Why isn “Animal House” a Classic?
When we opened in 1985, I decided to define a classic as “any film older than me” (with a handful of exceptions). At that point, the newest film in the classics section would have been 23 years old — just like me. Skip to today and look at a film made in 1978, “Animal House” for instance. It is now 27 years old. Is “Animal House” a classic? Not in my book and not because it wasn’t very good (I thought it was great) but because it’s not old enough. I’m sticking with my original rule — to be a classic film it has to be older than me. When you open your video store you can set the date wherever you want.
