10 Things You Didn't Know About Poltergeist
7. It Surprised The Box Office And The Oscars
Poltergeist was a smash hit at the box office and ended up being the highest grossing horror movie of 1982, beating out John Carpenter’s The Thing. Its success at the theatres was partly to do with the film being strategically reissued in October that year, to take advantage of the Halloween season. Overall, it was the eighth highest grossing movie that year.
This was fantastic news for directors Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg - the latter had two movies in the top ten of the annual movies chart (the other being E.T. the Extra Terrestrial), whilst Hooper had achieved the highest grossing film of his entire career.
Poltergeist was also nominated for three Oscars at the Academy awards – Best Original Score, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing Effects. Admittedly, the film didn’t go on to win any of its nominations. But considering how rarely the Academy puts a horror movie up for an award, it is impressive how Poltergeist achieved three chances to win one.
The classic supernatural flick returned to theaters for one night only in October of 2007, to promote the new restored and remastered 25th anniversary DVD, released five days later. The event included a bonus documentary about poltergeist phenomena.