Cinema 1960: You Must Remember This–Movies, Stars, Events

Cineliteracy: What You Need to Know about 1960 as a Movie Year

Top-Grossing Films (U.S.)

Rank Title Studio Box-office gross rental

1 Spartacus Universal Pictures/Bryna Productions $14,000,000

2 Psycho Paramount Pictures, $9,100,000

3 Exodus United Artists $8,500,000

4 Swiss Family Robinson Walt Disney/Buena Vista Distribution $8,100,000

5 The Alamo United Artists/Batjac Productions $7,900,000

6 The World of Suzie Wong Paramount Pictures $7,500,000

7 BUtterfield 8 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer $6,800,000

8 The Apartment United Artists/The Mirisch Company $6,700,000

9 Ocean’s 11 Warner Bros. $5,500,000

10 From the Terrace 20th Century Fox $5,200,000

After Psycho was released, Paramount transferred the film rights to Hitchcock, who sold the distribution rights to Universal Pictures in 1962.

Commercial Hits: Box-Office (the Bottom Line)

In 1960, the ten most commercially-popular movies, measured by box–office receipts were:

Swiss Family Robinson

$20.2 million (in domestic rentals)

Disney’s family adventure movie with John Mills and Dorothy McGuire as Father and Mother.

Spartacus

$14.6 million

Stanley Kubrick’s historical epic, starring Kirk Douglas

Psycho

$11.2 million

Hitchcock’s classic horror, noted for its innovations but lacking major stars (Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins play the leads)

Exodus

$8.3 million

Otto Preminger’s historical chronicle of the establishment of the State of Israel, starring Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint

The Alamo

$7.9

John Wayne’s tribute to the famous battle

Butterfield 8

$7.6 million

Elizabeth Taylor’s trashy melodrama about an upper-class hooker

The World of Suzie Wong

$7.5 million

Interracial romance, starring William Holden

The Apartment (Best Picture Oscar)

Directed by Billy Wilder

$6.7 million

Billy Wilder’s serio-comedy, starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, which won the Best Picture Oscar

Ocean’s 11

$5.7 Million

The Rat Pack’s feature, directed by Lewis Milestone

Please Don’t Eat the Daisies

Directed by Charles Walters.

$5.3 million

Doris Day’s fluffy comedy is directed by Charles Waters and based on Jean Kerr’s story about a drama critic (played by David Niven) and his family. Day, then at the height of her stardom after “Pillow Talk” (1959), sings the title tune, which was very popular outside the film’s context.

Trends and Observations

Star-Driven

With the exception of “Swiss Family Robinson” and “Psycho,” all the other popular movies, regardless of their genre, were star-driven, toplined by John Wayne, Paul Newman, Doris Day, Jack Lemmon, Doris Day, Liz Taylor.

Genre

There is no dominant genre. The popular films include historical epics (“Spartacus,” “Exodus”), family fare (“Swiss Family Robinson”), romantic comedies (Please Don’t Eat the Daisies”) serio comedies (“The Apartment”), romantic melodramas (“The World of Suzie Wong”) and trashy, star-driven soap operas (“Butterfield 8”)

Oscar and the Public

Two of the ten commercial films were also nominated for the Best Picture: John Wayne’s “The Alamo” and Billy Wilder’s “The Apartment,” which won.

The other three nominees were moderate box-office successes (“Elmer Gantry”) or commercial flops (Jack Cardiff’s “Sons and Lovers,” Fred Zinnemann’s “The Sundowners”

Events

March 5 –

Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood to film G.I. Blues

June 16 –

Premiere of Hitchcock’s landmark film, Psycho in the US. Controversial, it sets new standards in violence and sexuality on screen, and became a critical influence on the emerging slasher genre.

August 10 –

Filming of West Side Story begins.

October 6 & December 16 –

Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten, receives screenwriting credit for his work on Spartacus and Exodus, released in the US on these dates.

October 27 –

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning released, first of the British social-realist wave.

November 4 –

Filming wraps on The Misfits, starring Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, the last film for both (though Monroe will be working on another at the time of her death).

Academy Awards, April 17, 1961

Best Film: The Apartment (Comedy)
Best Director: Billy Wilder, The Apartment
Best Actor Burt Lancaster, Elmer Gantry

Best Actress: Elizabeth Taylor, BUtterfield 8
Best Supporting: Peter Ustinov, Spartacus
Best Supporting Actress: Shirley Jones, Elmer Gantry
Best Foreign Language Film: The Virgin Spring