42 Years Ago Today, The Single Most Iconic ’80s Movie Day Occurred (And It Spawned Two Franchises)

Competing movies opening on the same release dates are simply the way of the world in Hollywood. This past weekend saw the newest Scary Movie film open alongside the long-in-development Masters of the Universe reboot. It’s often a case of counterprogramming; it’s why some films choose to open up against the likes of blockbuster franchises like Star Wars, believing that offering something totally different will see a win at the box office (like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle opening against The Last Jedi). Sometimes it gives you a Barbenheimer, where two movies in different spheres create a cultural moment, so it’s a strategy that really works.

There are also times, though, where two movies land on the same release date despite appealing to the same target audience. This year will see one of those in action, when Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Chapter Three are both released on December 18, though it is already causing chaos for fans deciding what to watch first; it’s far from the most iconic movie release day in history, which is celebrating its anniversary. Over forty years ago today, on June 8, 1984, one of the single biggest movie release dates in history occurred, but also one that fully defined the decade, when both Gremlins and Ghostbusters were released on the same day.

Gremlins and Ghostbusters Somehow Shared a Release Date

If you went down to your local movie theater on June 6, 1984, you would have a big decision to make. Not only would you still have the chance to see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock on the big screen, but two new releases would be right there for you too in both Ghostbusters and Gremlins. How did this happen? How did Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. both release horror comedies that were rated PG and tested the limits of what a movie could get away with at that rating? What did audiences decide to see?

One way this happened, though, is that both studios were incredibly excited about both of these movies ahead of their release. For Columbia, they not only had a new comedy from the Caddyshack team of Ivan Reitman and Bill Murray, but Ghostbusters was testing well with audiences even before the visual effects were completed. Warner Bros., on the other hand, was getting a slice of Spielberg at his most prominent, releasing a new movie that he produced in Gremlins, which would debut just weeks after the highly-anticipated second Indiana Jones movie.

This specific question, “how did this happen,” may be confounding to modern film fans, but in the context of the era it wasn’t exactly a showdown between the two movies that it would be made into now. At the time, though opening weekend was always a big deal, it’s of course worth noting that Hollywood’s movies would play for months on end (some even more than a year), with word of mouth and repeat viewings pushing them to major success. As a result, the opening number wasn’t the be-all, end-all moment for a film’s success, as a popular movie would play for ages and generate ticket sales and box office for a much longer window than they currently do.

Now, the goalposts have shifted, with modern box office formulas accounting for a movie’s success exclusively based around the opening weekend, largely being able to tabulate what a film’s full run will be based on those first three days alone. Case in point for the ’80s, though, on the opening weekend that started on June 6, 1984, even though Ghostbusters won the weekend, it did so with a $13.6 million haul.

Sitting just above Gremlins with $12.5 million (proving the answer to “what did audiences decide to see” was “both”) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with $12 million (in its third weekend), a box office total of this size would send studios and pundits into a spiral now, but, at the time? It was the foundation. Ghostbusters would go on to be the #1 movie at the weekend box office for seven weeks in a row, falling to #2 in week 8 against Purple Rain, but reclaiming the top spot the next week.

One Weekend in 1984 Birthed Major Franchises Still Around in 2026

There’s another question about the weekend of June 8, 1984 that also needs to be asked, though: Has there been a more consequential weekend in the entirety of Hollywood? July 21, 2023, the date that Barbie and Oppenheimer were released, is certainly in the conversation, along with July 18, 2008, the day that both The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia! were released. Perhaps the only other date that lands in this very rare category is June 25, 1982, when both Blade Runner and John Carpenter’s The Thing were released.

One reason that June 8, 1984 may very well be the single biggest date in modern Hollywood is the importance that both of these movies would have as franchise tentpoles. Since both Gremlins and Ghostbusters were released in the years after Star Wars and E.T., the popularity of both films very quickly led to major merchandising plans that were put together with toys, playsets, stuffed animals, and clothes becoming staples for young fans of the era.

Naturally, the success of the films at the box office as well as the robust merchandising meant that follow-up films also had to be made. Both would get a sequel, with Ghostbusters 2 in 1989 and Gremlins 2: The New Batch in 1990. Even further than that, though, is that both franchises continue to be staples for Sony and Universal to this day.

Three more Ghostbusters movies have been released over the past ten years, and the studio just announced plans for a new animated series headed to Netflix next year. Meanwhile, Gremlins finally returned with an HBO Max animated series in 2023, in addition to appearances in various video games and even The Lego Batman Movie. It’s an impressive run by both franchises, but the wildest thing about their longevity as both creative outlets and fan favorites is that they both arrived in the world on the exact same day.

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