New York City 1986 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.)
31 Dec
New American Animation (various)Wisdom (Emilio Estevez)
Week of 26 Dec
Brighton Beach Memoirs (Gene Saks)El amor brujo (Carlos Saura)
The Morning After (Sidney Lumet)
Native Son (Jerrold Freedman)
Week of 19 Dec
The Future of Emily (Helma Sanders-Brahms)King Kong Lives (John Guillermin)
Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz)
Miss Mary (María Luisa Bemberg)
No Mercy (Richard Pearce)
Platoon (Oliver Stone)
Thérèse (Alain Cavalier)
Week of 12 Dec
Class of Nuke 'Em High (Richard W Haines & Samuel Weil)Crimes of the Heart (Bruce Beresford)
The Golden Child (Michael Ritchie)
The Patriot (Frank Harris)
¡Three Amigos! (John Landis)
Typhoon Club (Shinji Sômai)
Where Are the Children? (Bruce Malmuth)
Week of 5 Dec
Half Life (Dennis O'Rourke)Heartbreak Ridge (Clint Eastwood)
Modern Girls (Jerry Kramer)
Place of Weeping (Darrell Roodt)
Rebel (Phillip Emanuel)
Weekend Warriors (Bert Convy)
Week of 28 Nov
The Mosquito Coast (Peter Weir)Mother Teresa (Ann & Jeanette Petrie)
Nutcracker: The Motion Picture (Carroll Ballard)
Porky Pig in Hollywood (various)
Solarbabies (Alan Johnson)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Leonard Nimoy)
Week of 21 Nov
An American Tail (Don Bluth)The Boy Who Could Fly (Nick Castle)
Eye of the Tiger (Richard C. Sarafian)
Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965 (various)
Firewalker (J. Lee Thompson)
Tangos: The Exile of Gardel (Fernando E. Solanas)
The Unheard Music (W.T. Morgan)
The Wraith (Mike Marvin)
Week of 14 Nov
Chopping Mall (Jim Wynorski)The Decline of the American Empire (Denys Arcand)
Every Time We Say Goodbye (Moshe Mizrahi)
Neon Maniacs (Joseph Mangine)
Streets of Gold (Joe Roth)
Tricheurs (Barbet Schroeder)
Week of 7 Nov
Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beineix)Dead End Kids: A Story of Nuclear Power (JoAnne Akalaitis)
52 Pick-Up (John Frankenheimer)
Half Moon Street (Bob Swaim)
Marlene (Maximilian Schell)
Nobody's Fool (Evelyn Purcell)
Quiet Cool (Clay Borris)
The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovski)
Something Wild (Jonathan Demme)
Tai-Pan (Daryl Duke)
Week of 31 Oct
Dust (Marion Hänsel)Happily Ever After (Bruno Barreto)
The Mission (Roland Joffé)
Mozart: A Childhood Chronicle (Klaus Kirschner) [1974]
Rouge Baiser (Vera Belmont)
Sky Bandits (Zoran Perisic)
Week of 24 Oct
From Beyond (Stuart Gordon)Loophole (John Quested) [1981]
Matter of Heart (Mark Whitney)
Rate It X (Lucy Winer & Paula de Koenigsberg)
Soul Man (Steve Miner)
Trick or Treat (Charles Martin Smith)
Week of 17 Oct
Cactus (Paul Cox)The Color of Money (Martin Scorsese)
Combat Shock (Buddy Giovinazzo)
Crawlspace (David Schmoeller)
Dancing in the Dark (Leon Marr)
Empty Quarter (Raymond Depardon)
The Quest (Brian Trenchard-Smith)
Ratboy (Sondra Locke)
Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox)
Week of 10 Oct
America (Robert Downey)Clockwise (Christopher Morahan)
A Composer's Notes: Philip Glass and the Making of an Opera (Michael Blackwood)
Deadly Friend (Wes Craven)
Jumpin' Jack Flash (Penny Marshall)
Peggy Sue Got Married (Francis Coppola)
Police (Maurice Pialat)
True Stories (David Byrne)
Week of 3 Oct
Armed Response (Fred Olen Ray)Children of a Lesser God (Randa Haines)
Menage (Bertrand Blier)
Playing for Keeps (Bob Weinstein & Harvey Weinstein)
Round Midnight (Bertrand Tavernier)
Tough Guys (Jeff Kanew)
Week of 26 Sep
"Crocodile" Dundee (Peter Faiman)Foreign Body (Ronald Neame)
Last Resort (Zane Buzby)
The Lightship (Jerzy Skolimowski)
The Name of the Rose (Jean-Jacques Annaud)
Nineteen Nineteen (Hugh Brody)
Private Practices: The Story of a Sex Surrogate (Kirby Dick)
That's Life! (Blake Edwards)
Twist and Shout (Bille August)
Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter (Robert Burge)
Women's Prison Massacre (Bruno Mattei) [1983]
Week of 19 Sep
American Justice (Gary Grillo)Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch)
Love on the Ground (Jacques Rivette)
The Men's Club (Peter Medak)
Radioactive Dreams (Albert F. Pyun)
Shanghai Surprise (Jim Goddard)
Short Circuit (John Badham)
Where Are the Children? (Bruce Malmuth)
Where the River Runs Black (Christopher Cain)
Week of 12 Sep
Avenging Force (Sam Firstenberg)Bedroom Eyes (William Fruet)
The Check Is in the Mail (Joan Darling)
Code Name: Wild Geese (Anthony M. Dawson)
'night, Mother (Tom Moore)
Otello (Franco Zeffirelli)
Partisans of Vilna (Josh Waletzky)
Restless Natives (Michael Hoffman)
Static (Mark Romanek)
Week of 5 Sep
Dead End Drive-In (Brian Trenchard-Smith)90 Days (Giles Walker)
Sherman's March (Ross McElwee)
Tenement (Roberta Findlay)
Week of 29 Aug
Black Joy (Anthony Simmons) [1977]Born American (Renny Harlin)
Bullies (Paul Lynch)
Caravaggio (Derek Jarman)
Hard Traveling (Dan Bessie)
Reform School Girls (Tom DeSimone)
Steaming (Joseph Losey)
Summer (Eric Rohmer)
We Were So Beloved (Manfred Kirchheimer)
Week of 22 Aug
Extremities (Robert M. Young)50/50 (Uwe Brandner) [1977]
Night of the Creeps (Fred Dekker)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (Tobe Hooper)
Week of 15 Aug
Armed and Dangerous (Mark L. Lester)The Dirt Bike Kid (Hoite C. Caston)
Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (Emir Kusturica) [1981]
The Fly (David Cronenberg)
Inferno (Dario Argento) [1980]
The Liberation of Auschwitz (Irmgard von zur Mühlen)
A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later (Claude Lelouch)
Manhunter (Michael Mann)
My American Cousin (Sandy Wilson)
Next Summer (Nadine Trintignant)
Week of 8 Aug
Cocaine Wars (Héctor Olivera)A Fine Mess (Blake Edwards)
No Surrender (Peter Smith)
One Crazy Summer (Savage Steve Holland)
She's Gotta Have It (Spike Lee)
Stand by Me (Rob Reiner)
The Transformers—The Movie (Nelson Shin)
Week of 1 Aug
The Assam Garden (Mary McMurray)Choke Canyon (Chuck Bail)
Flight of the Navigator (Randal Kleiser)
Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives (Tom McLoughlin)
Howard the Duck (Willard Huyck)
Men... (Doris Dörrie)
Nothing in Common (Garry Marshall)
Special Effects (Larry Cohen)
Week of 25 Jul
Haunted Honeymoon (Gene Wilder)Heartburn (Mike Nichols)
Love Songs (Élie Chouraqui)
Maximum Overdrive (Stephen King)
Meantime (Mike Leigh) [1983]
Out of Bounds (Richard Tuggle)
Perfect Strangers (Larry Cohen)
Vamp (Richard Wenk)
Week of 18 Jul
Aliens (James Cameron)Malcolm (Nadia Tass)
Pirates (Roman Polanski)
Saving Grace (Robert M. Young)
Sincerely Charlotte (Caroline Huppert)
Week of 11 Jul
Club Paradise (Harold Ramis)The Girl in the Picture (Cary Parker)
Pigs and Battleships (Shohei Imamura) [1961]*
* Possibly a re-release. IMDb has a U.S. release in September 1963, but
I can't find any record of it in NYC.
Week of 4 Jul
"About Last Night..." (Edward Zwick)Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter)
The Great Mouse Detective (John Musker & Ron Clements & Dave Michener & Burny Mattinson)
Psycho III (Anthony Perkins)
Rainy Day Friends (Gary Kent)
Under the Cherry Moon (Prince)
Week of 27 Jun
American Anthem (Albert Magnoli)Floodstage (David Dawkins)
Karl May (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg) [1974]
Labyrinth (Jim Henson)
My Little Pony—The Movie (Michael Joens)
Running Scared (Peter Hyams)
Ruthless People (Jim Abrahams & David Zucker & Jerry Zucker)
Spring Symphony (Peter Schamoni) [1983]
Week of 20 Jun
The Karate Kid Part II (John G. Avildsen)Legal Eagles (Ivan Reitman)
Top of the Whale (Raoul Ruiz) [1982]
The Wall (Yilmaz Guney) [1983]
Week of 13 Jun
Back to School (Alan Metter)Belizaire the Cajun (Glen Pitre)
Death Sentence (Witold Orzechowski) [1980]
The Eyes of the Birds (Gabriel Auer) [1983]
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (John Hughes)
The Manhattan Project (Marshall Brickman)
Mona Lisa (Neil Jordan)
Week of 6 Jun
The Cosmic Eye (Faith Hubley)Crimewave (Sam Raimi)
Invaders From Mars (Tobe Hooper)
Not Quite Paradise (Lewis Gilbert)
Raw Deal (John Irvin)
Say Yes (Larry Yust)
SpaceCamp (Harry Winer)
Tea in the Harem (Mehdi Charef)
Week of 30 May
At Close Range (James Foley)Big Trouble (John Cassavetes)
Demons (Lamberto Bava)
A Great Wall (Peter Wang)
Homage to Cinema 16 (various)
Jake Speed (Andrew Lane)
Signal 7 (Rob Nilsson)
Week of 23 May
Cobra (George P. Cosmatos)Ninja Turf (Richard Park)
Poltergeist II (Brian Gibson)
Ronja Robbersdaughter (Tage Danielson)
What Happened to Kerouac? (Richard Lerner & Lewis MacAdams)
Week of 16 May
The Boy in Blue (Charles Jarrott)Death of a Soldier (Philippe Mora)
Forest of Bliss (Robert Gardner)
Hard Choices (Rick King)
In nome del Papa Re (Luigi Magni) [1977]
Metropolitan Avenue (Christine Noschese)
Mountaintop Motel Massacre (Jim McCullough) [1983]
No Retreat No Surrender (Corey Yuen)
On the Edge (Rob Nilsson)
Stitches (Alan Smithee) [Rod Holcomb]
Sweet Liberty (Alan Alda)
Top Gun (Tony Scott)
Vagabond (Agnès Varda)
Week of 9 May
Dangerously Close (Albert Pyun)Fire With Fire (Duncan Gibbins)
Horse (Kajirô Yamamoto) [1941]
In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro (Raju Patel)
Short Circuit (John Badham)
Week of 2 May
Agent on Ice (Clark Worswick)Bliss (Ray Lawrence)
Blue City (Michelle Manning)
Cut and Run (Ruggero Deodato)
Dark of the Night (Gaylene Preston)
Femmes de personne (Christopher Frank)
Funny Dirty Little War (Héctor Olivera) [1983]
Getting Even (Dwight H. Little)
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (Richard Pryor)
Letter to Brezhnev (Chris Bernard)
Routine Pleasures (Jean-Pierre Gorin)
Week of 25 Apr
Echo Park (Robert Dornhelm)8 Million Ways to Die (Hal Ashby)
Fast Talking (Ken Cameron)
Home of the Brave (Laurie Anderson)
The Imagemaker (Hal Weiner)
Low Blow (Frank Harris)
Mr. Love (Roy Battersby)
Ryder, P.I. (Karl Hosch & Chuck Walker)
Spasms (William Fruet) [1983]
3 Men and a Cradle (Coline Serreau)
Tracks in the Snow (Orlow Seunke)
Week of 18 Apr
Absolute Beginners (Julien Temple)Desert Bloom (Eugene Corr)
Heathcliff® The Movie (Bruno Bianchi)
Legend (Ridley Scott)
The Man Who Envied Women (Yvonne Rainer)
Murphy's Law (J. Lee Thompson)
Water (Dick Clement)
Wise Guys (Brian De Palma)
Week of 11 Apr
Band of the Hand (Paul Michael Glaser)Basic Training (Andrew Sugerman)
Broken Rainbow (Victoria Mudd)
Critters (Stephen Herek)
The 19th International Tournee of Animation (various)
Off Beat (Michael Dinner)
On Valentine's Day (Ken Harrison)
Violets Are Blue (Jack Fisk)
Week of 4 Apr
Desert Hearts (Donna Deitch)Dona Herlinda and Her Son (Jaime Humberto Hermosillo)
Eyes of Fire (Avery Crounse) [1983]
Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo (Susana Muñoz & Lourdes Portillo)
P.O.W. The Escape (Gideon Amir)
The Toxic Avenger (Michael Herz & Samuel Weil [Lloyd Kaufman])
The Way It Is (Eric Mitchell)
Week of 28 Mar
April Fool's Day (Fred Walton)Ginger & Fred (Federico Fellini)
Lucas (David Seltzer)
The Money Pit (Richard Benjamin)
The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy)
Quilombo (Carlos Diegues)
Rad (Hal Needham)
3:15 (Larry Gross)
Trouble in Mind (Alan Rudolph)
Week of 21 Mar
Bahia (Marcel Camus) [1976]Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (Dale Schott)
The Courtesans of Bombay (Ismail Merchant) [1983]
GoBots®: Battle of the Rock Lords™ (Ray Patterson)
Hamburger...The Motion Picture! (Mike Marvin)
Just Between Friends (Allan Burns)
Police Academy 3: Back in Training (Jerry Paris)
Week of 14 Mar
American Commandos (Bobby A. Suarez)Angry Harvest (Agnieszka Holland)
Bad Guys (Joel Silberg)
The Boys Next Door (Penelope Spheeris)
Crossroads (Walter Hill)
Gung Ho (Ron Howard)
Week of 7 Mar
Antonio Gaudi (Hiroshi Teshigahara)Death of an Angel (Petru Popescu)
Highlander (Russell Mulcahy)
My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears)
The Naked Cage (Paul Nicholas)
Nomads (John McTiernan)
A Room With a View (James Ivory)
Salvador (Oliver Stone)
Screen Test (Sam Auster)
16 Days of Glory (Bud Greenspan)
Whatever It Takes (Bob Demchuk)
Week of 28 Feb
Hollywood Vice Squad (Penelope Spheeris)House (Steve Miner)
Latino (Haskell Wexler)
Pretty in Pink (Howard Deutch)
Smooth Talk (Joyce Chopra)
The Women of Summer (Suzanne Bauman)
Week of 21 Feb
French Lesson (Brian Gilbert)The Hitcher (Robert Harmon)
Nine ½ Weeks (Adrian Lyne)
Ornette: Made in America (Shirley Clarke)
Parting Glances (Bill Sherwood)
Straight Through the Heart (Doris Dörrie) [1983]
Week of 14 Feb
The Adventures of the American Rabbit (Fred Wolf & Nobutaka Nishizawa)The Crazy Family (Sogo Ishii)
The Delta Force (Menahem Golan)
The Go Masters (Junya Sato & Duan Jishun) [1982]
Huey Long (Ken Burns)
Kaos (Paolo & Vittorio Taviani)
The Kindergarten (Yevgeny Yevtushenko)
Knights of the City (Dominic Orlando)
La Cage aux folles 3: The Wedding (Georges Lautner)
Quicksilver (Tom Donnelly)
TerrorVision (Ted Nicolaou)
Turtle Diary (John Irvin)
Wildcats (Michael Ritchie)
Winter Flight (Roy Battersby)
Week of 7 Feb
Arthur's Hallowed Ground (Freddie Young)Foxtrap (Fred Williamson)
F/X (Robert Mandel)
Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)
Lady Jane (Trevor Nunn)
Week of 31 Jan
A.K. (Chris Marker)The Best of Times (Roger Spottiswoode)
Down and Out in Beverly Hills (Paul Mazursky)
Edith's Diary (Hans W. Geissendorfer) [1983]
Eliminators (Peter Manoogian)
Forever Young (David Drury)
The Goodbye People (Herb Gardner)
Joey (Joseph Ellison)
Power (Sidney Lumet)
Stripper (Jerome Gary)
Youngblood (Peter Markle)
Week of 24 Jan
Always (Henry Jaglom)My Chauffeur (David Beaird)
Return (Andrew Silver)
Streetwise (Martin Bell)
Those Glory, Glory Days (Philip Saville) [1983]
Week of 17 Jan
The Adventures of Mark Twain (Will Vinton)The Clan of the Cave Bear (Michael Chapman)
Following the F¨hrer (Eberhard Itzenplitz & Erwin Leiser)
Iron Eagle (Sidney J. Furie)
The Journey of Natty Gann (Jeremy Kagan)
Murphy's Romance (Martin Ritt)
Pray for Death (Gordon Hessler)
Sharma and Beyond (Brian Gilbert)
Troll (John Buechler)
Week of 10 Jan
Amigos (Ivan Acosta)Black Moon Rising (Harley Cokliss)
The Mystery of Alexina (Rene Feret)
Week of 3 Jan
The Alchemist (James Amante) [1983]The Annihilators (Charles E. Sellier, Jr.)
Head Office (Ken Finkleman)
Raoni (Jean-Pierre Dutilleux & Luiz Carlos Saldanha) [1978]
UFOria (John Binder)