The number one break-out hit is the March release Pretty Woman, which is then taken over by the sleeper-hit Ghost, which then gets trounced by Home Alone.

Dances with Wolves opens wide on November 21st. Labeled a vanity project for director and the then very powerful star Kevin Costner, many in the industry hope it will fail and take to calling it "Kevin's Gate" in reference to the ill-fated Michael Cimino bomb Heaven's Gate, which helped sink troubled United Artists in 1980. But Dances with Wolves does not fail. On the contrary, the film is a huge financial and critical success (though Pauline Kael famously chides Costner for "having feathers in his hair and feathers in his head."). Wolves goes on to win seven of its twelve Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director (Costner beats Goodfellas director Martin Scorsese).

Sofia Coppola replaces Winona Ryder in The Godfather, Part III after Ryder drops out of the production citing exhaustion. Coppola's acting is widely derided, as is her father's film.

Box office bombs The Bonfire of the Vanities and Joe Vs. the Volcano open, essentially extinguishing Tom Hanks's already floundering career.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down is released, bringing recognition to its director, Pedro Almodovar, and its male star, Antonio Banderas.

Universal's Henry and June is the first major studio release assigned an NC-17, and its failure at the box-office helps doom the rating to obscurity. The film is headlined by Fred Ward, Uma Thurman, and Maria de Medeiros (the two actresses would later appear together, though share no screen time, in 1994's Pulp Fiction).