The ghosts of summers past

The summer of 2009 is jam-packed with big franchsie movies, three or four of which have a chance to cross that magical $300 million barrier. (Put your money on "Transformers" and "Harry Potter" for sure.) But how does it stack up to other summers in the blockbuster era?

Let's go back a quarter of a century ... check out these three summers from the '80s. If this year's crop can be as fun as these, we're in for a treat:

Release dates per IMDB.com

1982
May 14: "Conan the Barbarian"
May 21: "Annie"
May 28: "Rocky III"
June 4: "Poltergeist" and "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"
June 11: "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial"
June 25: "Blade Runner" and "The Thing"
July 2: "The Secret of NIMH"
July 9: "TRON"
July 23: "The World According to Garp"
July 28: "An Officer and a Gentleman"
Aug. 6: "Pink Floyd The Wall"
Aug. 13: "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Friday the 13th Part III"
Aug. 20: "The Beastmaster"

1984
May 4: "Sixteen Candles"
May 11: "Firestarter" and "The Natural"
May 23: "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"
June 1: "Once Upon a Time in America" and "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock"
June 8: "Ghostbusters" and "Gremlins" and "Top Secret!"
June 22: "The Karate Kid"
June 29: "Bachelor Party" and "The Cannonball Run II" and "Conan the Destroyer"
July 13: "The Gods Must Be Crazy" and "The Last Starfighter" and "The Muppets Take Manhattan"
July 20: "Revenge of the Nerds"
July 27: "Purple Rain"
Aug. 10: "Cloak & Dagger" and "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension"

1985
May 22: "A View to a Kill" and "Brewster's Millions" and "Rambo: First Blood Part II"
May 28: "Red Heat"
June 7: "The Goonies"
June 14: "D.A.R.Y.L." and "Prizzi's Honor"
June 21: "Cocoon" and "Return to Oz"
June 28: "Pale Rider" and "St. Elmo's Fire"
July 3: "Back to the Future" and "Red Sonja" and "The Emerald Forest"
July 10: "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" and "Silverado"
July 24: "The Black Cauldron"
July 26: "National Lampoon's European Vacation" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and "Pee-wee's Big Adventure"
Aug. 2: "Fright Night" and "Follow That Bird" and "Weird Science"
Aug. 7: "Real Genius"
Aug. 9: "My Science Project"
Aug. 19: "Return of the Living Dead"
Aug. 23: "Better Off Dead ..." and "Teen Wolf"

Boy do I wish I could have taken in that triple feature on June 8, 1984 ...