It is now widely believed that nuclear issues “disappeared” from the cinema between the years 1963 to 1980. This is clearly not correct. Bomb films do decline by about thirty percent in this time period, but it is a mischaracterization to say that they “disappeared."
  
  
Additionally , I have tried using several different scholars’ timelines as axes along which to divide Bomb films into historical periods. These time lines include:

Major developments or events in nuclear technology;
 
The arms race, and the cold war;
 
Major technological, economic, political, legal, and social developments of the cinema;

and, more simply, decades.

No matter how I divide Atomic Bomb Cinema into historical periods, no one period varies from the overall average by more than 30%. Thirty percent is statistically significant, but it does not suggest "cycles" of public apathy, psychic numbing, or "years of neglect" (Atomic Bomb Cinema, 171-2).

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Breakdowns of annual releases of bomb films in the USA
 
 
Table 1. This table lists the number of bomb films released each year, both before and after WWII, in chronological order from 1914 to 2000. At the end of the table the total and average are also given.
 
 
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Table 2. This table is identical to Table 1, except that it is limited to only the post WWII years, in chronological order from 1945 to 2000. Total and average are given at the end of the table.
 
 
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Table 3. In this table, the number of films released each year is listed in descending order, and are ranked. The table covers the years 1914 to 2000.
 
 
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