Shakespeare In Love won the oscar. Saving Private Ryan won the box office. Were they the best films though? The only thing we know for sure about 1998: Size Matters.

I mean, Titanic won the box office for 1998

And, yeah, Saving Private Ryan is excellent. It's definitely in the top 5 best films of the year. But for me all of these are also in my top 5, lol:

Six Days Seven Nights
Blade
Lethal Weapon 4
Antz
A Perfect Murder
U.S. Marshals
Halloween H20
The Negotiator
Ronin
Out of Sight
Mercury Rising
The Big Hit
John Carpenter's Vampires
Mr. Nice Guy
Knock Off

Interestingly, The Big Lebowski came out in 1998, I suspect a lot of people will say that.

I think The Big Lebowski is the champ for me here. A lot of the others have been forever but:

The Truman Show
A Bug's Life
The Waterboy/The Wedding Singer
Babe: Pig in the City
Armageddon

Half Baked, A Night at the Roxbury and BASEketball may not have been perfect, but I'll give them a HM for being silly little comedies

Looking at the box office numbers the one that jumps out is Stepmom being over 200m inflated. People were really feeling their Julia Roberts.

Armageddon easily no.1
Also actually saw it in that year and got the VHS at the time.

The Big Lebowski is no.2 for the year, but it was only after I saw it a second time around 2002/2003 when I started loving it.

Round off my top 5 with Rounders, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Ronin.

Of course SPR is great, but it just wasn't quite THE film for me then, I like Shakespeare In Love as well and I didn't mind it won that year.

Year i was born

Not me. Big Lebowski never did it for me.

You list a film I forgot about but was surprisingly good - The Big Hit. Randomly saw this in a theatre because my cousins friend worked there and let us in for free. It was the only film we wanted to see at that moment and it was surprisingly fun.

I feel so old

I remember how anticipated it was and how disappointing it opened but it rallied with strong legs to get it over $200m.

Disappointing because its 3 day was below Deep Impact and I guess following Godzilla disappointing in May – with all films in the shadow of Titanic huge 1998 gross ($488m or $1B adjusted) in the first half of 1998!

However, looking at adjusted numbers Armageddon fairs much better : $86m 3-day/$129m 5-day. Total : approx. $486m (more than Minecraft or Lilo & Stitch this year)

It also spawned one of the biggest songs of the year - I Dont Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith.

Great year for film. Personally, it has to be Saving Private Ryan but all in my Top 5 are very strong.

Saving Private Ryan
American History X
There's Something About Mary
Ronin
Rushmore

Rounders
Rush Hour
Urban Legend
Antz
Enemy of the State
The Truman Show
Wild Things
The Big Hit
Out of Sight
A Perfect Murder
The Siege
Apt Pupil
Can't Hardly Wait
A Simple Plan

I made this thread with the intention of crowning Deep Rising as the best film ... but then The Big Lebowski successfully defended its title on a rewatch. It's just such an amazing film with the best writing and iconic lines one after another (shut the fuck up Donnie, you're out of your element!)

1. The Big Lebowski
2. Deep Rising
3. There's Something About Mary
4. Half Baked
5. Baseketball
6. Rush Hour
7. Blade
8. The Waterboy
9. Small Soldiers
10. Run Lola Run / American History X

HM:

The Truman Show
A Bug's Life
Arrmageddon
The Negotiator - actually just watched this for first time last night
Dr. Doolittle

The Opening of Saving Private Ryan
The beginning of Christopher Nolan's film career
The idea of Dark City
The tricycle scene in Wild Things

Really terrific year for comedy. Almost all the top films are very funny. Especially the end of AHX ( :-p )

Damn, I left off Rush Hour. #fail