AwardsWatch - ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Gremlins’ at 40: How One Day in the Summer of 1984 Defined a Childhood

I was too young to see Gremlins in the cinema (as it was a 15) but that's one hell of a slate of films they were competing against:

Premiering in the top two spots at the box office that weekend – the Barbenheimer of its time – Ghostbusters and Gremlins would hold their places for weeks, fending off The Karate Kid, Top Secret!, and The Neverending Story. They would go on to become two of the highest-grossing films of 1984, leading to sequels, spin-offs, and animated series.