USA TODAY Continues 25th Anniversary Celebration With Weekly Top 25 Lists

USA TODAY Continues 25th Anniversary Celebration With Weekly Top 25 Lists

Today's List: Top 25 Movies That Changed Hollywood

MCLEAN, Va., July 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- USA TODAY turns 25 years young this September, and to continue the celebration, The Nation's Newspaper will look back at the Top 25 Movies That Changed Hollywood.

In 1982, Gandhi won the Oscar and E.T. phoned home. Since then, Hollywood continued to entertain while embracing change. USA TODAY's movie staff recounts the 25 top milestones; share your choices at Top25.USATODAY.com.

Every week for 25 weeks, USA TODAY will offer an exclusive color page of Top 25 anniversary memories -- 25 lists over 25 weeks designed to spark conversation and debates. The Top 25 conversation continues today with the Top 25 Movies That Changed Hollywood. Here are the top 10:

1. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)

New Line Cinema risked it all by entrusting low-profile New Zealander Peter Jackson with the audacious task of spinning Tolkien's dense literary fantasy into cinema gold. The result: 17 Oscars and a box-office gross of $3 billion worldwide.

2. Toy Story (1995)

Pixar pioneers Buzz and Woody took the feature-animation genre that Disney created with 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and blasted it into the digital future with a cutting-edge combo of heartfelt wit and computerized wonder.

3. Pulp Fiction (1994)

B-movie fanatic Quentin Tarantino crammed guns, drugs, molls and a killer John Travolta into a post-mod Molotov cocktail of a plot while slicing the action into shuffled fragments.

4. Do the Right Thing (1989)

Spike Lee earned the title of America's most influential black filmmaker when he did the controversial thing, focusing on urban violence born of simmering racial tensions.

5. Titanic (1997)

It loomed as a titanic disaster, with delays and a budget that bloated to $200 million. Luckily, audiences were enraptured by the steamy romance between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, whose presence led to repeat viewings by teens. It remains king of domestic box-office grosses at $600.8 million.

6. Fatal Attraction (1987)

A cautionary tale of a woman scorned turned psycho hit home by mixing frank sexuality and nightmarish horror, as Michael Douglas' fling with Glenn Close endangers his family. The rare popcorn thriller deemed Oscar worthy.

7. There's Something About Mary (1998)

The PC police surrendered when those comic barons of bubbling crude, the Farrelly brothers, launched their assault on good taste.

8. Philadelphia (1993)

Before that rendezvous on Brokeback Mountain, straight stars Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas were gay lovers in this groundbreaker about an AIDS-afflicted lawyer who sues over job discrimination.

9. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Parents protested the intense violence found in Steven Spielberg's PG- rated follow-up to 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark. In response, the Motion Picture Association of America established the PG-13 rating.

10. Batman (1989)

Superman came first in 1978. But director Tim Burton's neo-gothic caped crusader was a distinctly adult version of a comic-book thriller. Batman's brooding cool made it safe for a Joker like Jack Nicholson to cavort in a costume caper, and the film's dark vision has influenced nearly every cinematic superhero since.

Find the full list in today's editions of USA TODAY and on Top25.USATODAY.com. A new Top 25 list will run every week through September 10th.

USA TODAY, the nation's top-selling newspaper, will be celebrating its 25th anniversary on September 15th, 2007. It is published via satellite at 36 locations in the USA and at four sites abroad. With a total average daily circulation of 2.3 million, USA TODAY is available worldwide. USA TODAY is published by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI). The USA TODAY brand also includes: USATODAY.com, an award-winning news and information Web site that is updated 24 hours per day; USA TODAY Sports Weekly, a magazine for enthusiasts of professional football and baseball; and USA TODAY LIVE, the television arm of the USA TODAY brand that brings the spirit and quality of the newspaper to television.

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