At the Movies: 1980’s nostalgia craze got its biggest single boost, with the return to form of the greatest 80s movie director of all time, Steven Spielberg. His newest sci-fi flick Ready Player One is already blazing a trail through the box office. The current number 1 movie made USD 53.2 mn in North America over the four-day Easter holidays, and USD 128 mn overseas, proving that the commercial viability of 80’s nostalgia is still rolling strong.

The film — set like any good 80s film in a dystopian future — has the main characters trying to navigate a virtual reality world, which might as well be called 80s World. There’s “an intense scene inside the hotel from “The Shining,” a character fighting as a robot from the Japanese franchise Gundam and Chucky from the “Child’s Play” movies attacking bad guys,” writes Peter Sblendorio for NY Daily News. “[The protagonist] also drives a DeLorean like the one in “Back to the Future” and at one point slips into the red leather suit Michael Jackson wore in his “Thriller” video.”

Why is this obsession happening now? Pop culture experts say it’s all about timing. We grow fond of decades usually 15-30 years after they end, Robert Thompson, a pop culture professor at the University of Syracuse says. Those who grew up in that era are the ones making movies now. 1980’s themselves were also special as they were the last decade where pop culture was widely shared and “forced.” Cable TV and the internet fragmented pop culture.

Even if you’re not an 80’s buff and just stuck in Cairo for the break, Ready Player One should be worth seeing. You can check out the Hollywood Reporter’s review here.