On This Day: July 1, 1984 — The PG-13 Rating Is Born
On July 1, 1984, the MPAA created the PG-13 rating after Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom pushed the old PG too far.
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On This Day: June 12, 1981 — Raiders of the Lost Ark Premieres
On June 12, 1981, Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark hit 1,078 theaters, made Harrison Ford a franchise lead, and launched the action-adventure template every blockbuster since has copied.
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On This Day: June 11, 1982 — E.T. Lands in Theaters
On June 11, 1982, a wrinkly little alien with a glowing fingertip and a heart-light walked into 1,103 American theaters and walked back out with $11,835,389 in three days — and Hollywood was never the same. The E.T. 1982 release wasn’t supposed to be a phenomenon. Steven Spielberg’s small, personal film about a lonely boy…
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On This Day: June 7, 1990 — Universal Studios Florida Opens
June 7, 1990: Spielberg cut the ribbon, $631 million went online, and three of the headline rides immediately broke. Inside Universal Studios Florida’s legendary disaster of a grand opening.
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E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: 7 Reasons Spielberg’s 1982 Masterpiece Still Rules
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is the 1982 Steven Spielberg masterpiece that redefined what a summer blockbuster could be — equal parts adventure, heartbreak, and pure childhood wonder. It made $359 million domestically in its original run and held the record as the highest-grossing film of all time for eleven years. If you grew up in the…
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Speak & Spell: The 1978 Toy That Started the Digital Age
In June of 1978, on a folding table at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, a small yellow slab of plastic with a red faceplate said the word “cylinder” out loud, and a generation of toy buyers leaned in. It was the first Speak & Spell, the first consumer product anywhere to talk without a…
