20 Most Important Blockbusters That Changed Cinema Forever

19. Superman: The Movie

There'd been other cases of superheroes making the transition from comic book to the big screen before, but they were always cheap affairs that did little more than try to cash-in on a well known name (as well as the Adam West Batman there was also a TV Spider-Man movie released theatrically outside of America and an outing for the Man of Steel that served as a pilot for a TV series). Superman: The Movie changed all that.

Investing a lot of time into the motivations of Clark Kent/Kal-El rather than just throwing Superman into action, the movie was for the time the most expensive ever made (expect that phrase to pop up a few more times on this list) and it shows on screen. The effects are expansive and tangible and while you might not quite believe a man could fly as the marketing claimed, you could believe we'd soon see increasingly fantastical ideas realised on screen.

The film didn't lead to an immediate bunch of imitators, but it set a precedent; the hard job of proving superhero movies could be done right was over.