1927

Eighty years ago, movie buffs probably didn't realize that movies as they had come to know them would never be the same again. Cinema had grown progressively more sophisticated (technologically and otherwise) for thirty years, and there was no reason to suspect that it had peaked in 1927.

While movies obviously didn't peak in 1927, they certainly hit "a" peak. It was the year that the most popular (Metropolis) and the highest rated (Napoleon) films of the silent era (according to IMDb) were released.

Wings and Sunrise were recognized by the first Academy Awards as "Best Picture" winners (The first Oscars had two separate best picture categories; Wings won for "Production", and Sunrise won for "Unique and Artistic Picture")

This was also the year that Buster Keaton made his most popular movie, and Hitchcock released his "first true film".

But even as 1927 marked the peak of the silent era, it was also the beginning of the end for silent film as The Jazz Singer, famously, became the first "talkie".