Why was Kramer vs. Kramer the top-grossing movie of 1979?

http://www.vulture.com/2014/10/how-did-kramer-vs-kramer-make-so-much-money.html

Pop quiz: What was the highest-grossing film of 1979? Remember, this is several years after Jaws (the highest-grossing film of 1975), Rocky (highest-grossing of ‘76) and Star Wars (highest-grossing ‘77) had, according to the common wisdom, doomed us all forever to a cinematic junk-food diet of robot sharks, alien spaceships, and unending sequels. By 1979, Hollywood had, presumably, stopped making movies for grown-ups — you know, real, thoughtful, sophisticated stories of love, anguish, heartbreak, and personal growth. Looking ahead, in 1980, the biggest hit was The Empire Strikes Back. (Spaceships! Sequels!) In 1981, it was Raiders of the Lost Ark. (A reboot of cliff-hanger serials! For kids!) In 1982, it was E.T. (Aliens! Kids again!) In 1983, Return of the Jedi (Sequels! Aliens! Spaceships!) … But what about 1979?

The highest-grossing film of 1979, with a total box-office take of just over $106 million, was Kramer vs. Kramer, a movie about two New Yorkers getting a divorce and fighting over custody of their son.

Wait, you might say — there must be a mistake. Sure, Kramer vs. Kramer was the big Oscar movie of 1979, winning five Academy Awards (out of nine nominations), including a sweep of the major categories: Best Picture; Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman); Best Supporting Actress* (Meryl Streep); Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert Benton, from a novel by Avery Corman); and Best Director (Robert Benton again). Yes, that’s true — it was both. It was the most critically acclaimed film of the year and the biggest box-office hit. The only other film since 1979 to achieve that — both the biggest box-office hit of the year and the Best Picture winner — is Titanic, in 1997. Though you could definitely argue that Titanic is not a movie for grown-ups in quite the same way that Kramer vs. Kramer was.

This means that Kramer vs. Kramer, which came out 35 years ago — and, as of this month, is available for streaming on Netflix — is either a fascinating anomaly in recent movie history, or a last Alamo-like stand against the impending economic forces that turned blockbuster movies into an annual visit to the comic-book store and Toys 'R' Us. (Recent highest-grossing films of the year: Harry Potter, Spider-Man, The Dark Knight, The Avengers, Toy Story 3, etc.) It also makes Kramer a handy go-to example for anyone who wants to make the argument that our culture is getting more juvenile. In 35 years, we’ve gone from Kramer vs. Kramer to Batman v Superman, am I right? (Or, as it’s officially known, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which raises the possibility of an enticing alternate history in which people flocked to see Kramer V Kramer II: Dawn of Justice, followed a few years later by Kramer vs. Kramer: Final Judgment.)

I’ve seen Kramer vs. Kramer three times now. Once, in the movie theaters, when I was 8 years old — just old enough, I’m guessing, that my parents felt that the risk of me seeing JoBeth Williams naked was worth saving a babysitter’s fee. (I did see her naked, in a very famous scene, in which she runs into Justin Henry, the Kramers’ 5-year-old son, in a hallway. I remember all this very clearly.) At that time, the movie, to my young mind, could have been called “Why Are All the Grown-Ups Crying?” I rewatched it again, a few years back, on DVD, when I stumbled on the whole highest-grossing-film-of-the-y - ear factoid. Here, I thought, was a fascinating artifact: the Last American Film Made for Adults! When I rewatched it, however, I realized the characters aren’t really adults at all, at least not in the way you might remember.