1990s: Film and Theater

In the 1990s, special effects continued to dominate the film world. Special effects were used heavily to create the spectacular action that was demanded of every movie studio's most important film of the year: the summer blockbuster. Jurassic Park (1993), based on a novel of the same name by Michael Crichton (1942–), set the standard for the decade with its realistic computer-generated dinosaurs that munched on people. Many other movies offered thrills of their own. Whether those thrills came from space, as in Independence Day (1996) or Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace (1999), or from nature, as in Twister (1996) with its terrifying tornadoes, filmmakers relied on special effects to give their stories impact. Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace had the distinction of featuring the first digitally generated principal character in a movie: Jar Jar Binks.

Of course, not all films used special effects to win audiences. The horror film Scream (1996) combined gore with humor. The independently made sensation The Blair Witch Project (1999) used quirky filmmaking techniques and sheer suspense to terrify audiences. Both films helped revive a film genre, horror, that had grown stale and unoriginal, with movies produced as if using a formula. Animated films also experienced a revival in the 1990s. The Lion King (1994) proved that Disney could still make heartwarming family entertainment, but the real story of the decade was the use of computer-generated animation. Toy Story (1995), Toy Story 2 (1999), A Bug's Life (1998), and Antz (1998) were all made exclusively on computers. Each film had warmth and humor. All these films also allowed for the creation of an assortment of toys, games, video games, and cross-promotions with fast-food restaurants.

American theater continued the boom that began in the 1980s, with large-scale productions drawing huge audiences in New York and then touring the nation. The major productions of the decade were The Lion King (1997; a stage version of the film), Ragtime (1997), Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk (1996), and Rent (1996).