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The year of 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.

Events

  • January 16 – Actress Carole Lombard is killed in a plane crash west of Las Vegas while returning home to Los Angeles from a War Bond tour.
  • March 31 – First of the only two screenings of Here Will I Nest, the first dramatic Canadian feature-length film made in colour and the first film to adapt a Canadian play, at a private showing in London, Ontario. It is never commercially released and is mostly lost.
  • June 4 – British-set wartime romantic drama Mrs. Miniver, starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, opens at Radio City Music Hall in New York, in what will become a record-breaking 10-week run. The film becomes MGM's highest-grossing film of the 1940s. At the 15th Academy Awards, Mrs. Miniver wins six awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (for William Wyler), Best Actress (for Greer Garson) and Best Supporting Actress (for Teresa Wright).
  • August 8 – Walt Disney's animated film Bambi opens in the United Kingdom.
  • November 11 – Road to Morocco, starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour, premieres.
  • November 26 – The film Casablanca premieres at the Hollywood Theatre in New York City. Released nationally in the United States on January 23, 1943, it becomes one of the top-grossing pictures of 1943 and goes on to win the Best Picture and Best Director awards at the 16th Academy Awards.

Academy Awards

  • Best Picture: Mrs. Miniver – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
  • Best Director: William Wyler – Mrs. Miniver
  • Best Actor: James Cagney – Yankee Doodle Dandy
  • Best Actress: Greer Garson – Mrs. Miniver
  • Best Supporting Actor: Van Heflin – Johnny Eager
  • Best Supporting Actress: Teresa Wright – Mrs. Miniver
  • Special Academy Award: In Which We Serve

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

The top ten 1942 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

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{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin:auto; margin:auto;"

|+ Highest-grossing films of 1942

|-

! Rank !! Title !! Distributor !! Domestic rentals

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 1

| Mrs. Miniver

| rowspan="2"|MGM

| $5,358,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 2

| Random Harvest

| $4,650,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 4

| Reap the Wild Wind

| rowspan="4"|Paramount

| $4,000,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 5

| Road to Morocco

| $3,800,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 6

| Holiday Inn

| $3,750,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 7

| Wake Island

| $3,500,000

|-

! style="text-align:center;"| 9

| Kings Row

| Warner Bros.

| $3,143,000