The images that followed -- the ferocious fireballs, the pancaking structures, the shattered humans emerging like ghostly wraiths from the choking clouds of smoke -- were unimaginable, but also, thanks to the movies, eerily familiar. Watching "Independence Day" in 1996, moviegoers shivered in delight as giant alien space ships zapped the Empire State Building and the White House into oblivion. In 1998, fans rushed to watch a giant fire-breathing lizard menace the skyline of Lower Manhattan in "Godzilla," while in "Armageddon," a firestorm of meteors lopped off the crown of the Chrysler Building.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.