How many years gone by until a movie is considered old?

[Thx-1138]

I consider movies "classic" if they are from the era of the old "studio system," when the Moguls ran things.


Now, of "feature films," there is the silent era, the "talkies," say the 30s, 40s and 50s... from there, all movies after are some degree of "contemporary," and what simply makes them "old" is a matter of years and subjectivity.


Now some of the moguls lasted into the 60s and 70s, but I'm talking more broadly among the industry, of course the lines are blurred beyond a particular decade. ie: you had "United Artists" starting back in the silent era, in the 50s some big stars started their own production companies...)


(In fact, at first I thought you might mean a remake of "Broken Arrow" 1950 with Jimmy Stewart and Jeff Chandler. )


But I do remember the Travolta picture.


Thx

[Iconographer]

I always considered that a movie that was one year older than me was 'old', but at age 63 it becomes more and more difficult to justify that rule.

[TamaraSavannah]

Originally Posted by slamont61

Four weeks after it comes out on DVD.

I would agree with that or even less time for perhaps the deciding point is how long before talking about a movie is not considered spoilers.

I haven't seen any of the last series of Star Wars flicks but to me, given how fast things come out (and how many of their stars have died), those are old flicks.

Originally Posted by Zlar Vixen

.......In general, I'd say once a movie passes 15 years since its making, it is quite old. A movie from 20 years ago wouldn't exactly feel like it came out yesterday.

Like the Bullock flicks "28 Days" or "Gun Shy"? What makes those old?

They both have the WTC in them.

[notnamed]

Think it also depends on the quality and techniques used. Take something like Saving Private Ryan, now 21 years old. But a very high quality film with practical effects and not a bunch of CGI that ages terribly. I'd call it a classic, but would also have called it an instant classic when it came out. It has aged so well I wouldn't really call it "old" and could see it being released today and still be regarded as an excellent film.

Some of the other big blockbusters of the same year(Armageddon, Deep Impact, Godzilla, You've Got Mail) I'm more comfortable relegating to being "old".

[greatblueheron]

Oh maybe 50 yrs......

just saw that Glory is 30 yrs old and it seems like yesterday.

[harry chickpea]

It used to be that when a movie had gone through release and re-release and drive-in fare, and finally released for television (usually in 16mm for local stations), it was considered old. Video tape and cable changed that, and restoration prints have blurred the lines even more. A movie isn't really old now until it has lost its audience and marketability.