1988 in film

The top 10 films released in 1988 by worldwide gross are as follows:[1]

• May 25 – Rambo III was released as the most expensive film ever made with a production budget between $58 and $63 million. The film failed to match the box office earnings from Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).
• July 15 – Die Hard defies low commercial expectations to gross $141.5 million worldwide. Hailed as an influential landmark in the action film genre, it influenced a common formula for many action films in the 1990s, featuring a lone everyman against a colorful terrorist character who's usually holding hostages in an isolated setting.
• October 10 – Batman officially commences filming at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.
• October 27 – E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is released on VHS and laserdisc; to combat piracy, the tapeguards and tape hubs on the videocassettes are colored green, and the tape itself is affixed with a small, holographic sticker of the 1963 Universal logo (much like the holograms on a credit card), and encoded with Macrovision. In North America alone, VHS sales come to $75 million.[5]
• December 16 – Rain Man is released to critical and commercial success and became the highest grossing film of 1988 worldwide with a gross of $355 million. Winning four Academy Awards including Best Picture, it was the last MGM title to be nominated for Best Picture until Licorice Pizza (2021) 33 years later.

Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival)

Pelle the Conqueror (Pelle erobreren), directed by Bille August, Denmark

Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival)

La leggenda del santo bevitore (The Legend of the Holy Drinker), directed by Ermanno Olmi, Italy / France

Golden Bear (Berlin International Film Festival)

Red Sorghum (Hong gao liang), directed by Zhang Yimou, China