The decade of the 1990s in film involved many significant developments in cinema. Continuing from the 1980s, low-budgetindependent films unceasingly rose and maintained their popularity in the industry within the decade.[1][2]
Events
Thousands of full-length films were produced during the 1990s. Many were specifically filmed or edited to be displayed both on theater screens as well as on the smaller TV screens, such as showing close-up scenes during dialog, rather than just wide-angle scenes in a room. The home-video market became a major factor in total revenue for a film, often doubling its total income.
1988's Die Hard established what would become a common formula for many 90s action films, featuring a lone everyman against a colorful terrorist character who's usually holding hostages in an isolated setting. Such films and their sequels are often referred to as "Die Hard on a _____": Under Siege (battleship), Cliffhanger (mountain), Speed (bus), The Rock (prison island), Con Air (prison plane), Air Force One (presidential plane), etc...
^Pierson, John (18 September 2013). "Slacker: Slacking Off - From the Current". The Criterion Collection. The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 6 March 2016. [The spring of 1991] marked some major changes in my life and some surprising developments for American independent film. The whole concept of the self-distributed, hometown theatrical opening of a film is quite risky. If it doesn't work, distributors will never pick your film up.