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Curated category

Saturn Award–winning films

  • Psycho (1960 film)Psycho, the 1960 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, opens on a specific Friday: December the Eleventh, in Phoenix, Arizona.
  • Batman (1989 film)Batman, the 1989 film directed by Tim Burton, arrived in theaters on the 22nd of June 1989 and earned $2.2 million in late-night previews alone before most…
  • Avengers: EndgameAvengers: Endgame begins with a family disintegrating on screen. In its opening scene, Clint Barton loses his wife and children to Thanos's snap.
  • Avengers: Infinity WarAvengers: Infinity War ends with its villain sitting alone on a distant planet, watching a sunrise. He has just erased half of all life in the universe.
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs arrived at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles on the 21st of December, 1937, and the audience rose to its feet before…
  • Aliens (film)Aliens, the 1986 science fiction-action film written and directed by James Cameron, opens with a woman who has been asleep for 57 years.
  • Alien (film)Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film that begins with a single, deceptively quiet transmission. A commercial starship called the Nostromo is hauling…
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring opened on the 19th of December 2001, and within its first five days in the United States and Canada it had…
  • Blade RunnerBlade Runner arrived in theaters on the 25th of June, 1982, a date producer Alan Ladd Jr. chose deliberately because the 25th of the month had been his lucky…
  • Star Wars (film)Star Wars opened on the 25th of May 1977, in just 32 theaters across the United States. The cast and crew believed it would be a failure.
  • The Avengers (2012 film)The Avengers opened on the 4th of May 2012, in the United States, and within 19 days it had passed $1 billion in ticket sales, matching a record previously…
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey2001: A Space Odyssey premiered on the 2nd of April 1968 at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., before an audience that included critics who were, in…
  • The TerminatorThe Terminator arrived in American cinemas on the 26th of October 1984, and it began with a nightmare. Director James Cameron had fallen ill in Rome during…
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King crossed the one-billion-dollar mark at the worldwide box office in February 2004, only the second film in…
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two TowersThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers premiered on the 5th of December 2002 at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City, and what audiences saw that night was…
  • RoboCopRoboCop arrived in American theaters on the 17th of July 1987, and it was not what anyone expected. The title alone put people off.
  • Jaws (film)Jaws, the 1975 thriller directed by Steven Spielberg, begins with a simple and terrifying image: a young woman swimming alone at night, and then something…
  • A Clockwork Orange (film)A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 film that opens with a young man staring directly into the camera, a glass of milk-plus raised to his lips, and the audience…
  • Deadpool & WolverineDeadpool & Wolverine almost went by a different name. In February 2024, a title leaked online: Deadpool & Friend. Ryan Reynolds later claimed it had been the…
  • Mad Max 2Mad Max 2 opened in Australian cinemas on the 24th of December 1981, a release date that gave holiday audiences something far removed from seasonal cheer.
  • Return of the JediReturn of the Jedi opened in American theaters on the 25th of May 1983. Lucas booked that date deliberately, exactly six years after the original Star Wars…
  • Thor (film)Thor, the 2011 Marvel Studios superhero film, opened its world premiere at the Event Cinemas theatre on George Street in Sydney on the 17th of April 2011.
  • InceptionInception begins with a question that Christopher Nolan first put to paper around 2001: what if someone could steal your secrets while you slept?
  • Star Wars: The Last JediStar Wars: The Last Jedi is dedicated to Carrie Fisher, who played General Leia Organa and died on the 27th of December 2016.
  • Spirited AwaySpirited Away opens on a ten-year-old girl named Chihiro Ogino riding in her parents' imported Audi, sulking about moving to a new neighborhood.
  • The Empire Strikes BackThe Empire Strikes Back opens with a single haunting image: probe droids scattered across the galaxy, hunting. It was the 21st of May 1980, and audiences…
  • Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom MenaceStar Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace was still shooting in the Tunisian desert outside the city of Tozeur when disaster struck.
  • Rogue OneRogue One: A Star Wars Story ends with two lead characters trapped in a citadel on Scarif, unable to escape a demolition beam.
  • Star Wars: The Rise of SkywalkerStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker carried a net budget of about $490.2 million. That made it the second most expensive film ever produced.
  • Princess MononokePrincess Mononoke arrived in Japanese cinemas on the 12th of July, 1997, and within days the newspapers had a name for what was happening: the "Mononoke…
  • Titanic (1997 film)Titanic, the 1997 film written and directed by James Cameron, began not on a Hollywood lot but at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
  • The GodfatherThe Godfather opened in five New York theaters on the 15th of March 1972, the morning after its premiere at the Loew's State Theatre, and ticket prices had…
  • Star Wars: The Force AwakensStar Wars: The Force Awakens arrived in theaters on the 18th of December 2015, carrying a weight that almost no film in history had to bear.
  • Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the ClonesStar Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones premiered on Sunday, the 12th of May 2002. The screening took place at the BMCC Performing Arts Center in New…
  • Excalibur (film)Excalibur, the 1981 epic fantasy film directed by John Boorman, opens not with a hero but with a sorcerer. In the Dark Ages, Merlin retrieves a magical sword…
  • Everything Everywhere All at OnceEvelyn Quan Wang stands in a laundromat in Simi Valley, California, staring at an IRS audit notice that threatens to destroy her family's life.
  • Groundhog Day (film)Groundhog Day, the 1993 film directed by Harold Ramis, opens on a man who is wrong about the weather. Phil Connors, a Pittsburgh weatherman, confidently…
  • The Shawshank RedemptionThe Shawshank Redemption opened to mostly empty theaters in September 1994. On opening night, director Frank Darabont and producer Liz Glotzer visited the…
  • Barbie (film)The concept of a live-action Barbie film first emerged in the mid-1980s at Cannon Films, but nothing came to fruition. Renewed development began in September…
  • Melancholia (2011 film)Melancholia, the 2011 film by Lars von Trier, begins with an ending. Before a single word of dialogue is spoken, the audience watches Earth shatter against a…
  • Indiana Jones and the Dial of DestinyIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny reached theaters in 2023, decades after Paramount Pictures signed a deal in 1979 for five Indiana Jones films.
  • Conan the Barbarian (1982 film)Conan the Barbarian arrived in North American theaters on the 14th of May 1982, opening in 1,400 theaters simultaneously.