New York City 1978 Commercial Releases
(Reconstructed from New York Times archives; I didn't start keeping track week-to-week until 1998. List is probably not definitive—if it got neither an ad nor a review, I won't have caught it—but everything major should be here. This is the earliest year for which I currently have records. Films seen by yours truly are in blue.)
Week of 29 Dec
The Further Adventures of the Wilderness Family (Frank Zuniga)
Week of 22 Dec
Brass Target (John Hough)California Suite (Herbert Ross)
Every Which Way but Loose (James Fargo)
Force Ten From Navarone (Guy Hamilton)
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Bertrand Blier)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman)
King of the Gypsies (Frank Pierson)
The Last Wave (Peter Weir)
Moment by Moment (Jane Wagner)
Week of 15 Dec
The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)Dossier 51 (Michel Deville)
Just Crazy About Horses (Tim Lovejoy & Joe Wemple & Victor Kanefsky)
Oliver's Story (John Korty)
Rain and Shine (Ferenc András)
Superman (Richard Donner)
Uncle Joe Shannon (Joseph C. Hanwright)
Week of 8 Dec
The Brink's Job (William Friedkin)Rituals (Peter Carter)
Week of 1 Dec
The Voyage (Vittorio de Sica) [1974]
Week of 24 Nov
Movie Movie (Stanley Donen)Same Time, Next Year (Robert Mulligan)
Week of 17 Nov
The Lord of the Rings (Ralph Bakshi)Message From Space (Kinji Fukasaku)
Week of 10 Nov
Magic (Richard Attenborough)Once in Paris... (Frank D. Gilroy)
Paradise Alley (Sylvester Stallone)
Slow Dancing in the Big City (John G. Avildsen)
The Wild Geese (Andrew V. McLaglen)
Week of 3 Nov
Caravans (James Fargo)A Dream of Passion (Jules Dassin)
One Way Boogie Woogie (James Benning)
Piranha (Joe Dante)
Watership Down (Martin Rosen)
Week of 27 Oct
Bronson Lee, Champion (Yukio Noda) [1975]Comes a Horseman (Alan J. Pakula)
Halloween (John Carpenter)
Stunts (Mark L. Lester)
The Turbulent 30's: Films of Political Struggle (various)
The Wiz (Sidney Lumet)
Week of 20 Oct
The California Reich (Keith Critchlow & Walter F. Parkes) [1975]Think Dirty (Jim Clark) [1970]
Week of 13 Oct
Controlling Interest: The World of the Multinational Corporation (Larry Adelman)Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (Alan Gibson) [1973]
Goin' South (Jack Nicholson)
Showboat 1988 (Rick Schmidt)
Violette (Claude Chabrol)
Week of 6 Oct
Autumn Sonata (Ingmar Bergman)The Big Fix (Jeremy Paul Kagan)
The Boys From Brazil (Franklin J. Schaffner)
Four Shadows (Larry Gottheim)
Midnight Express (Alan Parker)
Perceval (Eric Rohmer)
Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (Ted Kotcheff)
Week of 29 Sep
The Black Pearl (Soul Swimmer)Bloodbrothers (Robert Mulligan)
Death on the Nile (John Guillermin)
Seniors (Rod Amateau)
Somebody Killed Her Husband (Lamont Johnson)
Week of 22 Sep
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (Thom Andersen) [1975]The Erotic Signal (Walter Gutman)
Go Tell the Spartans (Ted Post)
A Wedding (Robert Altman)
Week of 15 Sep
Almost Summer (Martin Davidson)Convention Girls (Joseph Adler)
Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)
Deal (John Schott & E.J. Vaughn)
Naked Rider (William Diehl, Jr.) [1973]
No Time for Breakfast (Jean-Louis Bertuccelli)
Up in Smoke (Lou Adler)
Week of 8 Sep
Avalanche (Corey Allen)Women (Márta Mészáros)
Week of 1 Sep
Always for Pleasure (Les Blank)Chulas Fronteras (Les Blank)
Week of 25 Aug
The Dragon Lives (Singloy Wang)Lin Tse-hsu (The Opium War) (Chen Chun-li) [1959]
Who'll Stop the Rain (Karel Reisz)
Week of 18 Aug
Néa (Nelly Kaplan)A Slave of Love (Nikita Mikhalkov)
Tintorera (René Cardona, Jr.)
Week of 11 Aug
Girlfriends (Claudia Weill)
Week of 4 Aug
Candleshoe (Norman Tokar)Corvette Summer (Matthew Robbins)
Eyes of Laura Mars (Irvin Kershner)
Hooper (Hal Needham)
Interiors (Woody Allen)
The Magic of Lassie (Don Chaffey)
Week of 28 Jul
Big Wednesday (John Milius)Coach (Bud Townsend)
The Driver (Walter Hill)
National Lampoon's Animal House (John Landis)
Week of 21 Jul
The Buddy Holly Story (Steve Rash)Foul Play (Colin Higgins)
International Velvet (Bryan Forbes)
Revenge of the Pink Panther (Blake Edwards)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Michael Schultz)
Week of 14 Jul
The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (John Berry)Bread and Chocolate (Franco Brusati) [1974]
C'est La Vie, Let's Face It (Samy Pavel) [1974]
Deathsport (Henry Suso & Allan Arkush)
Replay (Michel Drach)
Return From Witch Mountain (John Hough)
The Swarm (Irwin Allen)
Viva Italia! (Mario Monicelli/Dino Risi/Ettore Scola)
Week of 7 Jul
Faces of Love (Michel Soutter)The Mouse and His Child (Charles Swenson & Fred Wolf)
Week of 30 Jun
The Cat From Outer Space (Norman Tokar)Convoy (Sam Peckinpah)
Heaven Can Wait (Warren Beatty)
Week of 23 Jun
The Cheap Detective (Robert Moore)Matilda (Daniel Mann)
Week of 16 Jun
A Different Story (Paul Aaron)Grease (Randal Kleiser)
Jaws 2 (Jeannot Szwarc)
Week of 9 Jun
Bonjour Amour (Roger Andrieux)Damien—Omen II (Don Taylor)
The Punk Rock Movie From England (Don Letts)
Servant and Mistress (Bruno Gantillon)
A Woman at Her Window (Pierre Granier-Deferre)
Week of 2 Jun
Capricorn One (Peter Hyams)End of the World (John Hayes)
Laserblast (Michael Rae)
Week of 26 May
Here Come the Tigers (Sean S. Cunningham)If Ever I See You Again (Joe Brooks)
Pirosmani (Georgi Schengelaya) [1969]
Week of 19 May
The Chess Players (Satyajit Ray)Thank God It's Friday (Robert Klane)
Week of 12 May
Allegro non troppo (Bruno Bozzetto)The End (Burt Reynolds)
The Greek Tycoon (J. Lee Thompson)
It Lives Again (Larry Cohen)
Jennifer (Brice Mack)
Nunzio (Paul Williams)
Week of 5 May
Cat & Mouse (Claude Lelouch) [1975]The Last Supper (Tomás G. Alea)
Malibu Beach (Robert J. Rosenthal)
The Sea Gypsies (Stewart Raffill)
We Will All Meet in Paradise (Yves Robert)
Week of 28 Apr
Dear Detective (Philippe De Broca)F.I.S.T. (Norman Jewison)
FM (John A. Alonzo)
The Gentleman Tramp (Richard Patterson)
High Street (Andr´ Ernotte)
The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese)
The Manitou (William Girdler)
The Rubber Gun (Allan Moyle)
Week of 21 Apr
The Chosen (Alberto De Martino)First Love (Joan Darling)
I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Robert Zemeckis)
Silver Bears (Ivan Passer)
Week of 14 Apr
Joseph Andrews (Tony Richardson)The Medusa Touch (Jack Gold)
Week of 7 Apr
Pippi on the Run (Olle Hellbom) [1970]Pretty Baby (Louis Malle)
Rabbit Test (Joan Rivers)
Week of 31 Mar
The Amsterdam Kill (Robert Clouse)The First Time (Claude Berri)
September 30, 1955 (James Bridges)
Week of 24 Mar
Near and Far Away (Marianne Ahrne)The Other Side of the Mountain Part II (Larry Peerce)
Word Is Out (Nancy Adair & Andrew Brown & Rob Epstein)
Week of 17 Mar
American Hot Wax (Floyd Mutrux)The Big Sleep (Michael Winner)
Casey's Shadow (Martin Ritt)
The Fury (Brian De Palma)
House Calls (Howard Zieff)
Madame Rosa (Mosh´ Mizrahi)
Straight Time (Ulu Grosbard)
Week of 10 Mar
A Doll's House (Joseph Losey) [1973]Furtivos (José Luis Borau) [1975]
Gray Lady Down (David Greene)
A Little Night Music (Harold Prince)
Summer Paradise (Gunnel Lindblom)
Week of 3 Mar
Crossed Swords (Richard Fleischer)Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Bruno Barreto)
Fingers (James Toback)
Sebastiane (Paul Humfress & Derek Jarman)
An Unmarried Woman (Paul Mazursky)
Week of 24 Feb
Black at Yale: A Film Diary (Warrington Hudlin) [1974]Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette) [1974]
Riddles of the Sphinx (Laura Mulvey & Peter Wollen)
Week of 17 Feb
Beyond and Back (James L. Conway)Ceddo (Ousmane Sembene)
Coming Home (Hal Ashby)
Week of 10 Feb
The Betsy (Daniel Petrie)Blue Collar (Paul Schrader)
Film/Fictions (Michael Harvey/James Pasternak)
Landscape After Battle (Andrzej Wajda) [1970]
Week of 3 Feb
Blue Country (Jean-Charles Tacchella)The Boys in Company C (Sidney J. Furie)
Coma (Michael Crichton)
Coup de Grâce (Volker Schlondörff)
A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich (Ralph Nelson)
The One and Only (Carl Reiner)
Starship Invasions (Ed Hunt)
Week of 27 Jan
The End of the World in Our Usual Bed in a Night Full of Rain (Lina Wertmüller)Renaldo & Clara (Bob Dylan)
Ruckus Manhattan (Red Grooms & David Saunders & Peter Hutton & The Ruckus Construction Company)
The Serpent's Egg (Ingmar Bergman)
Week of 20 Jan
Life and Other Anxieties (Ed Pincus & Steven Ascher)Mado (Claude Sautet)
Operation Thunderbolt (Menahem Golan)
Week of 13 Jan
The Battle of Chile: Part 1 (Patricio Guzmán) [1975]The Battle of Chile: Part 2 (Patricio Guzmán)
The Best Way (Claude Miller)
Dersu Uzala...The Hunter (Akira Kurosawa) [1975]
The Duellists (Ridley Scott)
Sasquatch (Ed Ragozzino)
Week of 6 Jan
[no films released]