Perhaps it was in the 1930s and '40s with films like Mickey Rooney's Andy Hardy series and the musicals he made with Judy Garland.

But the teen movie really came into its own during the 1950s in the post-war US boom, when kids had more money to spend. There were juvenile delinquent movies, most notably Rebel Without a Cause (in which Mom, Dad and society were blamed for teen ills, not for the last time) and the more innocent beach party movies starring the likes of Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon.

There were also horror and sci-fi movies like The Blob (with Steve McQueen as a teenager getting close to 30: post-teen "teenagers" were, and are, common) and Teenagers from Outer Space - with its monster, the Gargon, played by the shadow of a lobster. The latter ultralow budget effort ($20,000) was a true auteur film: Tom Graeff was the writer, director, producer, music and sound supervisor, editor, special effects creator and cinematographer as well as a major cast member, to little acclaim. But then a lot of kids were probably using the movies as an excuse to get out of the house and/or make out rather than appreciating the cinematic artistry (if any).

The late 1960s and 1970s saw counterculture movies like Easy Rider, George Lucas's American Graffiti, and more artistic horror movies like Carrie and Halloween, the latter kicking off a seldom distinguished slasher movie cycle later parodied in Scream. In the 1980s, there were also a lot of unimpressive sex comedies (Porky's, Joy Sticks, on and on)

However, writer-director-producer John Hughes was the king of the teen movie, writing and usually directing such films as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Pretty in Pink, many garnering critical as well as financial success. There were also occasional impressive one-offs like Heathers. It seemed the teen movie was growing up and establishing itself as a respectable genre. Even multi-Oscar winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola got in on the act, with adaptations of young-adult author S.E. Hinton's books The Outsiders and Rumble Fish.

Literary-based books have continued - the Hunger Games series, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, among others and genres such as horror remain popular but nobody both zeitgeist-capturing and prolific like Hughes has come along since.

The "kidult" movie has also become increasingly popular: blockbusters like the Star Wars and Marvel movies, which might once have been considered kids' stuff, attract wide audiences.

But while there's still plenty of dross churned out, the number and variety of quality one-off teen movies in recent years has arguably never been more impressive: titles like Mean Girls, Lady Bird, and Juno that can be mentioned alongside more ostensibly respectable films. And Booksmart - set on the night before its characters graduate from high school - cannily blends raucous comedy with more serious moments.

It's a good bet that as long as there are teenagers, there'll be teen movies.