1982 and the Fate of Filmgoing

“Blade Runner” and “The Thing,” both of which came out on June 25, 1982, tripped and stumbled at the box office, yet they are two of the more enduring films in Nashawaty’s octet. The others are “Conan the Barbarian,” directed by John Milius, co-written by Milius and Oliver Stone, and bestridden by Arnold Schwarzenegger; Steven Lisberger’s “Tron,” which laid down a glowing path for Disney; George Miller’s “The Road Warrior,” otherwise known as “Mad Max 2”; Nicholas Meyer’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” the mission of which was to redeem the low-energy impact of the first “Star Trek” movie; “Poltergeist,” notionally directed by Tobe Hooper, although the hand of Steven Spielberg, credited as a producer and a co-writer, was firmly discernible on the tiller; and a nice little flick called “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” which raked in almost eight hundred million dollars around the planet. That was directed by Spielberg, in a big way.What We’re Reading