 | The Poseidon Adventure (Special Edition)
Buy used from: $6.58 1972 - A blockbuster. Made by the "Master of Disaster", Irwin Allen, this film kicked the disaster cycle into high gear. Released in December 1972, it was the biggest boxoffice hit of 1973. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including one for Shelley "Mrs. Peter Pan I'm not" Winters.
"I'm the only one here trained to do things like that."
"Will you shut up!"
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 | The Towering Inferno (Special Edition)
Buy new: $16.49 / Used from: $6.60 1974 - Irwin Allen's topper. Two studios bankrolled it, and it shows. Superior effects and lots of big stars. Unfortunately, the screenwriters forgot to come up with a decent script. Nominated for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Fred Astaire, apparently for tripping Jennifer Jones).
"Did you leave a cigarette burning?"
"What do they call it when you kill people?"
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 | Airport (Widescreen Edition)
Buy used from: $11.05 1970 - This is considered to be the first in the "disaster film" cycle, but it's more of a "Grand-Hotel-at-the-Airport" drama. A huge hit, and a Best Picture nominee.
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 | Earthquake
Buy new: $12.49 / Used from: $5.91 1974 - "Sensurround" was the big selling point for this film (don't ask). The special effects run hot or cold, but there's certainly plenty of them.
"Ah, Remy...you'd hardly call this a marriage."
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 | The Hindenburg
Buy used from: $22.25 1975 - This was not the blockbuster that had been expected, and the film is pretty slow going. Perhaps the "disaster film" craze was starting to wain.
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 | Airport '77
Buy used from: $8.76 1977 - A decent hit at the time, this film had every cliche of the disaster flick but none of the panache of Poseidon, Inferno or the original Airport.
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 | Airport 1975
Buy used from: $11.00 1974 - The fall of 1974 saw the onslaught of disaster epics. This was the first and obviously made on the cheap. It plays more like a TV movie of the week.
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 | The Swarm
Buy used from: $4.50 1978 - The real disaster about this film occurred at the boxoffice. It tanked. The blume was off the rose but Hollywood didn't get it yet.
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 | Airport Terminal Pack (Airport/Airport '75/Airport '77/Airport '79 - The Concord)
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $7.93 1979 - "Airport 79: The Concord" was a disaster on-screen and at the boxoffice. The cycle was really over after this. It didn't stop Hollywood, but no one was paying attention anymore.
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 | Beyond the Poseidon Adventure
Buy used from: $6.23 1979 - It's fitting that the last disaster film of the 70s was Irwin Allen's sequal to the most famous disaster film of all. None of the survivors from the original were on hand, and Sally Field has said that of all of her films, this is the one she most regrets doing. Enough said.
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