5 Ways 1997 Summer Movies Changed Hollywood

The year 1997 feels both oddly recent and unbelievably long ago. It notably has funny similarities with 2022 in that it was a significant year for Will Smith, Batman, and Nicolas Cage. Comic heroes fought in CGI landscapes, and there were a lot of explosions. In 1997, no one could have imagined comic-based movies like Batman & Robin leading the box office two and a half decades later.

That said, there are numerous actors now that were still toddlers back then and some superstars of 1997 that wouldn't even warrant a second look in this day and age. At the time, Marvel was just a comic company, and the internet made loud sounds as you connected to it.

Let's look at 1997's summer and see how much of an effect it has on today's Hollywood. 

1. It ushered in the Age of Nic Cage.

Nicolas Cage was known only as an actor before 1997 – A very good actor. He had won an Oscar just a year before for Leaving Las Vegas. After that, The Rock, by Michael Bay, did something thoroughly surprising. Nic Cage released a back-to-back punch of fascinating violent flicks. These two movies dominated 1997 Summer; Face Off and Con Air. They came to a mere two-week interval from each other and shifted Cage into a new level of violent movies.

Since then, his filmography has been a bit uneven. About half of it has been amazing, and the other half is underwhelming. That said, in 1997, no one did explosions on the big screen better than Nic Cage. 

2. It gave substance to new millennium paranoia.

Probably due to anxiety from the new millennium we were about to enter, many filmmakers took their ideas to the skies and beyond in 1997. Event Horizon, Men In Black, and Contact all brought different theories on what may lie in space. Contact offered a more logical approach, while Men In Black took a more crowd-pleasing, cheerful take on conspiracy theories. On the other hand, Event Horizon mixed body horror and psychological trauma. About a year later, we see even more of this existential dread with movies like Deep Impact and Armageddon. 

3. It took Will Smith to a whole new level.

Almost a year before, the world had been introduced to Will Smith: The movie star. It ultimately drew Will Smith out from the sitcom star he had been known as to a leading box-office-worthy actor. His second Fourth of July opening came in the form of Men In Black and eventually became a massive commercial and critical hit. Eventually, this would turn into something of a model for Will Smith, recreated both for MIB II and Wild Wild West. Neither were great movies, but they made a lot of money.

4. The Advent of the Superhero community.

Hollywood had no idea comic book movies would become an imposing force in the 21st century in 1997. Although MIB was sort of based on a comic book, it wasn't a popular one, and the similarities to the comic were minimal.

Batman & Robin was the last of the then Batman franchise. (Obviously, much more come in the 21st century with Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and most recently, Robert Pattinson taking up the mantle of the caped crusader). Two other comic-based movies were released but failed to make a good mark - Steel and Spawn. Steel lost out on most of the necessary origin story details, causing Shaquille O'Neal's helmet to be even goofier. On the other hand, Spawn was quite muddled up in deciding what it was supposed to be. It kept alternating between being a dark revenge flick and being a slapstick-a-thon.

Regardless, both Steel and Spawn set up Blade, which came out in 1998, a movie that laid the foundation of modern-day comic book movies. 

5. It still has echoes to date.

Two and a half decades later, it's funnily the most unlikely 1997 movies that are creating ripples in 2022. Two Anaconda stars (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Lopez) reunited to shoot a rom-com, Marry Me. It was a G.I Jane joke at the Oscars that led to global news. Also, even though it's almost always The Mummy (1999) that gets mentioned most times, the love and energy Brendan Fraser is getting is mainly due to his work in George Of The Jungle (1997), where he looks thoroughly stunning. The summer movie that cast quite a long cultural shadow didn't hit on a large scale until its video release—that movie being Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Even 25 years later, it's still being impersonated, poorly, one might add.