The following is an overview of events in 1988 in film, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths.
May 25 – Rambo III is released as the most expensive film ever made with a production budget between $58 and $63 million. The film fails 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 influences a common formula for many action films in the 1990s, featuring a lone everyman against a colorful terrorist character who is usually holding hostages in an isolated setting.
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 $75million.[6]
December 16 – Rain Man is released to critical and commercial success and becomes the highest grossing film of 1988 worldwide with a gross of $355 million. Winning four Academy Awards including Best Picture, it is the last MGM title to be nominated for Best Picture until Licorice Pizza (2021) 33 years later.
^"A Fish Called Wanda (1988)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 7, 2020. A Fish Called Wanda domestic gross $62,493,712
^Groves, Don (August 9, 1989). "UIP Up, Up and Away For Year; Rentals Take Off". Variety. p. 11. UIP Top 10 Grossers, 1988–89 Rain Man $233 million Crocodile Dundee 2 $126 million Coming to America $122 million A Fish Called Wanda $115 million Willow $80 million Twins $75 million The Naked Gun $61 million
^"UIP's $25M-Plus Club". Variety. September 11, 1995. p. 92. A Fish Called Wanda $126,103,000; The Naked Gun $73,689,000
