There are a lot of amazing new movies coming in 2018, but there’s also a long list of classic, iconic films that will be celebrating significant anniversaries this year. Here are the biggest science fiction, fantasy, and genre movie milestones happening in 2018. (You should probably be prepared to feel old.)
50-Year Anniversaries (Films Released in 1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Arguably the greatest science fiction film of all time, directed by Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. It’s as gorgeous and provocative today as it was 50 years ago. (April 3)
Planet of the Apes
The actors in ape make-up may look dated now, but the first Planets of the Apes is so good and so powerful that even a bunch of terrible sequels (and one truly horrific reboot attempt) haven’t kept Hollywood from adding to the franchise—in fact, we had a new Apes film in theaters last year. Plus, it has one of the all-time best endings ever. (April 3)
Rosemary’s Baby
Roman Polanski is a terrible human but he did direct this horror masterpiece about a young mother who unknowingly gives birth to the son of Satan. It continues to inspire legions upon legions of imitators. (June 12)
Yellow Submarine
At the height of their powers, the Beatles could do anything—including releasing this animated musical comedy into theaters. The film is as trippy as is humanly possible, but the music alone makes it a classic. (July 17)
Night of the Living Dead
In 1968, George A. Romero not only invented the modern zombie genre, but revolutionized horror with this incredible film that merges social commentary and scares. (Oct 1)
Barbarella
Nearly half a century before Hollywood got around to making a Wonder Woman movie, they adapted this French comic with Jane Fonda as a woman from the future. It’s more an exploitation flick than anything else, but it’s still a significant work. (Oct 10)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Roald Dahl co-wrote this beloved Disney musical about a flying car, with Oscar-nominated music by the legendary Sherman brothers and a winning performance by Dick Van Dyke. (Dec 18)
Herbie the Love Bug
Everyone’s favorite sentient Volkswagen Beetle, Herbie, is 50 years old this year thanks to this family-friendly film that spawned several popular sequels. (Dec 24)
30-Year Anniversaries (Films Released in 1988)
Beetlejuice
Tim Burton’s weird, wonderful horror comedy features one of the most unique performances ever, namely Michael Keaton as the ghost with the most. It’s arguably Burton’s most defining film, and certainly one of his best. (March 30)
Willow
One of the (few) films George Lucas worked on between Star Wars trilogies, this epic fantasy adventure is still loads of fun, thanks to direction by Ron Howard, music by James Horner, and great lead performances by Warwick Davis and Val Kilmer. (May 20)
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
This cult classic delivers on its title in a big way. It’s literally about killer clowns from outer space who reign terror on a small town. It’s absurd, but that’s what makes it a cult classic. (May 27)
Big
A young boy wishes that he was “big,” and when the wish is granted, he gets a job as a toy executive and falls in love. Big became one of Tom Hanks’ signature roles in this, the ultimate ride through wish fulfillment. (June 3)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Director Robert Zemeckis blended animation and live action in ways we’d never seen before in this hilarious, film noir-inspired film, as a hardboiled detective tries to figure out how to prove the innocence of a very silly cartoon rabbit. (June 22)
The Blob
Thirty years after its original incarnation, Hollywood delivered a remake of this ooey-gooey horror film with much better effects. A mound of slime devours a town, and while the movie isn’t great, it has a strong cult following. (Aug 5)
Moonwalker
Michael Jackson’s music video anthology also kind of doubles as a science fiction film and was a massive deal when it came out. It’s not as beloved now, but the music and visuals are still engaging today. (Oct 29)
They Live
John Carpenter’s iconic, kick-ass, not-at-all-subtle social commentary film is one of his most beloved movies. Starring wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper, it’s filled with quotable lines, and contains what is arguably the great fist fight in all of cinema. (Nov 4)
Child’s Play
After a huge decade for Freddy and Jason, everyone was trying to invent the next horror icon. Child’s Play succeeded with Chucky, a “Good Guy” doll possessed by the spirit of a serial killer. (Nov. 9)
Scrooged
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has been told and retold a million times, but few are as funny as Scrooged, which stars Bill Murray as an asshole executive who learns to love others and Christmas. (Nov 23)
Twins
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito are indeed bros in this weird comedy about fraternal twins created in a lab. The ultimate odd couple made the movie an enormous success, and it’s still beloved today, even if it hasn’t aged particularly well. (Dec 9)
Others: Bloodsport (Feb 26), Big Top Pee-Wee (July 22), Monkey Shines (July 29), Mac and Me (Aug 12), A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (Aug 19), Earth Girls Are Easy (Sept 8), Elvira (Sept 30), Alien Nation (Oct 7), Night of the Demons (Oct 14), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (Oct 21), The Land Before Time (Nov 18), Oliver & Company (Nov 18), Cocoon the Return (Nov 23)
25-Year Anniversaries (Films Released in 1993)
Leprechaun
Starring a young Jennifer Aniston, this film took the Irish legend and gave it a horror twist, as a leprechaun starts killing people when he believes his pot of gold has been stolen. A hit at the time, it spawned five increasingly silly sequels including the unforgettable Leprechaun in the Hood. (Jan 8)
Groundhog Day
A stuck-up newscaster (Bill Murray) relives the same day over and over again in what has become not just one of the iconic comedies of the ‘90s, but arguably of all time. It still holds up beautifully. (Feb 12)
Army of Darkness
The third film in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series sees Ash (Bruce Campbell) sent to medieval times where he has to save the day with his shotgun, chainsaw, and barrage of one-liners... after he doofishly unleashed an army of undead upon the land. One of the most beloved cult classics of all time. (Feb 26)
Fire in the Sky
Growing up, this “true story” of a man’s alien abduction freaked me out. And while I haven’t seen it probably since its release, it’s still the go-to whenever people talk about alien abduction films. (March 12)
My Neighbor Totoro
Filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki captured the imaginations of a generation with this film about a young girl who finds a magical friend in the forest. It wasn’t his, or Studio Ghibli’s, first film, but it still may be their best. (May 7)
Super Mario Bros.
This movie sucks, but it’s significant because it’s so terrible it wrecked the nascent movies-based-on-video games genre for decades. Its curse haunts almost all movie adaptations of games to this day. (May 28)
Jurassic Park
What needs to be said here? It’s the legendary Steven Spielberg adapation of Michael Crichton’s novel and it’s one of the biggest, most beloved movies ever. (June 11)
Last Action Hero
A young boy is sucked into his favorite movie series in this famous bomb that doesn’t get the credit it deserves for its meta ambition. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the generic action movie lead, poking fun at himself and the genre he ruled, while Die Hard’s John McTiernan delivers the action fans would expect. It’s still underrated. (June 18)
Hocus Pocus
Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker play three witches resurrected in modern times who go on a magic-filled adventure. It holds a major place in the hearts of many, many fans who grew up with it. (July 16)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
By 1993, Mel Brooks was past his prime as a filmmaker, but damned if his parody of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves isn’t still hilarious. Most of the jokes are horribly dated but it’s a movie I’ll never turn off if it’s on. (July 30)
Surf Ninjas
Surf Ninjas is about two teenage surfers who are actually princes and become ninjas to save their kingdom. Yep. (Aug 20)
Demolition Man
Sylvester Stallone plays an LA cop who is frozen in the ‘90s because he caused too much collateral damage in his pursuit of a psychotic criminal, played with glee by Wesley Snipes. They’re resurrected decades later into a dystopian future that masquerades as a utopia, and the chase begins again. The resulting movie is part action movie, part comedy, part fish-out-of-of water story, and all crazy science fiction. (Oct 8)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Tim Burton-produced (not directed) stop-motion animation holiday hybrid is one of those rare films that has probably gotten more beloved since its original release. A hit then, now it’s considered a classic for both Halloween and Christmas. (Oct 29)
Addams Family Values
A sequel to the 1991 remake of the ‘60s TV show, Addams Family Values isn’t as good as the original film, but it’s pretty close. However, today it’s probably most memorable for the way the Addams’ kids trip to summer camp has become so meme worthy. (Nov 19)
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan both made great Batman movies, but many feel that this animated film, released on the heels of the amazing animated series, is the best one. And they may be right. (Dec 25)
Others: Matinee (Jan 29), Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (May 7), Rookie of the Year (July 9), Free Willy (July 16), Coneheads (July 23), Meteor Man (Aug 6), Jason Goes to Hell (Aug 13), Secret Garden (Aug 13), What Dreams May Come (Oct 2), Bride of Chucky (Oct 16), Practical Magic (Oct 16), Soldier (Oct 23), John Carpenter’s Vampires (Oct 30), RoboCop 3 (Nov 5), Three Musketeers (Nov 12), We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story (Nov 24), Wayne’s World 2 (Dec. 10)
20-Year Anniversaries (Films Released in 1998)
Dark City
A unique blend of film noir, horror, and science fiction, Alex Proyas’ underrated film about a man accused of murder in a mysterious city where the sun never seems to shine is beloved by those who’ve seen it, which isn’t as many people as it should be. (Feb 27)
Mulan
A young girl poses as a man in order fight for her people. This empowering, inspirational Disney animated film doesn’t get the credit it deserves, but remains one of the studio’s better films of the time period. (June 19)
The X-Files
The first big-screen foray by the popular TV show didn’t wow fans as much as the series, but is still a crucial sliver of the mythology. (June 19)
Armageddon
Michael Bay’s bombastic action film about oil drillers sent into space to stop an asteroid is as dumb and enjoyable today as it was 20 years ago. The cast is great, it’s all super cheesy, but somehow it just works. (July 1)
Pi
Most notable as the the directorial debut of Darren Aronofsky, Pi is an almost avant-garde story of a mathematician gone mad as explores the number representing the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter and the world. (July 10)
Blade
Wesley Snipes stars as a half-vampire who spends his time hunting down his own kind. It’s a stylized, sleek comic book adaptation that spawned a few sequels, and still has fans clamoring for more. (Aug 21)
Pleasantville
Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon play modern kids who get sucked into a black and white TV show from the ‘50s, and change how those people look at the world. It’s a smart, gorgeous film. (Oct 23)
The trailer for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Okay, it’s not a full movie. But the Brad Pitt film Meet Joe Black was released 20 years ago and, with it was fans’ first look at the first new Star Wars film since the original trilogy. So many people bought tickets to the movie just to see the trailer that some theaters even played the trailer before and after the film. (Nov 13)
Others: Species II (April 10), Nightwatch (April 17), Deep Impact (May 8), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (May 20), Godzilla (May 20), Dr. Dolittle (June 26), Small Soldiers (July 10), The Mask of Zorro (July 17), Disturbing Behavior (July 24), Ever After (July 31), Halloween H20 (Aug. 5), The Avengers (Aug 14), Urban Legend (Sept 24), A Bug’s Life (Nov 25), Babe: Pig in the City (Nov 25), Psycho (Dec 4), Jack Frost (Dec 11), Star Trek Insurrection (Dec 11), A Simple Plan (Dec 11), Prince of Egypt (Dec 18), Mighty Joe Young (Dec 25), The Faculty (Dec 25)
15-Year Anniversaries (Films Released in 2003)
Daredevil
Before Ben Affleck was Batman, he was the Man Without Fear, in this bomb of a Marvel movie adaptation. And yet, the fact we got a live-action movie with not just Daredevil, but also Bullseye, Elektra, and Kingpin still feels surreal. (Feb. 14)
X2
Arguably one of the best superhero movies ever, X2 did wonders to up the ante after the first X-Men film, which Fox saw as a bit of a gamble. By this time though, the studio knew it had a massive hit on their hands and really made the big, loud, awesome movie the X-Men and their fans deserved. (May 2)
The Matrix Reloaded
If you were blown away by The Matrix in 1999, you probably remember the exact moment this sequel either expanded your consciousness.... or massively let you down. Reloaded took some bold thematic risks along with a massive increase of action and the result remains divisive. (May 15)
Finding Nemo
Pixar truly hit its stride with Finding Nemo, which is about as perfectly constructed as an animated film as you can imagine. It hits all the right notes at just the right time and, rightfully, went on to be an insane success. (May 30)
28 Days Later
While George A. Romero may have invented zombies 50 years ago, Danny Boyle evolved them 35 years later in this gritty, violent, kinetic take on the genre. (June 27)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Pirates franchise has had so many peaks and valleys, it’s easy to forget just delightful the first film is. Johnny Depp got an Oscar nomination for his performance as Captain Jack Sparrow, and no matter how much awfulness came afterwards, this first movie is an undeniably classic. (July 9)
Freddy vs. Jason
It was the movie fans had been demanding for decades. Freddy Krueger fought Jason Voorhees. And while the results were ultimately just okay, the crossover was a significant moment in horror and franchise filmmaking in general. (Aug 15)
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Quentin Tarantino’s samurai epic was such an ambitious feat of storytelling, it had to be broken into two parts. This first one is louder, filled with visuals, performances, and music that have since become instantly recognizable and iconic. It’s fun, it’s intense, and it’s Tarantino at his best. (Oct 10)
Elf
Elf is probably the most recent “holiday classic” we have in pop culture. Will Ferrell’s take on an human elf who returns home to New York is pure joy, and the kind of film families watch every single year at the holidays, for good reason. (Nov 7)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Winner of all 11 Oscars it was nominated for, Peter Jackson’s conclusion to the Lord of the Rings trilogy is probably one of the best movies ever made. Sure it has a bunch of endings, but when viewed as the end of a single nine-hour movie, they all make sense. Return of the King is cinema at its most magical. (Dec 17)
Others: Dreamcatcher (March 21), Holes (April 18), Identity (April 25), Hulk (June 20), Terminator: Rise of the Machines (July 2), American Splendor (Aug. 15), Cabin Fever (Sept 12), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (Sept 12), Underworld (Sept 19), The Rundown (Sept 26), Brother Bear (Nov 1), The Matrix Revolutions (Nov 5)
10-Year Anniversaries (Films Released in 2008)
Cloverfield
Ten year later and we still haven’t seen anything like Cloverfield. It was a science fiction movie that was released under an enormous shroud of mystery that had everyone interested. And at its core, the idea of a found-footage take on a giant monster movie is just undeniably cool. (Jan 18)
Iron Man
If this was just a cool Iron Man origin story, it would still merit plenty of accolades. But now it’s also the first seed of what has become one of the biggest, most influential franchises in film history. Hard to believe all that has happened in just 10 years, and it began here. (May 2)
Speed Racer
No, you haven’t been dreaming for the last decade. The Wachowskis did make a big-budget, delightfully colorful adaptation of Speed Racer. It’s not loved by many, but damned if it’s not incredibly rewatchable, with some of the best race sequences in recent memory. (May 9)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Unfortunately, no, you didn’t dream this either. Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford did make a fourth Indiana Jones movie and yes, it was as bad and forgettable as the others are awesome and memorable. (May 22)
Wall-E
Our pick for the best Pixar film of all-time, Pixar’s tale of two robots falling in love in the future remains an ambitious, exciting adventure. (June 27)
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight changed everything. Director Christopher Nolan showed the world that superhero movies could be serious cinema, and almost everyone has been chasing his standard since. While that isn’t always necessarily a good thing, this movie remains one of the best superhero films ever. (July 18)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The Star Wars theatrical release most people forget, it was part of the much better Clone Wars TV series. And though it’s not a very good movie on its own—there is a baby Hutt named Stinky—it’s a Star Wars movie, so it’s worth mentioning. (Aug 15)
Twilight
While not universally appealing, the movie adaptation of the teenage vampire romance novel was a huge hit, followed not just by four sequels, but undeniably cultural influence. (Nov 21)
Others: Be Kind Rewind (Feb. 22). Kung Fu Panda (June 6), The Happening (June 13), The Incredible Hulk (June 13), Wanted (June 27), Hancock (July 2), Hellboy 2: The Golden Circle (July 11), Journey to the Center of the Earth (July 11), The X-Files: I Want to Believe (July 25), Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Oct 3), City of Ember (Oct 10), Quarantine (Oct 10), Bolt (Nov 21), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Dec 25)