READ MORE: The Man Inside the Bird: Caroll Spinney and Filmmakers Look Back on 45 Years of 'Sesame Street' 1985 was a good year to be a kid at the multiplex. The year’s biggest performer was "Back to the Future" — which earned over $210 million at the box office and is still a universally beloved franchise-starter, a tough trick that’s even harder to pull off these days — a time-traveling adventure film that came complete with a PG-rating, all the better to telegraph exactly who its audience was (basically, everyone).