New York City 1979 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. Films seen by yours truly are in blue.)
Week of 28 Dec
Going in Style (Martin Brest)Scavenger Hunt (Michael Schultz)
Week of 21 Dec
All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)Augustine of Hippo (Roberto Rossellini) [1972]
Baby Snakes (Frank Zappa)
Being There (Hal Ashby)
The Black Hole (Gary Nelson)
Cuba (Richard Lester)
The Electric Horseman (Sydney Pollack)
Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton)
Roller Boogie (Mark L. Lester)
The Search for Solutions (Michael Jackson)
Skatetown USA (William A. Levey)
Stay as You Are (Alberto Lattuada)
Week of 14 Dec
Chapter Two (Robert Moore)The Jerk (Carl Reiner)
My Name Is Rocco Papaleo (Ettore Scola) [1971]
1941 (Steven Spielberg)
Todo modo (Elia Petri) [1976]
Week of 7 Dec
Aces High (Jack Gold) [1976]Killer Fish (Anthony M. Dawson)
Koko: A Talking Gorilla (Barbet Schroeder)
Le Cinéma de papa (Claude Berri) [1971]
The Shape of Things to Come (George McCowan)
Star Trek—The Motion Picture (Robert Wise)
Up From the Depths (Charles B. Griffith)
Week of 30 Nov
Ballet Gayané (Horace King)Black Magic (Ho Meng-hua) [1975]
The Corruption of Chris Miller (Juan Antonio Bardem) [1973]
Dirty Money (Jean-Pierre Melville) [1972]
How Funny Can Sex Be? (Dino Risi) [1973]
The Orphan (John Ballard)
Robert et Robert (Claude Lelouch)
Week of 23 Nov
Arabian Adventure (Kevin Connor)Between Miracles (Nino Manfredi) [1971]
Week of 16 Nov
Boardwalk (Stephen Verona)Each Other (Michal Bat-Adam)
The Runner Stumbles (Stanley Kramer)
Week of 9 Nov
The Ballad of Orin (Masahiro Shinoda)Don Giovanni (Joseph Losey)
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (Gilbert Moses)
The Magician of Lublin (Menahem Golan)
Normande (Gilles Carle) [1975]
The Rose (Mark Rydell)
The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Week of 2 Nov
Natural Enemies (Jeff Kanew)Promises in the Dark (Jerome Hellman)
Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam)
Running (Steven Hilliard Stern)
Week of 26 Oct
The Consequence (Wolfgang Petersen)
Week of 19 Oct
...And Justice for All (Norman Jewison)Avalanche Express (Mark Robson)
The Black Stallion (Carroll Ballard)
French Postcards (Willard Huyck)
Head Over Heels (Joan Micklin Silver)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Meteor (Ronald Neame)
Week of 12 Oct
The Divine Nymph (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi) [1975]The Europeans (James Ivory)
When a Stranger Calls (Fred Walton)
Week of 5 Oct
Cocaine Cowboys (Ulli Lommel)The Last Romantic Lover (Just Jaeckin)
Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog)
Something Short of Paradise (David Helpern, Jr.)
Starting Over (Alan J. Pakula)
10 (Blake Edwards)
Tourist Trap (David Schmoeller)
Week of 28 Sep
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (Chuck Jones)The Legacy (Richard Marquand)
Luna (Bernardo Bertolucci)
A Man a Woman and a Bank (Noel Black)
The Stud (Quentin Masters)
Time After Time (Nicholas Meyer)
Week of 21 Sep
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (Michael O'Donoghue)The Onion Field (Harold Becker)
Rape of Love (Yannick Bellon)
Sammy Stops the World (Mel Shapiro)
Yanks (John Schlesinger)
Week of 14 Sep
City on Fire (Alvin Rakoff)The Green Room (François Truffaut)
Love and Bullets (Stuart Rosenberg)
Run After Me—Until I Catch You! (Robert Pouret) [1976]
Shame of the Jungle (Picha & Boris Szulzinger)
Week of 7 Sep
The Brood (David Cronenberg)Nest of Vipers (Tonino Cervi)
Patrick (Richard Franklin)
Week of 31 Aug
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (Vincent McEveety)
Week of 24 Aug
Woyzeck (Werner Herzog)
Week of 17 Aug
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)Life of Brian (Terry Jones)
More American Graffiti (B.W.L. Norton)
Orchestra Rehearsal (Federico Fellini)
Rich Kids (Robert M. Young)
Rust Never Sleeps (Bernard Shakey)
The Seduction of Joe Tynan (Jerry Schatzberg)
Soldier of Orange (Paul Verhoeven)
Week of 10 Aug
Americathon (Neil Israel)Hot Stuff (Dom DeLuise)
Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian)
Week of 3 Aug
The Concorde—Airport '79 (David Lowell Rich)Meetings With Remarkable Men (Peter Brook)
North Dallas Forty (Ted Kotcheff)
Week of 27 Jul
The Amityville Horror (Stuart Rosenberg)Just You and Me, Kid (Leonard Stern)
Nighthawks (Ron Peck)
One Man (Robin Spry)
Why Not! (Coline Serreau)
Week of 20 Jul
Breaking Away (Peter Yates)Till Marriage Do Us Part (Luigi Comencini) [1974]
The Villain (Hal Needham)
Week of 13 Jul
The Dance of Death (David Giles) [1969]Dracula (John Badham)
Lost and Found (Melvin Frank)
Peppermint Soda (Diane Kurys)
Teresa the Thief (Carlo Di Palma) [1973]
The Wanderers (Philip Kaufman)
Week of 6 Jul
The Frisco Kid (Robert Aldrich)Meatballs (Ivan Reitman)
Week of 29 Jun
El Super (Leon Ichaso & Orlando Jiménez Leal)Good Guys Wear Black (Ted Post)
Moonraker (Lewis Gilbert)
Nightwing (Arthur Hiller)
Sidney Sheldon's Bloodline (Terence Young)
Week of 22 Jun
Escape From Alcatraz (Donald Siegel)The Main Event (Howard Zieff)
The Muppet Movie (James Frawley)
Week of 15 Jun
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (Richard Lester)The Fragrance of Wild Flowers (Srdjan Karanovic)
Goldengirl (Joseph Sargent)
The In-Laws (Arthur Hiller)
The Kids Are Alright (Jeff Stein)
Prophecy (John Frankenheimer)
Rocky II (Sylvester Stallone)
Van Nuys Blvd. (William Sachs)
Walk Proud (Robert Collins)
Week of 8 Jun
Down & Dirty (Ettore Scola) [1976]Dreamer (Noel Nosseck)
Escape to Athena (George P. Cosmatos)
Players (Anthony Harvey)
Sextette (Ken Hughes)
Week of 1 Jun
Newsfront (Phillip Noyce)Phantasm (Don Coscarelli)
Sunnyside (Timothy Galfas)
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Ermanno Olmi)
Week of 25 May
Alien (Ridley Scott)Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (Irwin Allen)
Malicious (Salvatore Samperi) [1973]
The Prisoner of Zenda (Richard Quine)
The Toy (Francis Veber) [1976]
Week of 18 May
Battlestar Galactica (Richard A. Colla)Death of a Bureaucrat (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea) [1966]
Hanover Street (Peter Hyams)
Winter Kills (William Richert)
Week of 11 May
The Silent Partner (Daryl Duke)
Week of 4 May
Firepower (Michael Winner)Last Embrace (Jonathan Demme)
Teresa the Thief (Carlo DiPalma) [1973]
Week of 27 Apr
An Almost Perfect Affair (Michael Ritchie)The American Game (Jay Freund & David Wolf)
Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (Chantal Akerman)
A Little Romance (George Roy Hill)
Manhattan (Woody Allen)
Saint Jack (Peter Bogdanovich)
Starcrash (Lewis Coates)
Week of 20 Apr
Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero)Just Like at Home (Márta Mészáros)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joseph Strick)
Week of 13 Apr
Fedora (Billy Wilder)Hurricane (Jan Troell)
Love at First Bite (Stan Dragoti)
The North Avenue Irregulars (Bruce Bilson)
Week of 6 Apr
The Champ (Franco Zeffirelli)Love on the Run (François Truffaut)
A Perfect Couple (Robert Altman)
Week of 30 Mar
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (Daniel Haller)
Week of 23 Mar
The Bell Jar (Larry Peerce)Boulevard Nights (Michael Pressman)
The Great Bank Hoax (Joseph Jacoby)
Old Boyfriends (Joan Tewkesbury)
Week of 16 Mar
The China Syndrome (James Bridges)East End Hustle (Frank Vitale) [1976]
Hair (Milos Forman)
Shirdike Saibaba (Ashok V. Bhushan)
Voices (Robert Markowitz)
Week of 9 Mar
All Things Bright and Beautiful (Eric Till) [1976]The French Detective (Pierre Granier-Deferre) [1975]
The Passage (J. Lee Thompson)
The Promise (Gilbert Cates)
Remember My Name (Alan Rudolph)
Week of 2 Mar
Fast Break (Jack Smight)Norma Rae (Martin Ritt)
Real Life (Albert Brooks)
Week of 23 Feb
Ice Castles (Donald Wrye)Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir) [1975]
Week of 16 Feb
Despair (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)Richard Pryor Live in Concert (Jeff Margolis)
The Sex Machine (Pasquale Festa Campanile) [1975]
Tracks (Henry Jaglom) [1976]
Week of 9 Feb
Agatha (Michael Apted)Hardcore (Paul Schrader)
In Praise of Older Women (George Kaczender)
Murder by Decree (Bob Clark)
Quintet (Robert Altman)
The Warriors (Walter Hill)
When You Comin Back, Red Ryder (Milton Katselas)
Week of 2 Feb
The Great Train Robbery (Michael Crichton)
Week of 26 Jan
The Class of Miss MacMichael (Silvio Narizzano)Secrets (Philip Saville) [1971]
Your Turn, My Turn (François Leterrier)
Week of 19 Jan
Circle of Iron (Richard Moore)The Late Great Planet Earth (Robert Amram)
Max Havelaar (Fons Rademakers) [1976]
On the Yard (Raphael Silver)
Week of 12 Jan
The Innocent (Luchino Visconti) [1976]
Week of 5 Jan
My Love Has Been Burning (Kenji Mizoguchi) [1949]Wifemistress (Marco Vicario)