The 1990s Film Industry at a Glance

The 1990s was an interesting decade in Hollywood. While cinema attendance was up for the most part, box office revenues dipped in the early 1990s due to an economic recession in the United States. Even though revenues picked up again from 1993 onwards, studio executives faced mounting pressure to come up with big hit films.

There was a prevailing belief that high-budget films with expensive special effects meant quality, and studios scrambled to meet the ever-increasing demands of celebrities and their agents. This meant higher salaries, private jets, script approvals prior to filming, approval of the use of their images for publicity, the positioning of their name in the credits, filming schedules, and other “extras” like personal trainers and nutritionists. There was a significant increase in spending as a result — many films at the time cost over $100 million to produce.

The success of low-cost independent films like The Blair Witch Project (1999), however, proved that having a big budget wasn’t always necessary. To this day, it remains one of the most profitable films of all time, percentage-wise. By the end of the decade, most major studios had formed their own independent film divisions.

Significant technological advancements also had a profound effect on Hollywood. The 1990s marked the beginning of the digital age. Filmmakers began experimenting with digital video (DV), and a number of films during this time made use of special effects in innovative ways. Forrest Gump (1994), for example, used special enhancements to insert Forest into historical footage and to erase the legs of an actor who played the role of an amputee. Heavenly Creatures (1994), meanwhile, enhanced its fantasy sequences with CGI.

The 1990s was also the era of innovations such as Kodak’s Photo CD Player in 1990, the first public HDTV broadcast in the United States in 1996, and digital video discs (DVDs) in 1997. DVDs had much sharper pictures and better durability compared to videotapes. Netflix, which is best known today as a streaming service, started out in 1997 as a DVD rental service. TiVo, a personal digital video recorder, debuted in 1999.

People’s movie-watching habits changed due to these developments, and filmmakers realized that they needed to adapt. Throughout the 1990s, it is estimated that 40% of films produced went straight to DVD or cable TV.

While the 1990s might not be everyone’s favorite decade in film, some of the most-beloved movies of all time were from this era. We’ve put together a list of the decade’s best films, as well as directors who made a lasting impact on the industry.

The Best Films Of The 1990s

Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction is a crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman, and was released in theaters on October 14, 1994. The film is widely regarded as a cult classic and is considered a “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant” film by the United States National Film Registry.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - APRIL 28: The movie — Stephen Shugerman/GettyImages

The film consists of three main interwoven stories of several characters involved in the world of crime. The film, produced with a $8.5 million budget, was a commercial success. It grossed $107.93 million in the United States alone and nearly $213 million worldwide, making it the first “independent” film to earn over $100 million. It was nominated for seven Oscars and won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.

Titanic

It’s impossible to make a list of the best ‘90s films without mentioning Titanic. This classic film was written, co-produced, co-edited, and directed by James Cameron and had audiences sobbing and young women swooning over a young Leonardo Di Caprio throughout the late 1990s. The film was produced with a $200 million budget and initially grossed around $1.84 billion worldwide. It was the first movie to earn over $1 billion and was the highest-grossing film of all time until it was displaced in 2010 by Avatar, another film written and produced by Cameron.

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 27: (EMBARGOED FOR PUBLICATION IN UK TABLOID NEWSPAPERS UNTIL 48 HOURS AFTER CREATE DATE AND TIME. MANDATORY CREDIT PHOTO BY DAVE M. BENETT/GETTY IMAGES REQUIRED) A general view of the atmosphere at at the World Premiere of — Dave M. Benett/GettyImages

Titanic, released on December 19, 1997 in the United States, tells the story of Jack (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (played by Kate Winslet), two people from completely different social classes who fall in love during the Titanic's ill-fated maiden voyage in 1912. The film was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won 11, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Visual Effects, and Best Costume Design. A 3D version of the film was released in 2012 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking, pushing the film’s earnings to $2.18 billion.

Schindler’s List

Schindler’s List is a historical period drama film based on the novel Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally, which was in turn based on a true story. It was written by Steven Zaillian and directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg. Schindler’s List was released in the United States on December 15, 1993 and stars Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley.

Croatian film producer Branko Lustig, producer of — Richard Blanshard/GettyImages

The film, shot entirely in black and white (apart from some artistically significant use of the color red), tells the story of Oskar Schindler (played by Liam Neeson), a German businessman and member of the Nazi Party who saves more than 1,100 Polish-Jewish refugees from the Holocaust. The film is widely considered to be one of the greatest ever made and was a commercial success, grossing over $322 million worldwide against a $22 million budget. It won seven Academy Awards, seven BAFTAs, and three Golden Globes.

The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project was the film that popularized the found-footage technique that was used by popular horror films throughout the 2000s. It was written and directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez and was released in theaters on July 14, 1999.

This indie film, produced on a mere $60,000 budget, tells the fictional story of three student filmmakers — Michael C. Williams, Heather Donahue, and Joshua Leonard — who set out to document the legend of the “Blair Witch” in the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland. The students disappear and are never heard from again until footage of their journey is found a year later. The “recovered footage” is what viewers of the film see. The film became a global phenomenon and grossed over $250 million worldwide, making it one of the most successful independent films ever made.

The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs is a psychological thriller based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Harris. It was directed by Jonathan Demme, and stars Anthony Hopkins as the imprisoned psychiatrist-turned serial cannibalistic killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee who seeks his advice as the FBI pursues another serial killer known only as “Buffalo Bill.” The film was released in theaters in the United States on February 14, 1991.

A French-language poster advertises the American film, — nik wheeler/GettyImages

The Silence of the Lambs grossed $272.7 million worldwide against a $19 million budget, making it one of the highest-grossing films in 1991. It is regularly cited by critics as one of the greatest and most influential movies ever made, and it became the third film to win all of the top five Academy Awards categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress. A sequel, titled Hannibal, was released a decade later.

Best Directors of the 1990s

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino, born on March 27, 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee, is an American director whose career as an independent filmmaker began with Reservoir Dogs, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992. Throughout his career, Tarantino became known for films that had nonlinear storylines, an ensemble cast, pop culture references, and his use of music from the 1960s to the 1980s. Many of his films also featured graphic violence, which has been met with criticism in the past.

Some of Tarantino’s best works from the 1990s include films such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Four Rooms (1995), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), and Jackie Brown (1997). Throughout his career, he has received numerous nominations for major awards, including the Academy Awards, the BAFTA Film Awards, and the Golden Globes. He has also received four nominations for the Palme d’Or, the highest award given at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2011, he became the first-ever recipient of the Critics’ Choice Music+Film Award.

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg was born on December 18, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is known as one of the most influential personalities in Hollywood, with a number of highly influential and successful films to his name. He has won numerous awards (including two Academy Awards for Best Director), and has often been praised for his talent and versatility.

Although he was already a successful director throughout the 1970s and 1980s with films such as Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), his success continued well into the 1990s with films such as Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), Amistad (1997), and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Some of his creations are among the highest-grossing films of all time, and he is the highest-grossing film director in history.

Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese, who became known for his gritty, meticulous style of filmmaking and his harsh and violent depictions of American culture, was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York. He attended New York University where he earned his BA (majoring in English) in 1964, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in 1966.

Initially making short films in the 1960s, Scorsese transition to directing feature-length films from the 1970s, rising quickly to fame and powering on through the 2010s. Scorsese is drawn to films that explore themes such as Italian-American identity, modern crime, gangs, and the Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption. Some of his best works from the 1990s include Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995), Kundun (1997), and Bringing Out the Dead (1999). Scorsese has earned numerous awards and nominations throughout his career, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers in history. He received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997 and the American Film Institute placed three of his films on their list of the greatest American movies in 1998.