leatherm|an}}en, [[HelloSailor sailors]], and UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}} as parts of the latter. He was among the first filmmakers to incorporate large amounts of contemporary pop and rock music into his soundtracks and draw on occultism (especially that of Creator/AleisterCrowley's Thelema) for themes beyond just portraying it as a source of baddies for the heroes to fight. A number of the filmmakers of the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood period and after, including Creator/MartinScorsese, Creator/DavidLynch, and Creator/JohnWaters, have cited his work as an inspiration. And going beyond the films themselves into the culture surrounding them, his 1965 book ''Hollywood Babylon'' codified the HorribleHollywood trope and popularized numerous UrbanLegends about various famous actors. Before, celebrity gossip had been driven by the PR pieces put out by the studios on one hand and the moral outrage offered by "scandal" magazines such as ''Confidential'' and ''Hush'' on the other, while after, it became just as much a source of entertainment in its own right as people grew fascinated by the sordid personal lives of the rich and famous.

** Following on from that strategy came Samuel Z. Arkoff's formula for making his movies popular: fill them with just enough action, sex appeal, edgy themes, teenage WishFulfillment, and HighConcept premises to attract young viewers without running afoul of [[UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode the Hays Office]]. If this formula looks familiar, it's because, once you swap out "running afoul of the Hays Office" with "getting an R rating", it's the one that virtually every teen-oriented PG-13 comedy and horror movie has used since.

* Creator/AlfredHitchcock's 1960 film ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' was, along with the ditching of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode and its replacement by the MPAA later in the decade, widely credited for helping to turn the {{horror}} genre from "stories that are a bit spooky and feature the odd death" to "stories where AnyoneCanDie, deaths are bloody and brutal, and sometimes even TheBadGuyWins." In particular, not only did it push boundaries with its violence and serve as the UrExample to the SlasherMovie genre, it helped show the world the true shock potential of the HalfwayPlotSwitch and the DecoyProtagonist, by famously [[GenreShift changing genres]] and introducing a new main character after the infamous shower scene. Though definitely not the first film with a major PlotTwist in its story, it paved the way for a whole slew of thrillers and horror films built on plot twists and the anticipation of a TwistEnding. How influential was it? It's credited with leading to the advent of ''movie showtimes'', as Hitchcock specifically requested that theaters refrain from admitting viewers to the movie after it started, wanting ''everyone'' to be able to experience the big twist when it happened. Before that, it was actually considered normal for theaters to simply play movies continuously, with moviegoers regularly walking in halfway through and leaving when it looped back around to where they originally came in.

* The 1965 film adaptation of ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'' was [[http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-world-matthew-kennedys-roadshow-the-fall-of-film-musicals-in-the-1960s/2014/02/13/82c56f8e-8e69-11e3-b227-12a45d109e03_story.html described]] by Matthew Kennedy, in his book ''Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the '60s'', as "The Musical That Ate Hollywood". The staggering box-office success of this big-budget family musical (dethroning ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' for the title of the highest-grossing film of all time, and considered to be to this day the most popular film ''ever'' by virtue of its many reissues and its soundtrack being a chart-topper for several years on end) led to a slew of [[FollowTheLeader copycats]] determined to make lightning strike twice, many of which went down in history as notorious {{Box Office Bomb}}s that helped to [[GenreKiller discredit movie musicals for decades]]. Likewise, its use of [[RoadshowTheatricalRelease roadshow booking]], screening films at a select number of upscale theaters that charged premium ticket prices in exchange for a far more lavish moviegoing experience, led many more studios to use it for their musicals, cheapening a format that had once been reserved for [[EpicMovie the biggest spectacles]]. The trends that ''The Sound of Music'' started did severe damage to Hollywood in both the near and long terms, acting as TheLastStraw in the UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem as audiences rejected paying inflated ticket prices for increasingly subpar movies. Creator/LindsayEllis goes into more detail in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8o7LzGqc3E this video.]]

* In 1968, when Jack Valenti, then head of the MPAA, proposed doing away with UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, he cited two films released in 1966 as justification for the Code being outdated and voluntary movie ratings being a better replacement: ''Theatre/WhosAfraidOfVirginiaWoolf'' and ''Film/{{Blowup}}''. The former had become notorious for its frank dialog and was at first not approved by the MPAA, but they eventually agreed to release it after cuts to some of its controversial dialogue along with the requirement that posters for the film include a warning that this was a film intended for adult audiences -- the first time that the MPAA gave a film a stamp other than "approved" or "not approved", a precursor to [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications the multi-tiered rating system that the MPAA eventually adopted]] in 1968. ''Blowup'', meanwhile, was not granted a seal of approval by the MPAA due to nudity in the film (it was also condemned by the Legion of Decency), but the releasing studio MGM decided to bypass the MPAA and the Hays Code by releasing it under a subsidiary, to wide audiences and box-office success.
* With the Hays Code in tatters, a trio of films in the late '60s marked the birth of the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood movement. Their success marked the ascent of a new generation of film-school-educated, boundary-pushing writers and directors who unleashed a massive burst of creativity in Hollywood, one that lasted until the end of TheSeventies.

** 1974's ''The Godfather Part II'', meanwhile, not only popularized NumberedSequels in Hollywood film, it gave movie sequels a respectability that they previously lacked. The general opinion of many critics and moviegoers before then was that sequels were installments in {{Cash Cow Franchise}}s that, even when they were good on their own merits, [[FirstInstallmentWins never lived up to the original]]. ''The Godfather Part II'', on the other hand, built upon the story of its predecessor in such a way that many hailed it as [[EvenBetterSequel even better than the first movie]], and it became the first sequel to ever win the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Picture. Since then, sequels and stories that span multiple films have become more widely accepted in Hollywood, especially with the success of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' trilogy soon after.

** While ''Jaws'' is usually regarded as the first modern "blockbuster" movie, this was the one that proved that kids -- a demographic ignored by most 1970s movies -- were audience members too, that escapist sci-fi wasn't as [[BMovie disposable as once thought]], and that fantasy and science fiction in general were untapped resources. The whole GenreThrowback idea was popularized here, and while FollowTheLeader meant there were many crappy imitators within the years that followed, it did lead directly to Franchise/{{Superman}} getting [[Film/SupermanTheMovie a big movie of his own]], thus launching the rise of cinematic comic book adaptations. It also helped launch the revival of rival series ''Franchise/StarTrek''. Indeed, some blame this movie for hastening the end of the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood era and leading to the dumbed-down SummerBlockbuster mentality of the industry today, especially once the ''sequels'' arrived.

** The soundtrack by Music/JohnWilliams, meanwhile, changed how movies were scored. In the '60s and '70s, Hollywood film soundtracks grew increasingly dominated by rock and pop music, with their scores starting to reflect that. When Williams set out to write the soundtrack for ''Star Wars'', however, he turned to influences from ClassicalMusic, particularly Richard Strauss, Erich Kolngold, and Max Steiner, to create a thundering, larger-than-life fanfare evocative of the {{epic movie}}s of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, as befitting the GenreThrowback feel of the rest of the film. Afterwards, classical music, which had been in decline for over half a century by that point, found fertile new ground in Hollywood as it became the go-to choice for scoring blockbusters and epics to this day.

* 1978's ''Film/AnimalHouse'' was probably the first "teen" movie to combine youthful angst with zany comedy -- which, in the ensuing decades, resulted in teen comedies becoming not only a lot more common, but a lot more serious as well. Also, while there were similarly shocking comedies before it (''Film/PinkFlamingos'', ''Film/BlazingSaddles'', ''The Kentucky Fried Movie''), it was the first mainstream hit comedy to fully take advantage of the loosened restrictions of the post-[[UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode Hays Code]] era, allowing it to hit audiences with explicit sex jokes that would never have flown even a decade prior as opposed to just [[DoubleEntendre innuendos]]. This set off a boom in the American SexComedy genre in the late 1970s and [[TheEighties early 1980s]] as other such films pushed that much further with their comedy. Beyond film, it's also been [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2023/08/15/animal-house-national-lampoon-anniversary/ credited]] with [[TheRedStapler reviving fraternities on American college campuses]], and the [[{{Fratbro}} various]] related [[WackyFratboyHijinx tropes]].

* Creator/{{Michael Cimino|Director}}'s 1980 film ''Film/HeavensGate'', although not for the same reasons as most of the other examples: it was such a notorious TroubledProduction and BoxOfficeBomb that it [[GenreKiller killed]] the [[TheWestern Hollywood Western]] (at least for a time), [[CreatorKiller United Artists as an independent studio, and director Michael Cimino's career]]. It and other high-profile flops (''One From the Heart'', ''Sorcerer'') also killed the [[UsefulNotes/NewHollywood auteur period]] in Hollywood.

** It marked the beginning of the partnership of producers Don Simpson and Creator/JerryBruckheimer, which has been [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM0VsX1mdL8 described]] by WebVideo/PatrickHWillems as the moment when The80s truly arrived in Hollywood. Specifically, starting with ''Flashdance'', they reasserted the power of the {{producer|s}} in a pushback against the auteur-driven excesses of the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood era of TheSeventies, the film's actual director Adrian Lyne being a hired gun who only took the job to get [[Film/NineAndAHalfWeeks another film]] made. They accomplished this by taking the HighConcept, the idea that the fundamentals of what a film is about should be easily explainable in a 30-second pitch or TV spot, and making it the standard for filmmaking in UsefulNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood with their box-office successes. While the uncontested power of film producers would be challenged by the end of the decade (Simpson and Bruckheimer themselves show up again further down this list), the effects of their revolution would remain in place for decades to come. Even today, Creator/KevinFeige can be seen as an heir to the legacy of Simpson and Bruckheimer.

** In terms of the film itself, while both the PG-13 rating and the SummerBlockbuster had been around for a few years by that point, ''Top Gun'' [[TropeCodifier codified]] the tropes of the modern, young-male-oriented, PG-13 action blockbuster that came to serve as the default template for Hollywood's tentpole films from TheNineties onward. It also marked the mainstream breakthrough of Creator/TonyScott, one of the most influential action filmmakers of UsefulNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood. As [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfvE8rWn52s this video]] from Rossatron explains, Scott's hyperkinetic SignatureStyle of quick cuts, OrangeBlueContrast, and a [[{{Fanservice}} loving focus on the attractive lead actors]], much of it imported from the world of {{music video|Tropes}}s, wound up paving the way for everybody from Creator/MichaelBay to Creator/KathrynBigelow to Simon West.
** It also had an impact on how movies are watched and consumed. While [[UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} VHS]] had been a popular format since the start of TheEighties, the home video release of ''Top Gun'' in 1987 pushed it into the stratosphere. As [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YLlt1JWpRA this video]] by Tom Reimann of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' explains, Hollywood once saw home video as [[NewMediaAreEvil a grave threat to their business model]], and so they charged over $80 a pop for VHS copies of their films and sued video rental stores for copyright violations (many stores during that time had to operate on a "private club" model to cover themselves legally). Creator/{{Paramount}}, however, sold the ''Top Gun'' VHS for only $26.95, a low price that was paid for by [[ProductPlacement putting a Pepsi commercial before the movie]] at the beginning of each tape. With this highly lucrative strategy, Hollywood's bitter resistance to home video evaporated as they saw how much money they could make from these sorts of marketing deals. Theatrical rereleases of popular movies and second-run theatres died out almost entirely by the mid-1990s, only experiencing a short-lived revival in the early 2010s with the rise of [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie 3D conversions]], while video rental opened up and took its place as the primary second-run distribution network.

* The notorious producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, for better or worse, revolutionized Hollywood's award season in TheNineties through their company Creator/MiramaxFilms. Specifically, they popularized the "award season campaign", where films that they figured could win awards were released late in the year (just before the cutoff date for nominations) so that they'd be fresh in the minds of UsefulNotes/AcademyAward voters, and proceeded to reach out directly to them in order to sway their opinions, be it through schmoozing, special screenings, or running ads in trade publications like ''Variety'' and ''The Hollywood Reporter''. Under the Weinsteins' leadership, Miramax became a machine that delivered Oscar gold that was soon imitated by every studio in Hollywood, who either started their own subsidiaries or bought smaller production companies (Creator/{{Disney}} bought out Miramax itself in 1993) to produce films along the Miramax model. This had mixed results. On one hand, the Weinsteins helped shepherd the explosion of independent cinema in the '90s as the studios realized that smaller, critically acclaimed films could be just as buzz-worthy and successful at the box office as big blockbusters if given the right promotion; filmmakers like Creator/KevinSmith and Creator/QuentinTarantino credit the Weinsteins with launching their careers. On the other hand, others have blamed the Weinsteins for the proliferation of OscarBait in the '90s and '00s, as studios started making films that seemed designed to pander to the tastes of Oscar voters at the expense of general audiences and mainstream critics, and their near-monopolization of "genre" films would be later criticized as their empire fell apart in the 2010s, tarnishing the theatrical viability of such works deemed "uncommercial" in the process. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tihITlPAn4 This video]] by Be Kind Rewind goes into more detail.

* 1997's ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' did this not through the merits of the film itself, but rather, for how it played a central role in a sea change within film journalism. When the film website Ain't It Cool News posted multiple negative reviews from preview screenings before its release, it did massive damage to the buzz around the film in such a manner that the studio blamed the site's owner Harry Knowles for its poor box office returns. The incident changed the power dynamic between the studios and film journalists, especially a new breed of such that had arisen online and were more in touch with geek culture than the "old guard" that came of age during the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood era of TheSeventies. Going forward, as sites like AICN, [=JoBlo's=] Movie Emporium, ''Screen Rant'', and more grew in popularity, Hollywood would more actively try to court geek culture in order to win their approval rather than risk making another ''Batman & Robin''.

** In terms of its impact on cinema, it invented the modern "faith-based" film. While Hollywood had been making films based on stories from Literature/TheBible, from {{epic|Movie}}s to comedies to dramas, since UsefulNotes/{{the Golden Age|OfHollywood}}, they aimed for a mass market with these films, rarely getting into specifics on religion beyond the basics so as to avoid theological criticism from any one side or another. Movies that were more explicitly religious in nature usually had NoBudget and amateurish production values to match.[[note]]Creator/TimLaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, authors of the Christian book series ''Literature/LeftBehind'' who were [[DisownedAdaptation deeply disappointed]] by its [[Film/LeftBehind2000 film adaptations]] in the early '00s, referred to such films as "church basement movies", partly because that was where they were most often screened and partly because that was where it was commonly joked that they were filmed: at the church itself by filmmakers with little more than camcorders and OffTheShelfFX.[[/note]] ''The Passion'', however, was made by the devout traditionalist Catholic Creator/MelGibson and aimed squarely at theologically conservative Catholics and evangelicals, and it was made independently without any input from major studios, with Gibson spending $45 million of his own money to make and promote the film and hiring top Hollywood talent. Its mammoth success, becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film of all time at the US box-office[[note]]As of 2022, it stands at #47[[/note]] largely on the back of promotion through churches even as [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity controversy swirled around it]], created a cottage industry of studios, both independent ones (most notably Creator/PureFlixEntertainment) and production arms of the majors, making religious films targeted explicitly at conservative Christians. Alissa Wilkinson, writing for ''Vox'', goes into more detail [[https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/1/31/16955448/passion-of-christ-sequel-mel-gibson-jim-caviezel-hell here.]]

** 2008's ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' is, along with ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', the reason that the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]] now nominates as many as ''ten'' movies for the coveted Best Picture Oscar rather than the previously standard five. For that reason, it's often cited as an important contributor to the decline (though not outright ''death'') of OscarBait in TheNewTens. There had long been a bit of a backlash against studios who banked films' success on the possibility of being nominated for Oscars during the Winter months (reserving mere "[[SummerBlockbuster crowd-pleasers]]" for the Summer months), but the backlash became all but impossible to ignore when ''The Dark Knight'' failed to even get a nomination for Best Picture at the 81st Academy Awards, despite being one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2008. [[note]]Creator/HeathLedger's posthumous Best Supporting Actor award was the movie's only accolade in a non-technical category, and it might not even have gotten ''that'' if not for [[DeadArtistsAreBetter Ledger's untimely death drawing attention to his critically-acclaimed performance]].[[/note]] The resultant public outcry convinced the Academy to start nominating twice as many films for Best Picture, giving critically-acclaimed genre films a chance to break OutOfTheGhetto and receive Academy recognition. Tellingly, ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', ''Film/{{District 9}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'' were among the films nominated for Best Picture in 2009, while Creator/ChristopherNolan's own ''Film/{{Inception}}'' got nominated in 2010, as did ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''.

** In the short term, it drove the UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie boom of the early 2010s, demonstrating how advances in digital technology since the last time 3-D was popular could be put to use creating visuals that couldn't be matched by a conventionally-shot 2-D film. Studios started upconverting films shot in 2-D, movie theaters swapped out their old celluloid film projectors for new digital ones to keep up with this and other advances in film exhibition technology, and electronics companies even made televisions capable of showing 3-D content. More broadly, ''Avatar'' left behind an ethos that, in the age of "prestige TV", movie theaters were where you went to have an entertainment experience that simply could not be replicated on a television screen. Much was made of how ''Avatar'' was [[EpicMovie a movie so grand that it needed to be seen in theaters]], and in the years to come, blockbusters designed to take full advantage of the massive screens and sound systems of movie theaters would increasingly dominate the box office while smaller and mid-budget films migrated to streaming services. [[https://www.thebulwark.com/avatars-impact-on-the-culture-is-undeniable/ This article]] by Sonny Bunch for ''The Bulwark'' goes into more detail.

** While ''Film/Godzilla1954'', as noted above, took a lot of influence from ''Film/TheBeastFromTwentyThousandFathoms'', it brought its own innovations to the genre, and birthed the {{Kaiju}} film as a distinct sub-genre of the giant monster film. Most notably, its pioneering use of [[PeopleInRubberSuits "suitmation" effects]] proved that large-scale spectacle and destruction could be done on a fraction of a Hollywood budget, and with that, {{tokusatsu}} became a staple of Japanese action cinema and later television.

* ''Film/GoodFellas'' in 1990. As the TropeCodifier of the mafia genre and one of the '''most''' popular and influential movies ever made in general, even outside the mafia genre, ''Goodfellas'' is a truly {{Troperiffic}} work — nearly every single trope associated with [[TheMafia Mafia]] media is used, [[UrExample created]] or codified at some point in the film. As for the storyline, the film certainly showed the crudest side of how lower-ranking mobsters operate, particularly associates, soldiers and captains. It also gave us a more complex look of how the American Mafia operated in the 70s and early 80s, when the organization started to decline. In fact, this modern look of the American Mafia [[FollowTheLeader was key]] to the development of series such as ''Series/TheSopranos''. As for its cinematography, the film has left a lasting mark on the craft due to its innovative narrative, distinctive visual style, standout performances, and the way it redefines and revitalizes the mafia genre. The influence of ''Goodfellas'' extends beyond the mafia genre, as it has inspired numerous filmmakers and has made a lasting impact on how stories are told in contemporary cinema.

* ''Film/GoodFellas'' in 1990. As one of the defining films of the crime genre and most popular and influential movies ever made in general, ''[=GoodFellas=]'' is a truly {{Troperiffic}} work -- nearly every single trope associated with Mafia media is used, [[UrExample created]] or [[TropeCodifier codified]] at some point in the film. As for the storyline, the film certainly showed the crudest side of how lower-ranking mobsters operate, particularly associates, soldiers and captains. It also gave us a more complex look of how the American Mafia operated in the 70s and early 80s, when the mafia started to decline. In fact, this modern look of the American Mafia was key to the development of series such as ''Series/TheSopranos''.

* 1969's ''Film/TheWildBunch'' revolutionized how action films were edited, using quick cuts and [[AdrenalineTime slow motion]] to crank up the intensity of its action scenes. It also brought the revisionism of {{spaghetti Western}}s into Hollywood movies, with its story concerning the TwilightOfTheOldWest and aging gunfighters looking back on their lives, along with a level of realistic violence that shocked audiences at the time. Not surprisingly, Creator/JohnWayne, the iconic "cowboy" actor, hated ''The Wild Bunch'' and blamed it for killing TheWestern through its deconstruction of the myth of TheWildWest, telling Creator/ClintEastwood that "[t]hat isn’t what the West was all about. That isn’t the American people who settled this country."

* ''Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain'' (1983, Tsui Hark) was the first film to combine Hong Kong action cinema with Western special effects technology, resulting in visually stunning displays of SupernaturalMartialArts.

* Film journalist Stephen Metcalf [[http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_dilettante/2012/08/tony_scott_s_days_of_thunder_did_it_rescue_hollywood_from_the_grips_of_producers_like_don_simpson_.single.html argues]] that the [[TroubledProduction wretched production excesses]] of ''Film/DaysOfThunder'', and their attendant impact on the film's profits, made auteur-driven filmmaking acceptable again a decade after the notion had been discredited by the box-office failure of ''Film/HeavensGate''. Creator/UnitedArtists' willingness to indulge Creator/{{Michael Cimino|Director}} on that film had led to a backlash where studios favored producers like Creator/DonSimpson and Creator/JerryBruckheimer who were effectively the sole creative forces behind their films, with directors merely taking orders from them. After similar excesses on the part of the producers, studios would let directors assert themselves creatively again, and it's no coincidence that ''Days'' director Creator/TonyScott's critical reputation improved over the course of the '90s.

* The 1972 film ''Deep Throat'' was this for pornographic films. Porn had existed in cinema almost since the medium's inception, albeit in an underground fashion due to obscenity laws, but the social changes and relaxed censorship of the late '60s and early '70s saw artists like Creator/AndyWarhol start to experiment with putting real, unsimulated sex scenes into actual, proper movies. This was the one that broke through and became a pop culture sensation, discussed by Creator/JohnnyCarson and Creator/BobHope on national television and bringing this emerging wave to the attention of shocked and titillated mainstream moviegoers. Exact box-office figures for ''Deep Throat'' are hard to come by, but it's generally agreed to have made tens of millions of dollars in its theatrical run, kick-starting the "Golden Age of Porn" in TheSeventies in which pornography gained its first taste of respectability and, for a time, actually competed with Hollywood. Even after conservative backlash and the rise of the DirectToVideo market in TheEighties brought the age of "porno chic" to an end, porn as an industry was there to stay, seen as a legitimate (if still disreputable) business as opposed to being wholly shut out of popular culture. Unfortunately, it also showered a lot of money on its [[TheMafia mobbed-up]] producers, which turned porn into a cash cow for organized crime in the '70s and '80s, and the effects of mainstream acceptance of pornography on society remain highly controversial to this day.

* 1998's ''Film/TheresSomethingAboutMary'' could just as easily have been called "When the RomanticComedy Met the SexComedy". As Caroline Siede lays out in [[https://www.avclub.com/raunch-hijacked-the-rom-com-after-the-runaway-success-o-1847076248 this article]] for ''[[Website/AVClub The AV Club]]'', the Farrelly brothers' main innovation was to take the classic, humorous "boy meets girl" story and layer it with a thick dollop of [[GrossOutShow gross-out humor]], setting the stage for a new breed of comedies like ''Film/AmericanPie'', ''Film/WeddingCrashers'', and the films of Creator/JuddApatow (who would later go that much further in mixing the two) that combined romantic storylines with R-rated raunch, heralding a revival of the sex comedy that would last well into the '00s.

* Creator/AlfredHitchcock's 1960 film ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' was, along with the ditching of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode and its replacement by the MPAA later in the decade, widely credited for helping to turn the {{horror}} genre from "stories that are a bit spooky and feature the odd death" to "stories where AnyoneCanDie, deaths are bloody and brutal, and sometimes even TheBadGuyWins." In particular, not only did it push boundaries with its violence and serve as the UrExample to the SlasherMovie genre, it helped show the world the true shock potential of the HalfwayPlotSwitch and the DecoyProtagonist, by famously [[GenreShift changing genres]] and introducing a new main character after the infamous shower scene. Though definitely not the first film with a major PlotTwist in its story, it paved the way for a whole slew of thrillers and horror films built on plot twists and the anticipation of a TwistEnding. How influential was it? It's credited with leading to the advent of ''[[SeinfeldIsUnfunny movie showtimes]]'', as Hitchcock specifically requested that theaters refrain from admitting viewers to the movie after it started, wanting ''everyone'' to be able to experience the big twist when it happened. Before that, it was actually considered normal for theaters to simply play movies continuously, with moviegoers regularly walking in halfway through and leaving when it looped back around to where they originally came in.