Top Box Office in 1996
  
1Independence Day (1996)
2Twister (1996)
3Toy Story (1995)
4Mission: Impossible (1996)
5The Rock (1996)
6The Nutty Professor (1996)
7Ransom (1996)
8The Birdcage (1996)
9A Time to Kill (1996)
10Phenomenon (1996)
11101 Dalmatians (1996)
12The First Wives Club (1996)
13Eraser (1996)
14The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
15Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Best Picture in 1996:
The English Patient
Best Actor: Geoffrey Rush, Shine
Best Actress: Frances McDormand, Fargo
More

  
1Saul Bass
2George Burns
3Margaux Hemingway
4Gene Kelly
5Krzysztof Kieslowski
6Marcello Mastroianni
7Audrey Meadows
8Minnie Pearl
9Juliet Prowse
10Tupac Shakur
11McLean Stevenson
Highest Rated in 1996
  
1Eskiya (1996)
2Fargo (1996)
3Sling Blade (1996)
4Trainspotting (1996)
5Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
6Wallace & Gromit: The Best of Aardman Animation (1996) (V)
7Secrets & Lies (1996)
8When We Were Kings (1996)
9Kauas pilvet karkaavat (1996)
10Shall we dansu? (1996)
11Breaking the Waves (1996)
12Beautiful Thing (1996)
13Kolja (1996)
14Lone Star (1996)
15Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe (1996)
More films of note for 1996
  
1Lone Star (1996)
2The Whole Wide World (1996)
3Waiting for Guffman (1996)
4Bound (1996)
5Beautiful Girls (1996)
7Bottle Rocket (1996)
8Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)
12Stealing Beauty (1996)
15Manny & Lo (1996)
16Basquiat (1996)
17Grace of My Heart (1996)
18Secrets & Lies (1996)
20Breaking the Waves (1996)
22Mother Night (1996)
23Hype! (1996)

In 1996...

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen release Fargo, and the phrase "You betcha" enters the lexicon.

Demi Moore takes it off in Striptease for a $12 million salary, sparking criticism from feminists and religious groups alike.

Julia Roberts star fades every-so-slightly when Mary Reilly grosses only a disappointing $5.7 million.

Twister starts summer early when it open big on its May 10th release date, extending the movie season and proving that movies can open big before Memorial Day.

After a 26 year run, Phil Donahue ends his daily talk show, falling victim to poor ratings in the onslaught of new talk show competitors.

Sean Penn and Robin Wright are married.

Eddie Murphy tickled funny bones and made a strong career comeback with The Nutty Professor.

On December 11th (three days before his 50th birthday and a party hosted by best friend, boss, and CEO of Disney Michael Eisner), Mike Ovitz's tumultuous 13-month career at Disney is ended with his termination by former best friend, Michael Eisner.

January 5th: The domain name imdb.com is created.

March 2nd: The first IMDb-owned server is purchased to replace the mirrors being used up to that point (cost: $4,076).

March 10th: It's officially announced on comp.infosystems.www.announce that IMDb is now accessible at http://us.imdb.org/, the first ever site to contain IMDb in its domain name. This site is provided by Exec-PC.

March 18th: IMDb becomes a limited liability company and the status change is posted on comp.infosystems.www.announce along with new WWW sites being set up at http://us.imdb.com/ and http://uk.imdb.com/. Also http://www.moviedatabase.com/ is set up as a starting point for the IMDb. It offers pointers to the mirror sites and more.

July: First ad campaign for a movie studio debuts on IMDb with Fox advertising Independence Day.

New lists added: business info, languages.

December 31st: IMDb covers over 90,000 movie titles and 1,300,000 credits for individuals. 1,858,457 data items submitted in 1996 alone.

David Cronenberg's Crash shocks moviegoers with vivid portrayals of sexually charged car accident victims.

The cast of Friends bands together to negotiate salaries of $100,000 each, per episode.

Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire spawns two catchphrases that live on today: "You had me at hello" and "Show me the money!"

Madonna films Evita in Buenos Aires, and is greeted with mixed reactions by Argentinians.

The First Wives Club touches a chord, uniting women to return to theaters in droves.

While appearing on Larry King Live, Marlon Brando's remarks regarding Jews in Hollywood set off a firestorm of controversy.

Billy Bob Thornton writes, directs, and stars in Sling Blade, using his own independent film to set a course for stardom.

Don Simpson, one of the reported baddest of the bad boys of Hollywood, dies at 53. One-half of a wildly successful producing team with partner Jerry Bruckheimer, Simpson is responsible for Beverly Hills Cop, Flashdance, Top Gun and numerous other blockbusters. The coroner cites "natural causes" on his death certificate.

The Botany Bay, a spaceship full of genetically enhanced supermen, led by the charismatic Khan Noonien Singh, is blasted from Earth in a cryogenic freeze, only to bedevil the crew of the Enterprise in "Space Seed" and The Wrath of Khan.

Phoenix, a convicted killer, and Spartan, the cop who captured him, are both put into cryogenic suspension in Demolition Man.

Perhaps the above were lucky to have been frozen, according to Twelve Monkeys 1996 is the year that a plague wipes out 99% of the human population.