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Neon · VHS · Blockbusters

1980s

The decade of the blockbuster and the video store. Spielberg, Lucas and Cameron rewrote the rules, John Hughes found the teenagers, and VHS put the movies in every living room.

Top 10 movies of 1980

Star Wars strikes back, Scorsese and Kubrick deliver two of their masterpieces, and the spoof comedy is born at 30,000 feet.

  1. The Empire Strikes Back — IMDb 8.7, Rotten Tomatoes 93%, $549M box office. Directed by Irvin Kershner; starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher.
  2. The Shining — IMDb 8.4, Rotten Tomatoes 74%, $57M box office. Directed by Stanley Kubrick; starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers.
  3. The Elephant Man — IMDb 8.2, Rotten Tomatoes 91%, $26.1M box office. Directed by David Lynch; starring Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft.
  4. Raging Bull — IMDb 8.1, Rotten Tomatoes 92%, $23.4M box office. Directed by Martin Scorsese; starring Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci.
  5. The Blues Brothers — IMDb 7.9, Rotten Tomatoes 72%, $115.2M box office. Directed by John Landis; starring John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, James Brown.
  6. Airplane! — IMDb 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes 97%, $171M box office. Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker; starring Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty.
  7. Ordinary People — IMDb 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes 90%, $90M box office. Directed by Robert Redford; starring Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch.
  8. Coal Miner's Daughter — IMDb 7.5, Rotten Tomatoes 84%, $67.2M box office. Directed by Michael Apted; starring Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D'Angelo.
  9. Caddyshack — IMDb 7.2, Rotten Tomatoes 72%, $60M box office. Directed by Harold Ramis; starring Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight.
  10. 9 to 5 — IMDb 7.0, Rotten Tomatoes 71%, $103.5M box office. Directed by Colin Higgins; starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton.

Top 10 movies of 1981

Indiana Jones cracks the whip, a U-boat crew descends into the deep, and genre filmmakers rule the year.

  1. Raiders of the Lost Ark — IMDb 8.4, Rotten Tomatoes 94%, $389.9M box office. Directed by Steven Spielberg; starring Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman.
  2. Das Boot — IMDb 8.3, Rotten Tomatoes 98%, $84.9M box office. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen; starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann.
  3. Mad Max 2 — IMDb 7.6, Rotten Tomatoes 93%, $36M box office. Directed by George Miller; starring Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Kjell Nilsson.
  4. On Golden Pond — IMDb 7.6, Rotten Tomatoes 93%, $119.3M box office. Directed by Mark Rydell; starring Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda.
  5. An American Werewolf in London — IMDb 7.5, Rotten Tomatoes 80%, $62M box office. Directed by John Landis; starring David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne.
  6. The Evil Dead — IMDb 7.3, Rotten Tomatoes 85%, $29.4M box office. Directed by Sam Raimi; starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy Baker.
  7. Escape from New York — IMDb 7.1, Rotten Tomatoes 70%, $50M box office. Directed by John Carpenter; starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine.
  8. Chariots of Fire — IMDb 7.1, Rotten Tomatoes 84%, $59M box office. Directed by Hugh Hudson; starring Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell.
  9. Time Bandits — IMDb 6.9, Rotten Tomatoes 92%, $42.4M box office. Directed by Terry Gilliam; starring John Cleese, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall.
  10. Superman II — IMDb 6.8, Rotten Tomatoes 88%, $216.3M box office. Directed by Richard Lester, Richard Donner; starring Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Ned Beatty.

Top 10 movies of 1982

An alien wants to phone home while replicants and shape-shifters redefine science fiction forever.

  1. The Thing — IMDb 8.2, Rotten Tomatoes 84%, $20.9M box office. Directed by John Carpenter; starring Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David.
  2. Blade Runner — IMDb 8.1, Rotten Tomatoes 89%, $41.8M box office. Directed by Ridley Scott; starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young.
  3. Gandhi — IMDb 8.0, Rotten Tomatoes 89%, $127.8M box office. Directed by Richard Attenborough; starring Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox.
  4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — IMDb 7.9, Rotten Tomatoes 99%, $797.3M box office. Directed by Steven Spielberg; starring Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Henry Thomas.
  5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan — IMDb 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes 87%, $97M box office. Directed by Nicholas Meyer; starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley.
  6. First Blood — IMDb 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes 86%, $125.2M box office. Directed by Ted Kotcheff; starring Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy.
  7. Tootsie — IMDb 7.4, Rotten Tomatoes 92%, $241M box office. Directed by Sydney Pollack; starring Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr.
  8. Poltergeist — IMDb 7.3, Rotten Tomatoes 90%, $121.7M box office. Directed by Tobe Hooper; starring JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Beatrice Straight.
  9. Fast Times at Ridgemont High — IMDb 7.1, Rotten Tomatoes 79%, $27.1M box office. Directed by Amy Heckerling; starring Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold.
  10. Tron — IMDb 6.7, Rotten Tomatoes 61%, $50M box office. Directed by Steven Lisberger; starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner.

Top 10 movies of 1983

The original trilogy wraps, Tony Montana says hello to his little friend, and Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun.

  1. Return of the Jedi — IMDb 8.3, Rotten Tomatoes 83%, $482M box office. Directed by Richard Marquand; starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher.
  2. Scarface — IMDb 8.3, Rotten Tomatoes 78%, $66.4M box office. Directed by Brian De Palma; starring Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer.
  3. A Christmas Story — IMDb 7.9, Rotten Tomatoes 87%, $20.8M box office. Directed by Bob Clark; starring Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Peter Billingsley.
  4. The Right Stuff — IMDb 7.8, Rotten Tomatoes 96%, $21.1M box office. Directed by Philip Kaufman; starring Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris.
  5. Trading Places — IMDb 7.5, Rotten Tomatoes 86%, $120.6M box office. Directed by John Landis; starring Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy.
  6. Terms of Endearment — IMDb 7.4, Rotten Tomatoes 81%, $165M box office. Directed by James L. Brooks; starring Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson.
  7. National Lampoon's Vacation — IMDb 7.3, Rotten Tomatoes 94%, $61.4M box office. Directed by Harold Ramis; starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Imogene Coca.
  8. WarGames — IMDb 7.1, Rotten Tomatoes 93%, $124.6M box office. Directed by John Badham; starring Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood.
  9. The Outsiders — IMDb 7.0, Rotten Tomatoes 69%, $25.8M box office. Directed by Francis Coppola; starring C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio.
  10. Risky Business — IMDb 6.8, Rotten Tomatoes 92%, $63.5M box office. Directed by Paul Brickman; starring Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay.

Top 10 movies of 1984

Who you gonna call? A cyborg from the future, Axel Foley and Freddy Krueger all arrive in one stacked year.

  1. Amadeus — IMDb 8.4, Rotten Tomatoes 90%, $90M box office. Directed by Miloš Forman; starring F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge.
  2. Once Upon a Time in America — IMDb 8.3, Rotten Tomatoes 87%, $5.5M box office. Directed by Sergio Leone; starring Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern.
  3. The Terminator — IMDb 8.1, Rotten Tomatoes 90%, $78M box office. Directed by James Cameron; starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton.
  4. This Is Spinal Tap — IMDb 7.9, Rotten Tomatoes 98%, $6.1M box office. Directed by Rob Reiner; starring June Chadwick, Tony Hendra, Bruno Kirby.
  5. Ghostbusters — IMDb 7.8, Rotten Tomatoes 95%, $370M box office. Directed by Ivan Reitman; starring Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis.
  6. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — IMDb 7.5, Rotten Tomatoes 77%, $333.1M box office. Directed by Steven Spielberg; starring Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Amrish Puri.
  7. Beverly Hills Cop — IMDb 7.4, Rotten Tomatoes 84%, $316.4M box office. Directed by Martin Brest; starring Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton.
  8. The Karate Kid — IMDb 7.4, Rotten Tomatoes 81%, $130.8M box office. Directed by John G. Avildsen; starring Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, Elisabeth Shue.
  9. A Nightmare on Elm Street — IMDb 7.4, Rotten Tomatoes 93%, $57.1M box office. Directed by Wes Craven; starring John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp.
  10. Gremlins — IMDb 7.3, Rotten Tomatoes 87%, $212.9M box office. Directed by Joe Dante; starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton.

Top 10 movies of 1985

Marty McFly hits 88 mph, a Saturday detention becomes a generational touchstone, and Kurosawa goes epic.

  1. Back to the Future — IMDb 8.5, Rotten Tomatoes 93%, $393M box office. Directed by Robert Zemeckis; starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson.
  2. Ran — IMDb 8.2, Rotten Tomatoes 96%, $19M box office. Directed by Akira Kurosawa; starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu.
  3. The Breakfast Club — IMDb 7.8, Rotten Tomatoes 87%, $52.1M box office. Directed by John Hughes; starring Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall.
  4. Brazil — IMDb 7.8, Rotten Tomatoes 98%, $9.9M box office. Directed by Terry Gilliam; starring Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond.
  5. The Goonies — IMDb 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes 78%, $65M box office. Directed by Richard Donner; starring Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen.
  6. The Color Purple — IMDb 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes 73%, $98.4M box office. Directed by Steven Spielberg; starring Danny Glover, Adolph Caesar, Margaret Avery.
  7. Witness — IMDb 7.3, Rotten Tomatoes 91%, $117.1M box office. Directed by Peter Weir; starring Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Josef Sommer.
  8. Out of Africa — IMDb 7.2, Rotten Tomatoes 62%, $227.5M box office. Directed by Sydney Pollack; starring Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Klaus Maria Brandauer.
  9. Pee-wee's Big Adventure — IMDb 7.1, Rotten Tomatoes 78%, $40.9M box office. Directed by Tim Burton; starring Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger.
  10. Rambo: First Blood Part II — IMDb 6.5, Rotten Tomatoes 34%, $300.4M box office. Directed by George P. Cosmatos; starring Richard Crenna, Charles Napier, Steven Berkoff.

Top 10 movies of 1986

Top Gun owns the box office, Cameron turns Alien into a war film, and Ferris takes the day off.

  1. Aliens — IMDb 8.4, Rotten Tomatoes 93%, $131.1M box office. Directed by James Cameron; starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser.
  2. Stand by Me — IMDb 8.1, Rotten Tomatoes 89%, $54.3M box office. Directed by Rob Reiner; starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman.
  3. Platoon — IMDb 8.0, Rotten Tomatoes 89%, $138.5M box office. Directed by Oliver Stone; starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen.
  4. Castle in the Sky — IMDb 8.0, Rotten Tomatoes 96%. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki; starring Mayumi Tanaka, Keiko Yokozawa, Minori Terada.
  5. Ferris Bueller's Day Off — IMDb 7.8, Rotten Tomatoes 85%, $70.7M box office. Directed by John Hughes; starring Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck.
  6. Hannah and Her Sisters — IMDb 7.8, Rotten Tomatoes 91%, $40.1M box office. Directed by Woody Allen; starring Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher.
  7. Blue Velvet — IMDb 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes 87%, $8.6M box office. Directed by David Lynch; starring Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper.
  8. The Fly — IMDb 7.6, Rotten Tomatoes 82%, $60.6M box office. Directed by David Cronenberg; starring Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz.
  9. Big Trouble in Little China — IMDb 7.2, Rotten Tomatoes 65%, $11.1M box office. Directed by John Carpenter; starring Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun.
  10. Top Gun — IMDb 7.0, Rotten Tomatoes 55%, $360.6M box office. Directed by Tony Scott; starring Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer.

Top 10 movies of 1987

As you wish: fairy tales, satire, cops, and a creature hunting commandos in the jungle.

  1. Full Metal Jacket — IMDb 8.2, Rotten Tomatoes 84%, $120M box office. Directed by Stanley Kubrick; starring Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio.
  2. The Princess Bride — IMDb 8.0, Rotten Tomatoes 93%, $31M box office. Directed by Rob Reiner; starring Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon.
  3. Predator — IMDb 7.8, Rotten Tomatoes 65%, $98.3M box office. Directed by John McTiernan; starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers.
  4. The Untouchables — IMDb 7.8, Rotten Tomatoes 84%, $187M box office. Directed by Brian De Palma; starring Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Andy García.
  5. RoboCop — IMDb 7.6, Rotten Tomatoes 84%, $53.4M box office. Directed by Paul Verhoeven; starring Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy.
  6. Lethal Weapon — IMDb 7.6, Rotten Tomatoes 81%, $120.1M box office. Directed by Richard Donner; starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey.
  7. Planes, Trains and Automobiles — IMDb 7.6, Rotten Tomatoes 92%, $49.5M box office. Directed by John Hughes; starring Steve Martin, John Candy.
  8. Wall Street — IMDb 7.3, Rotten Tomatoes 77%, $43.8M box office. Directed by Oliver Stone; starring Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah.
  9. Dirty Dancing — IMDb 7.1, Rotten Tomatoes 71%, $214M box office. Directed by Emile Ardolino; starring Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Jerry Orbach.
  10. Fatal Attraction — IMDb 7.0, Rotten Tomatoes 75%, $320M box office. Directed by Adrian Lyne; starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer.

Top 10 movies of 1988

Yippee-ki-yay. A barefoot cop, a toon on the run and Studio Ghibli’s gentlest giant.

  1. Grave of the Fireflies — IMDb 8.5, Rotten Tomatoes 100%. Directed by Isao Takahata; starring Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara.
  2. Cinema Paradiso — IMDb 8.5, Rotten Tomatoes 91%, $36M box office. Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore; starring Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin, Antonella Attili.
  3. Die Hard — IMDb 8.2, Rotten Tomatoes 94%, $139.8M box office. Directed by John McTiernan; starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Alexander Godunov.
  4. My Neighbor Totoro — IMDb 8.1, Rotten Tomatoes 94%, $41M box office. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki; starring Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Hitoshi Takagi.
  5. Rain Man — IMDb 8.0, Rotten Tomatoes 88%, $354.8M box office. Directed by Barry Levinson; starring Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino.
  6. Akira — IMDb 8.0, Rotten Tomatoes 88%, $49M box office. Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo; starring Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama.
  7. Who Framed Roger Rabbit — IMDb 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes 96%, $351.5M box office. Directed by Robert Zemeckis; starring Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer.
  8. Beetlejuice — IMDb 7.4, Rotten Tomatoes 83%, $84.6M box office. Directed by Tim Burton; starring Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Jeffrey Jones.
  9. Big — IMDb 7.3, Rotten Tomatoes 97%, $151.7M box office. Directed by Penny Marshall; starring Tom Hanks, Jared Rushton, Elizabeth Perkins.
  10. Coming to America — IMDb 7.1, Rotten Tomatoes 70%, $288.8M box office. Directed by John Landis; starring Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, John Amos.

Top 10 movies of 1989

Batmania sweeps the planet, Spike Lee lights a fuse, and Disney’s renaissance begins under the sea.

  1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — IMDb 8.2, Rotten Tomatoes 84%, $474.2M box office. Directed by Steven Spielberg; starring Harrison Ford, Denholm Elliott, Alison Doody.
  2. Dead Poets Society — IMDb 8.1, Rotten Tomatoes 84%, $235.8M box office. Directed by Peter Weir; starring Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke.
  3. Do the Right Thing — IMDb 7.9, Rotten Tomatoes 92%, $37.3M box office. Directed by Spike Lee; starring Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee.
  4. Glory — IMDb 7.8, Rotten Tomatoes 95%, $27M box office. Directed by Edward Zwick; starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes.
  5. Back to the Future Part II — IMDb 7.8, Rotten Tomatoes 63%, $333M box office. Directed by Robert Zemeckis; starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson.
  6. When Harry Met Sally... — IMDb 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes 90%, $193M box office. Directed by Rob Reiner; starring Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher.
  7. The Little Mermaid — IMDb 7.6, Rotten Tomatoes 92%, $235M box office. Directed by John Musker, Ron Clements; starring René Auberjonois, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Jodi Benson.
  8. Batman — IMDb 7.5, Rotten Tomatoes 77%, $411.6M box office. Directed by Tim Burton; starring Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger.
  9. Field of Dreams — IMDb 7.5, Rotten Tomatoes 87%, $84.5M box office. Directed by Phil Alden Robinson; starring Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones.
  10. Driving Miss Daisy — IMDb 7.3, Rotten Tomatoes 85%, $145.8M box office. Directed by Bruce Beresford; starring Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd.
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