List of 1984 box office number-one films in the United States

ugh not a great year

but I'm stunned at how MANY of these I actually saw in the theater, I guess I had nothing better going on

The Natural was a #1 movie!

I voted Breakin' because that's what six-year-old me would have voted for. I saw Splash, maybe Footloose, Temple of Doom, and The Search for Spock that year in theaters as well.

I just remember Purple Rain as being a sucky movie... whatever Prince's strengths were, leading man was not among them

as a kid it would have been Ghostbusters, now it's The Terminator. obv Temple of Doom is great, and I think Search for Spock is a pretty underrated Trek film that has the misfortune of being released between the two best Trek films.

I had no idea there was a Dud-starring remake of Unfaithfully Yours, almost certainly it sucks great gobs of suck

In spite of the lukewarm critical reception, the film was a minor commercial success.[8]

'Wolverines!'
I remember kinda liking Red Dawn in the theater, can't imagine I could sit through it now

good year to have been on SCTV. gotta be ghostbusters but splash a close second.

Ones I would ideally rewatch before voting: Silkwood and All of Me.

.38 Special title track from Teachers.

Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop had the most deleterious effect on movie comedy going forward. I watched the still-sorta-funny Ruthless People (from 1986) again a few days ago and it was instructive to see just how much the conventions of the "action comedy" had calcified in such a short time.

Almost voted for the actually funny and thrilling action comedy Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but going with the even funnier All of Me instead--probably the most revered of the Steve Martin/Carl Reiner collabs, even if I might regard the previous year's The Man With Two Brains slightly higher.

I realize how fucking racist Temple is but it does realize the "Sat afternoon bullshit cliffhanger" than Raiders does. I love the "Anything Goes" opening sequence. The heart-opening sequence is spectacularly edited. I even have patience for Kate Capshaw's airhead.

*more than Raiders does

.38 Special title track from Teachers.

all I remember about this film is my dad dropping me off and then sneaking off with my buddies to drink peppermint schnapps in a creek or something like that

did you have awful mullets

god no, even then I knew the mullet was wrong wrong wrong... but I'm sure we looked like idiots nonetheless

It was a good year for skipping the film and just listening to the soundtrack on your Walkman.

I hope All of Me holds up, it struck me as funny at the time.

It's not Tootsie but when Martin walks possessed by Tomlin it cracks me up.

listening to the soundtrack on your Walkman

oh the 'Axel F Theme' was everywhere! And certainly Purple Rain as well

This is The Terminator and it's not even close. A tough and nasty horror movie.

Oh, God, You Devil! (1984, 1h37m)

I've seen ... 16 of these? I suspect only two or three in the theaters, but a ton on video. It's either Ghostbusters or The Terminator, at least as far as legacy goes. A bunch of them I haven't seen in decades, and while I remember enjoying them at the time, I do wonder how something like Splash holds up. For sure the last time I saw Beverly Hills Cop is was kind of generic, but it's also a template of sorts, so not fair. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is the best Friday, Police Academy probably the, er, best Police Academy. Silkwood, All of Me, The Natural ... sort of auteur legacy films? Don't recall disliking any of those. For that matter, don't recall disliking any of the 16 or so I've seen, but I bet of those Missing in Action holds up the worst.

I can pretty much picture the TV print ads and showtimes for all of these.

xp John Denver's film career was kind of a feather in his cap.. not what he's generally known for, but had a fair amount of success nonetheless, maybe like Sinatra

rando selection of other notables of 1984, for context:
Repo Man
This Is Spinal Tap
Children of the Corn
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
Moscow on the Hudson
Sixteen Candles
Firestarter
Streets of Fire
Gremlins
Under the Volcano
The Karate Kid
Bachelor Party
Conan the Destroyer
The NeverEnding Story
Revenge of the Nerds
The Philadelphia Experiment
Amadeus
Irreconcilable Differences
Paris, Texas
The Killing Fields
Dune
1984

I remember Amadeus & The Killing Fields being bigger than I guess they actually were

I've seen 16 of those, too! Four in the theatre?

I included Under the Volcano because I love the book and I love Albert Finney, but I think it bombed... I watched it awhile back on Criterion or somewhere and it's not bad at all, just maybe not what Americans were looking for that year

Not one of my favorites from 1984, but All of Me is solid - Martin and Tomlin do some of their best work here, so it gets my vote.

rando selection of other notables of 1984, for context:

What a year for soundtracks.

Not big box office by any means, but '84 also had Choose Me, Stranger Than Paradise, Blood Simple, Body Double, The Brother from Another Planet...

I remember Amadeus & The Killing Fields being bigger than I guess they actually were

Well those two films grossed much more than, say, Supergirl, they just weren't number ones.

Low bar, I know, but is Splash Ron Howard's best film?

Not big box office by any means, but '84 also had Choose Me, Stranger Than Paradise, Blood Simple, Body Double, The Brother from Another Planet...

Absolutely. I don't like the direction Hollywood took as the '80s wore on, but it's the decade where independent films really began to flourish - a lot of the best and boldest work in the U.S. was done in the margins.

There's also Love Streams, Stop Making Sense (which he Demme did after Goldie Hawn ruined what would've been her best movie) and I'll add a few international productions connected to North America:
Next Of Kin [Atom Egoyan], Once Upon a Time in America [Sergio Leone, the "long version" and not the butchered one demanded by the U.S. distributor] and Paris, Texas [Wim Wenders]

(whoops, Paris, Texas already mentioned)

Its hard not to look back at these through the lens of 13 year old me, which liked Footloose and Temple of Doom, neither of which I'd enjoy on a rewatch. I don't think I've even heard of a few of the #1s in that list!

1984 began the dreariest streak of BP winners

A lot of these movies remind me of my earliest cable TV experiences more than anything. Like, I remember next to nothing about Teachers or the '84 Unfaithfully Yours other than their constant presence on cable for a year or so.

xp Never mind winners, there's barely a nominee I'd watch again from the rest of the decade.

a lot of the best and boldest work in the U.S. was done in the margins

This rings true. There were a number of lower budget films from '84 that I remember fondly: Angel; Night of the Comet; Alphabet City. This was also the year of Ken Russell's Crimes of Passion.

Razorback!

The Terminator just over Ghostbusters, both great imo. Purple Rain and Breakin' are obviously classic but not quite good movies. Rewatched Beverly Hills Cop with the kids not too many years ago, it was better than I remembered it being. Eddie Murphy was just such a live wire, and the rest of the cast is good too. All of Me is good. Splash is OK. The Indiana Jones and Star Trek movies are steps down from their predecessors. As a lefty teen I boycotted Red Dawn and haven't seen it to this day. Silkwood I only sort of remember, it's solid. The Unfaithfully Yours remake is late-period Dudley Moore, redundant and not a patch on the original.

I'm stunned at how MANY of these I actually saw in the theater, I guess I had nothing better going on

Yep! I was 14/15 in 1984, none of my friends had driver's licenses yet, one thing we could do was get someone to take us to movies. So I saw a bunch of these in theaters. I remember my mom came in with me and my friends to get us into Purple Rain, and the woman at the ticket counter wouldn't let her just vouch for us, she had to buy a ticket. My mom was like, "I'm just going to leave immediately," and the woman said she'd come throw us out if she did. (Ticket office people were super nazis about R-rated movies in those days.) My mom did leave immediately, so I spent the whole movie half expecting the ticket-booth lady to come grab me and my friends and toss us out. She didn't though.

Its weird, I dont recall seeing any of these films in the cinema at the time. Not the #1 ones anyway. Other stuff peeps have mentioned I did. like Never Ending Story, and Gremlins. But much of the rest - later on TV, or a rented VHS as a later teen.

I realize how fucking racist Temple is but it does realize the "Sat afternoon bullshit cliffhanger" than Raiders does. I love the "Anything Goes" opening sequence. The heart-opening sequence is spectacularly edited. I even have patience for Kate Capshaw's airhead.

It is the pulpiest pulp Indiana Jones film for sure. And its highlights are some of the most iconic moments of the series. The spike room, mine cart escape, and bridge cutting scenes are probably my favorite action sequences in the entire series, and probably the most iconic to boot (after the Raiders opening sequence, of course)

Gremlins didn't hit #1 box office? Surprising

The Natural is such a weird movie, I remember as a kid wondering if I was supposed to find it inspiring or totall depressing. Redford isn’t even playing a human being in it afaict.

Glenn Close has joked often that she got her undeserved Oscar nomination purely on how Caleb Deschanel lit her.

Gremlins didn't hit #1 box office? Surprising

― sookie stackhausen (Jon not Jon), Friday, August 14, 2026 10:13 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Released on the same day as Ghostbusters.

I probably saw both that weekend at Har Mar Mall

Heh, I definitely saw Ghostbusters at Har Mar opening weekend (wasn't too into it, haven't rewatched) and Gremlins at Burnsville Center later that summer.

Ghostbusters works better if you watch it 100 times.

Its hard not to look back at these through the lens of 13 year old me, which liked Footloose and Temple of Doom, neither of which I'd enjoy on a rewatch.

Footloose was on the telly last Christmas, and it's really not bad. It's short, the dancing is solid, the songs are fun. I was surprised that my fifteen-year-old niece sat through the whole thing. OK, she slagged it off a bit, but she liked it.

All Of Me by a considerable margin

saw ghostbusters in the twin cities, probably the long gone Edina 1-2-3

definitely saw gremlins in a long shuttered drive in in Danbury, Connecticut (my family moved that summer)

saw ghostbusters in the twin cities, probably the long gone Edina 1-2-3

or York 1-2-3 come to think of it.

What a dire list. The Terminator was such an easy pick.

Same except Police Academy

sleeve is actually right about All of Me but Police Academy is the hero this list deserves

Low bar, I know, but is Splash Ron Howard's best film?

It was highly influential in one regard. In the year 1984 one would have had little luck finding a woman anywhere named Madison. By the mid-2000s it was a well-established girl's name.

ugh not a great year

FOH with this, many of these movies rule

what if the mermaid was on Malcolm X boulevard?

_ugh not a great year_

FOH with this, many of these movies rule

seriously!

yeah this list is epic

The Terminator checks more boxes than any other film on the list. It was highly popular. It was original. It was influential. It remains relevant. The acting, editing and cinematography were very fine. Just all around an excellent film. Its nearest competitors on the list all have various flaws that knock them down a peg or two.

NB: According to Wikipedia it was inspired by a "fever dream" James Cameron had.

Despite Ghostbusters being number one the week I was born, I had to go with Terminator.

The Woman in Red was number one in the UK - some other UK number ones that year: Gorky Park, Scarface, Never Say Never Again, Trading Places, Terms of Endearment, Romancing the Stone

Context:

List of 1982 box office number-one films in the United States

List of 1981 box office number-one films in the United States

Good movies:

The Terminator
Silkwood
All of Me
Ghostbusters
Temple of Doom
Tightrope

YMMV:

Purple Rain

Seeing Silkwood at age 13, I remember Silkwood/Streep flashing her boobs as a joke for her co-workers (if I've got that right).

I am a long-time Temple of Doom defender, but there are at least two films better than it here, maybe more.

Really? Explain how Teachers is better.

Haven't seen Teachers, or heard of it until just now.

This rings true. There were a number of lower budget films from '84 that I remember fondly: Angel; Night of the Comet; Alphabet City.

BOC cut a track (“Summa cum Laude”) for the teachers soundtrack that wasn’t used; it finally came out on their box set

Sorry to bore the non-Minnesotans but does anyone remember when the Roseville 4 changed from a first-run to a bargain theater? I feel like in 84 it was still first run.

I think I only started going there after it became a bargain theater. (I just looked up the first movie I remember seeing there, Clan of the Cave Bear, and that was '86.)

The current pope saw The Blues Brothers at Roseville 4 in 1980.

I remember bargain theaters. Man, I feel like they're taken for granted now, but that more has to do with changing times: a $1 to see fairly new movie in 35mm sounds like an insane deal nowadays. There were a few within a 15-20 minute drive of my family's home, but they're long gone now.

*they were taken for granted now

*to see a fairly new movie

In Portland, I've got a 100-year-old neighborhood movie theater with recently updated seats/screen/sound, where it's possible to see The Odyssey or whatever is showing for $5 on Tuesdays. Luckily the baseline here for the independent theaters is still $8-$10.

The current pope saw The Blues Brothers at Roseville 4 in 1980.
Welp, that’s enough ilxing for one day

Just the facts!

xps sometime in the 2010s, I saw a movie in Illinois for the first time in a couple of years. I had been back multiple times, but I never bothered to see a movie there again until then. It was at a pretty big multiplex with friends I've known since high school, and when the ticket seller told me the price, I immediately thought she assumed we were students since the school was nearby. It certainly couldn't be a matinee when it was already dark. Then I realized it wasn't that, it was because NYC prices are so goddamn high. I immediately told my friends, "in New York it's FIFTEEN!" or whatever it was at the time, and the seller just went "yeah, I know, New York's awful."

terminator

I was usually very good at just not going to a movie I didn’t want see no matter what my friends said but for some reason I let them pressure me into seeing Red Dawn
It was dire and I was too into my anti—Reaganite phase that I couldn’t enjoy the very high camp aspect

It was highly influential in one regard. In the year 1984 one would have had little luck finding a woman anywhere named Madison. By the mid-2000s it was a well-established girl's name.

OTM. The year before Splash came out, there were fewer than 5 girls born in the U.S. named Madison. Possibly even zero. (The SSA only lists names given to 5 or more babies, and Madison is not on the list for 1983.) The year after the movie came out, it was given to 301.

1983: <5
1984: 42
1985: 301
1986: 648
etc.

(I work with a Madison born in 1998. She was one of 17,786 female Madisons born that year.)

The me of today would either pick Purple Rain (mostly for Morris Day and Jerome, admittedly) or The Terminator, but 12-year-old me would pick Ghostbusters or Friday The 13th (which is definitely the best in the series except for Jason X).

Purple Rain is an abysmal movie that nevertheless everyone should watch.

Needs a fan edit that is just the performance scenes, or at least loses any dialogue that isn't spoken by Morris Day.

I would also leave in the shots of Wendy & Lisa smoking cigarettes

This thread may be the first place in history where anyone has remembered "Angel" "fondly." But I do remember the newspaper ad and tag line! "High school honor student by day, Hollywood hooker by night."

And whoever mentioned the year in soundtracks, otm. Purple Rain, Ghostbusters, Footloose, Beverly Hills Cop ... I owned three of these and listened to them often!! And while I didn't own Footloose, a good, what, five of those songs were ubiquitous on the radio?

xpost https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdkh0a5skN1ql0pf5o1_400.gifv

Oh geez, I remember seeing the VHS box for Angel when I was pretty young and thinking it looked sexy and fascinating. When I saw it in Jr High it was a slog.

sleazy slog is a dire combo

Have stuck my head in this thread a few times but not posted bc I've never seen most of these, and any that I have I definitely saw on tv (Splash) or as a rental long after their release (Indiana Jones). Maaaaybe saw Ghostbusters in the theatre but I'm just guessing. I have no memory of it.

I really was not plugged in during those years (and about the next decade...plus...okay nothing has changed).

I remember going to see ET ('82, as it turns out) and Return of the Jedi ('83) so I guess we went to about one movie a year?

Children of divorced parents (raises hand) saw a lot more movies on weekends with Dad.

lol my parents weren't divorced but I still saw a lot more movies with Dad. Mom wasn't necessarily interested in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner, Wrath of Khan, Back to the Future, etc.

I remember going to see ET ('82, as it turns out)

ET is one of my first movie theater memories, though I wonder if what I saw was the 1985 re-release.

Anyone watched that third Star Trek? BORING, a major letdown after the triumph of Wrath of Khan, the best of them all.

I definitely saw it, probably in the theater, but remember almost nothing about it. Definitely a downturn between the two best Star Trek movies.

lol my parents weren't divorced but I still saw a lot more movies with Dad. Mom wasn't necessarily interested in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner, Wrath of Khan, Back to the Future, etc.

Dad was down for stuff like Conan, the Road Warrior, etc.

Anytime I saw a movie with Mom it was something like Chariots Of Fire.

I was old enough to go to the cinema on my own then, or with my brother, at least. I’m sure I went to Temple of Doom more than once, for important reasons to do with being a fourteen-year-old hetero girl.

My parents divorced around this time and I saw so many movies. I would watch all of the schlocky/comedy/horror on my own and dramas with my mom and whatever else with my dad on the weekends. Movie rentals were a big thing, even the dinky country gas station had a weird selection of VHS tapes.

If past me could see that future me has instant access to all of the movies he would be pissed that I’m not constantly watching them.

My most iconic '80s-teen movie experiences were the two times a group of friends and I got permission from our parents to leave school early and ride our bikes 12 miles from our school along rural and suburban roads and highways to the nearest movie theater so we could see Return of the Jedi and Temple of Doom on their respective opening days. I guess this would have been in 8th and 9th grades.

We got a couple of dads to bring trucks to pick us and our bikes up so we didn't have to ride home in the dark after.

No idea if modern parents would still allow 13-year-olds to do something like that. I don't know if I would, but tbh my kids never had that much ambition lol.

I’ve seen maybe 5-8 of these, but not for a long time - I barely remember anything about them

This was the era when those of us in the UK had to wait six whole months before these films would reach our shores. Luckily there was no internet for spoilers back then.

Gremlins was given a 15 rating in the UK but I remember seeing it in the cinema and I would have turned 13 a couple of months earlier. Also remember a lot of parents bullied the poor cinema attendants into letting their six year old kids or whatever in to watch because Aww, Gizmo and then aforementioned kids leaving in streams of tears after witnessing numerous bloody deaths. Although at least they missed the Santa scene then so every cloud

From a British perspective it's surprising how many of those films I haven't even heard of. And I'm on Ilxor! I'm well-informed. For example Teachers. It was apparently released in the UK in February 1985, perhaps as some kind of contractual obligation, but I have no memory of it at all. And Unfaithfully Yours, which doesn't have a UK release date on the IMDB, so perhaps it was never shown over here.

We don't appear to have missed much. It was one of those "middle-aged man falls for a much younger woman, which is funny" films, like Woman in Red, which also came out in 1984.

Surprisingly I have no recollection of Tightrope, either. It comes from Eastwood's mid-1980s fallow period. It's surprising how much of his filmography has passed me by Looking at his filmography I have no memory at all of Honkytonk Man, City Heat, or even Pink Cadillac, which has a fantastic cast - Clint Eastwood and Bernadette Peters, together at last! From that point onwards he seemed to have a second wind, thus Unforgiven and In the Line of Fire etc.

I feel sad whenever I think of Bernadette Peters. "Do you have a balloon". She's such a super lady. I respect the cinematographer who had to fit Clint Eastwood and Bernadette Peters into the frame at the same time. A bit of googling implies that Eastwood spends most of the film leaning over or slouching:
https://outlawvern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/fi_pinkcadillac.jpg

That came out in 1989, but I have no organic memory of it whatsoever. I don't remember it being released and I have no recollection of it appearing on television. I can understand why some films never jump from the US to the UK - religious dramas and cultural spin-offs such as O.C. And Stiggs for example - but they were actual mainstream films. I guess nobody liked or hated them.

The Eastwood film is fascinating -- a mix of smart and grisly. A good part for Geneviève Bujold, at her peak during this era.

RE Tightrope, that is.

I definitely saw it, probably in the theater, but remember almost nothing about it. Definitely a downturn between the two best Star Trek movies.

same here, all I remember is the recap of 2 at the beginning

I was kinda fascinated with Teacher. The poster/vhs art had an apple with a fuse and it seemed to promise a scary look at what teacher’s lives were REALLY like. I saw bits of it on HBO but didn’t really understand it and was bored.

My mom normally let me watch whatever at a (too) young age. The two times she drew a line were Blue Velvet and Tightrope. We went to the theater and she kept me out of tightrope even though I was a big Eastwood fan, because it had scary sex stuff. I was sent off to watch a sword/sorcerer movie in which every woman was topless.

The only reason I've heard of Teachers is because when I was selling off a late acquaintance's record collection a few years back he had a CD copy of the soundtrack, it seemed purely for the purpose of Joe Cocker completism. Wikipedia makes it sound pretty bad, I'm not even letting it off the hook for the presence of Lee Grant in the cast list. Or Richard Mulligan.

Joe Cocker completism.

A phrase never before seen or read.

Get your collector's hat on
https://www.discogs.com/artist/124497-Joe-Cocker

38 SPECIAL Teacher Teacher
ROMAN HOLLIDAY One Foot Back In Your Door
JOE COCKER Edge Of A Dream (‘Teachers’ Theme)
NIGHT RANGER Interstate Love Affair
FREDDIE MERCURY Foolin’ Around
ZZ TOP Cheap Sunglasses
BOB SEGER Understanding
ERIC MARTIN I Can’t Stop The Fire
THE MOTELS In the Jungle (Concrete Jungle)
IAN HUNTER (I’m The) Teacher

i watched silkwood p recently, good movie.. also features this quote

Morgan: When I was in the service, I saw this gook drink a glass of milk through his pecker.
Karen Silkwood: What? Then, what happened?
Morgan: Didn't follow him home to find out.

The cover for With A Little Help From My Friends is such a firm NO for me. It’s incredibly shallow but I do not want whatever lies within that sleeve.

38 SPECIAL Teacher Teacher

Quality tune.

IAN HUNTER (I’m The) Teacher

in case we missed the point

Listening to Mercury's "Foolin' Around" for the first time ever, with dueling key-tar/guitar solos.

This was almost the last year I went to the movies just for the sake of seeing something. My dad and I saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom while we were on vacation and it was the first "event movie" that really felt like it didn't ignite my imagination at all afterwards. I saw two others in the theatre that year and Purple Rain on TV sometime afterwards.

I'm voting for Tightrope just because a screenwriting professor showed it as an example of screenwriting at its most efficient, like "if your screenplay is as good as this movie's it will work". I don't remember much but I remember fewer details that annoy me than the others I've seen.

38 SPECIAL Teacher Teacher
JOE COCKER Edge Of A Dream (‘Teachers’ Theme)

These two songs were written by my musical nemesis Bryan Adams and so got plenty of Cancon airplay on the video shows at the height of Reckless fever. The 38 Special song contains the line "what you learned is soon forgotten", and even at the time I could handle Pink Floyd putting down education, but not Bryan Fucking Adams.

Somehow only seen seven of these - maybe an age-cohort thing, being born in '81. Out of those, Terminator very easily.

I went with Beverly Hills Cop, since I’d watch that again.

I probably went out to the movies more often in 1984 and 1985 than at any other time in my life. Not one of the many theaters I frequented back then exists anymore and in most cases the building has been demolished.

If you are curious about the old local theaters in your area I would recommend the site cinematreasures.org where you can punch in the name of an old theater and usually get some good info about it, plus photos if anyone's dug any up.

I was 9 years old in 1984, so was relatively limited in what I could see in theatres, but I feel like we got our VCR (Betamax!) somewhere around there and I definitely rented the hell out of all sorts of stuff.

I recall Silkwood making good use of Kurt Russell's charisma. Iirc he's sort of playing a Kris Kristofferson sort of role? I don't remember. Cher is good in it, too.

I feel like Eastwood's whole run is full of strange twists and turns, Tightrope included. It came right after Sudden Impact, right? And before Pale Rider, which was sort of his return to man with no name western? But yeah, until the '90s run he was doing these odd swings from genre to genre: broad comedy, western, noir, action/military, etc. Tightrope was sort of neo-De Palma, but as is surprisingly often the case Eastwood's performance is trickier and more complex/nuanced than his tough guy conservative persona would imply.

Yeah, Cinema Treasures is an amazing site!

I was 13-14 but also had watched Sneak Previews / At The Movies more consistently than any other show, so even then, thanks to Siskel and Ebert, had a sense of which new movies would be more worth seeing. I do remember them finding Tightrope a bit freaky.

Oh, and here's the episode, reviewing Tightrope, Revenge of the Nerds,The Woman in Red, and Red Dawn.

All I remember from The Woman in Red (if I remember this right) is Gene Wilder grabbing the ass of someone on the escalator step ahead of him (?!?).

As one does.

cannot believe I'm two years older than doctor casino

Man, Revenge of the Nerds might be the most heinous entertainment that I enjoyed as a youth. About ten years ago I started thinking about it and it was a big WTF DID I WATCH in hindsight. I saw the sequel in the theater.

Looks like Under the Volcano is on YT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f3fNpcDGyU

a major letdown after the triumph of Wrath of Khan, the best of them all.

So many qualifications to make here, lol. Yes, 3 is bad and boring, so sure, Khan is better, and in fact Khan indeed may be the best of them all ... but that's because most of them are bad or boring. And Khan a "triumph"? Dunno about that. I just saw this pretty entertaining video from theoretical physicist/Trekkie/excellent youtuber Angela Collier taking it down more than a few pegs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a84J54i_na8

I was 13-14 but also had watched Sneak Previews / At The Movies more consistently than any other show

yeah that was me too, same ages. I remember their reviews of dreck like Where the Boys are ‘84 and Blame it on Rio

You can't be a "Trekkie" if you don't like The Wrath of Khan.

Man, Revenge of the Nerds might be the most heinous entertainment that I enjoyed as a youth. About ten years ago I started thinking about it and it was a big WTF DID I WATCH in hindsight.

Yeah I haven't seen it since the '80s but at some point I remember realizing "Wait, that movie ends with a rape presented as a comedic triumph."

In light of the allegations against Timothy Busfield, it's pretty amazing how that movie continues to age really, really badly.

(though honestly, it's hard to imagine nobody saying "wtf is this shit" when it came out)

WoK is a good movie but it also is the start of the persisting idea that Star Trek can be “awesome” which is so wrong. Star Trek should never be awesome.

If you are feeling thrills and chills something is not right.

A lot of movies are big bummers once you start noticing who the objects of violence and ridicule are, over and over. There's already been a racial slur dropped in this thread in a quote. Sixteen Candles leans heavily on anti-Asian slurs AND rape, super fun.

So many qualifications to make here, lol. Yes, 3 is bad and boring, so sure, Khan is better, and in fact Khan indeed may be the best of them all ... but that's because most of them are bad or boring. And Khan a "triumph"? Dunno about that

The screenplay has some lovely dialogue that makes Kirk into a credible aging palooka. I will hear no criticism -- and I can't stand these movies and have never been a Trekkie.

Seen it a dozen times but purple rain is still bad. It was bad even watching it right after he died lol. But the sheer 84-ness of it is classic.

If nightmare on elm street was in this id vote for that.

I was a 14 yr old Echo& the Bunnymen fan, persuaded to go to see Purple Rain by my friend Sean, a 14 yr old Price fan. I thought it was cringeworthy. Didn't like the music either; it put me off Prince for years. Still not mad on that album.

I watched it and loved it for years. Only as an adult I realised it's not actually great as a movie. has princes best acting performance though (saw under the cherry moon recently which is ten times worse and makes purple rain look much better because his acting there is... not really acting).

wow, I've seen 16 of these. Most of them in the theater too. Difficult to not just auto vote for The Terminator and move on

So many qualifications to make here, lol. Yes, 3 is bad and boring, so sure, Khan is better, and in fact Khan indeed may be the best of them all ... but that's because most of them are bad or boring. And Khan a "triumph"? Dunno about that

The screenplay has some lovely dialogue that makes Kirk into a credible aging palooka. I will hear no criticism -- and I can't stand these movies and have never been a Trekkie.

It's the Star Trek movie for people who hate Star Trek eh.

Truly.

Star Trek 5 is one of those special single masterpieces by a great actor, like Night of the Hunter.

Pretty sure I saw Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop more or less 'at the time' as a child, though some were possibly on VHS circa 1985-86. I've no particular inclination to revisit any of that sort of thing. Nor Splash, Police Academy or Purple Rain which I definitely saw when slightly older. Weirdly, I have no idea whether I ever saw The Terminator -- I do wonder occasionally.

One thing I *would* like to revisit is Teachers. I saw it a little more recently, in a tutorial, in the course of obtaining a GradDipEd, of all places!!! Really curious to have a fresh look at the lessons trainee teachers might have been expected to glean from it!

i first saw Terminator on TV with an introduction by Mark Cousins and the way he talked about the psychogeography of it, the city as a maze, is maybe my introduction to film criticism, and something that has always stuck with me.

love pretty much all the star trek TOS movies except for search for spock. "is wrath of khan a bad movie" is a less interesting question to me than "is the motion picture or even the final frontier a good one"

https://i.ibb.co/d4KjfD94/4-Fb2-Vzi-Jwvyeds-KJU52-G25.jpg

Those outfits looked like such elegant sleepwear

I've always enjoyed TMP! It's a bit cerebral and surreal, boasts spectacular visuals, has a great soundtrack, takes real risks, but the pacing/editing are off in spots and for some reason everyone loves to hate it.

Watch it high sometime it's great

Despite all the endless "electric boogaloo" sequel jokes, did anyone see Breakin'?

I saw Breakin' on TV sometime later. It's not "good," but what a time capsule. Ice-T!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rXS7q9zS90

It was also interesting that it was set in L.A. even though all the cultural reference points for hip-hop in 1984 were NYC. A foreshadowing.

Much more worth watching is the documentary that inspired it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFkgObeA8AU

cannot believe I'm two years older than doctor casino

lol wait why??

Despite all the endless "electric boogaloo" sequel jokes, did anyone see Breakin'?

Yes, in the theater

My older brother was into breakdancing, we also saw Breakin 2 in the theater

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Temple of Doom. I should really get around to seeing Terminator someday. (just saw Aliens for the first time last week - in the theater! great!)

Weirdly, I have no idea whether I ever saw The Terminator -- I do wonder occasionally.

Watched it, if only to clear up the mystery. Nope, I'd definitely never see more than excerpts. Can certainly appreciate the craft, etc. Amusingly, I suspect that that final Schwarzenegger-free 15 or so minutes is what is going to stick with me!

What are you talking about, that was Schwarzenegger's actual rampaging robot skeleton, the dude is committed.

:)

Unfortunately Mark Cousins on its psychogeography, as mentioned by CaAL, has proved elusive so far. (Despite an abundance of similar segments on the interwebs.)

cannot believe I'm two years older than doctor casino
lol wait why??

― Basic Instructions Before Darning Dream (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 18 August 2026 17:13 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

You just seem like an old-timer, maybe due to the prestige conferred by your PhD.

I am older than one or two old-timers though, and this is also odd to me. Why did I not really go on ILX until the mid 2010s when I was on one of its precursors?

NNN, it was just a five-minute introduction on the BBC around 1993, very unlikely to be online I'm afraid.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wow it's a blowout

not a single vote for Splash?

noticed that as well, that's possibly the biggest mermaid movie of all time

This is The Terminator and it's not even close. A tough and nasty horror movie.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Thursday, August 13, 2026 8:50 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Impressive.

(XXXP) re: Mark Cousins, it definitely seemed improbable, but it immediately felt like I was tantalisingly close with THIS sort of THING !

I loved Splash as a kid, haven’t seen it since then. I had a frisky dream about a mermaid after seeing it.

whoa I stand corrected

Splash grossed $6,174,059 on its opening weekend and finished its run with a gross of $69.8 million in the United States and Canada

During its original 1989 theatrical release The Little Mermaid made $6.1 million in its opening weekend. Throughout the initial run, it earned $84.4 million at the North American box office

Good ranking, top 3 are right imo.

Or I guess the top 4 since there's a tie.

really want the 'Purple Rain' voters to stand and be counted, that is objectively not a good film unless you're a superfan or something

I wanna know who else voted for Friday the 13th.

Purple Rain is not a good film, but it's a cultural treasure imo. So it's kind of hard to weigh its merits, although I agree that they aren't cinematic.

Like if I could only save five movies on this list from being deleted from the world, Purple Rain would be one of them.

but we can delete Under the Cherry Moon, right?

Under the Cherry Moon, I'll maintain, is a bad film that's more interesting than PR. But PR owned its cultural moment and no way I'd say he shouldn't have made it.

Yeah Cherry Moon is only for the heads. It's kind of amazing it exists, but it's not exactly essential.

Has anyone actually ever seen Graffiti Bridge? I owned the CD but the movie is, I believe, only available for screening as a double bill with The Day The Clown Cried.

Definitely not. I liked the album fine, but also probably haven't listened to it this century.

The actual best Prince film is the Sign o the Times concert movie.

I just played the soundtrack to Graffiti Bridge after seeing it was released on this day in 1990. It's not one of his greats, but it's surprisingly enjoyable. You can kind of pretend it's a Paisley Parks Records sampler, an hour's worth of music from all the acts Prince signed and produced for his label. The only real dud for me was the title track, and there's near the end.

Shortly after Prince died, this guy who worked on Graffiti Bridge did some kind of group interview/discussion with other people who worked with Prince, and he attests that Prince was a workaholic who wouldn't go to sleep. So the biggest stress was keeping up with Prince because at this point it was just him and Prince working on the film. (I thought it was editing, but Rebecca Ross is credited as the editor and I don't think that was the person doing this interview.) I think he said they were up for two days straight working on the movie, and when Prince came in to talk about the movie, Prince literally falls asleep in mid-sentence because he's completely beat. The guy looked around and as it sank in that he was the last man standing, he went "I win!"

*that's near the end

Ah, found the story! (got a few details wrong)

Prince worked with the filmmaker-trained ["Purple Rain” assistant director and tour manager Craig Rice] on many movie projects after “Purple Rain,” including the rather incredible to hear about project for NKOTB around the height of their teenybopper fame. “He didn’t want every movie he made to be about him,” Rice explained. As for a movie that did get made, he recounted the boss telling him to toughen up as they stayed up for four nights straight to get through the editing process of “Graffiti Bridge.” But it was Prince who finally caved. Said Rice, “Mid-sentence, he fell asleep, and I said, ‘I did it!'”

NKOTB is New Kids on the Block

The actual best Prince film is the Sign o the Times concert movie.

Yeah, it was streaming not too long ago and then came out on Blu-Ray. Definitely worth watching if you've never seen it.

During a Prince binge I decided to treat myself to a Prince movie marathon. Purple Rain is not a good movie but it's a fun bad movie and the performances are great. I was pretty stoked about Under The Cherry Moon because Parade is the best, but it was a drag. Interesting, but a drag. Prince does not know how to be funny. I bailed halfway into Graffiti Bridge. What if you crossed the worst parts of Purple Rain with Joel Schumacher's Batman aesthetic, with a soundtrack that's 80% shit? That's Graffiti Bridge.

Prince does not know how to be funny.

I do always chuckle at his reaction shot in the "Kiss" clip, when his love interest mimes the baritone "Yeah!"

He reminds me of Madonna, in that they both seem to think they are funny and they have an affection for old Hollywood madcaps that they aspire for but it doesn’t fit.

Madonna and Prince are funny in video, not in feature films; they work in moments.

He was pretty good in that episode of New Girl iirc

Camaraderie: ha, fair enough! i still think of myself as one of the youngsters around these parts, sometimes.

I voted Purple Rain, on the basis of "which movie would I want to watch now". Honestly, that and Terminator are the only ones that struck me as worth a repeat viewing, and the only one's I've given a repeat viewing in this century. And I enjoyed both immensely. The love here for All of Me is making me think it holds up and I'd probably actually watch that next. I've been a hater on Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop since they came out.

Oh, God, You Devil! 3

lol come forward, voters

I’ve only seen the one with the little girl (Oh God, Book 2)?

alls i'm gonna say is it got 3 votes and maybe we have some very special lurkers

Prince does not know how to be funny

bullshit, his muppets tonight episode is hilarious (as is under the cherry moon)

and he was reliably a trip on late night shows

Okay I’m wrong, but UTCM was so painfully unfunny I am not willing to rewatch it with fresh eyes. I will take Ivy’s word that there are treasures there I can’t see, you could liken it to the ultraviolet spectrum even.

Prince can be funny in the moment IRL (“I live in my heart Matt Damon”) but I don’t think that ever translated into him writing a funny movie on his own. His few guest appearances on other comedies were almost entirely written by those show’s writers even though he approved or contributed a few ideas.

Prince was capable of being funny, or humorous at least, in songs, on stage, with facial gestures, etc, but not in movies, not while acting. Esp not when writing his scripts. The fan revisionism on UTCM is that it's a better representation of prince as he was in real life, which may or may not be true, but if true, that means he was unfunny, totally enamored with himself, and constantly posing/mugging/hamming it up - hard to get much out of the Christopher Tracy character or prince himself really. Dirty rotten scoundrels did the UTCM premise way better. I can't think of anything good to say about graffiti bridge. Apparently Madonna was asked to be in it but she hated it. It's a shame rep cinemas show PR fairly regularly but not SOTT.

The prince outtake movie star from around the same time as UTCM is basically the Christopher Tracy character better encapsulated in four mins than the whole film. Really though, Morris day should have starred as CT in UTCM, not prince. He might have redeemed it.

i’ve always wanted someone to do an edit of purple rain that took out most of the script, all of the misogyny and just kept the crowd scenes, the incredible performances and maybe a couple of sick shots of prince riding up on his motorbike, like 45 mins long, would be perfect

All of Me was during Steve Martin’s imperial phase, and he and Lily Tomlin are simply tremendous in it, but i’m going by my memory of having seen it in the cinema aged 10. It’s been pretty completely memory holed which is weird right? Big movie, big stars, unique premise? A few years ago I looked for it on torrent sites, the only copy I found was like 480p!

in fact I’d go so far as to say it’s probably the performance of Steve Martin’s life?

I won't argue. Roxanne and Pennies from Heaven vie for second place.

He's great in those Reiner collabs, even though it took until The Man With Two Brains and All of Me for the films to match his energy and invention.

'Course, I'm enough of a fan that I'd put Planes Trains and Automobiles and L.A. Story among his best as well.

"Amusingly, I suspect that that final (spoiler) 15 or so minutes is what is going to stick with me!"

I'm reminded of the old Sergio Leone quote about Clint Eastwood, which was something to the effect that "Michaelangelo looked at a block of stone, and saw David, where I looked at Clint Eastwood and saw a block of stone". He probably said it in Italian. Ho visto un blocco di granito. Except that in the case of The Terminator, James Cameron looked at Arnold Schwarzenegger and saw a hyperalloy combat skeleton.

And I mean technically he looked at Lance Henriksen first, because the original plan was to have Henriksen as The Terminator, which makes a certain amount of sense because he was supposed to be a sneaky infiltration unit. But on the other hand the plot worked better if the good guy was a scrawny weed and the baddy was a giant bodybuilder, so they cast Schwarzenegger as the baddy and hired Michael Biehn as the hero instead.

I mean, they could have had Henriksen as the hero... and I suppose technically he was a hero in that film, and so he was playing against type. You know, I remember watching Millennium when it was new, and there was a mass of hype about it, and I've had no desire to re-evaluate it in the thirty years since it was on television. And yet it wasn't bad, it was just very much of its time, which was not 1984.

No, 1984 was a happy time. An upbeat, sunlit year of endless possibilities. Women in bikinis on roller skates! The Space Shuttle! The only war was the Cola War, which sadly led to the destruction of Challenger two years later when a Tab Clear can ruptured, but that was two years away.

and Henriksen has a supporting role in The Terminator -- compensation!

I'd love to at least briefly visit that universe where Henriksen played the Terminator - even better than the Stallone scenario presented in Last Action Hero. I can totally see it for a lot of the scenes, and maybe even working better for the atmosphere of methodical, sinister dread. Cameron basically got the good-guy version of that performance in Alien, like that great shot of Henriksen inching through a pipe, and it's great.

But in practical terms, his smaller frame might have put pressure on the design of the puppets and prosthetics; having a huge guy makes it a lot easier to accept that this robot skeleton is hidden inside him. And of course, we know now that Arnold's visible, muscular unstoppability is as crucial to the film's dreadful tone as the soundtrack and the bleary always-nighttime setting. Henriksen would give the Terminator the fixation of a brilliant serial killer or blank-eyed sociopath, and it'd probably be a pretty cool movie. Schwarzenegger gives it the mute and overpowering purpose of a diesel train engine, and it's a magic classic.

Sad to have missed this thread even though I've only ever seen about three or four of these films. Temple of Doom was a fun one to return to as an adult. I only ever saw the heavily cut British PG as a child and the uncut/PG-13 version does open up the brutality a lot more. Gremlins may have been hacked the same way had the BBFC not decided that tonally it was not possible to bring the rating down (hence the conservative 15 mentioned upthread).

Last night we were looking for a ~90-minute comedy; thinking of this thread, I flagged All of Me in our streaming options and we had a mostly good time with it. To be clear, at dead center of the plot is a brownface performance by Richard Libertini as the Wacky South Asian Mystic who sets the whole thing in motion. There's hints of homophobia in the comedy of effeminacy that comes out of Martin sharing a body with Tomlin. And the whole last act at the mansion is just kind of dull and light on laughs.

The main pleasure to be had here - and it's a real one - is Martin's off-the-charts physical comedy, especially in the sidewalk scene when Tomlin first possesses him, and the showstopper courtroom scene where he's supposed to be "asleep" and she's puppeteering him in a parody of "acting like a man." Jim Carrey, eat your heart out! Tomlin gets way less to do, by the nature of the premise, but still cracked me up with a couple of her overwrought poor-me scenes.

We recently had a Steve Martin weekend, rewatching The Jerk, Three Amigos, and All Of Me. Three Amigos was fine, definitely the least of the bunch. The Jerk is always going to win but All Of Me is the better movie. Tomlin & Martin are a great pair.

Three Amigos may not be great, but this scene still makes me laugh as much as it did when I was 10:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlhwKixtW08

It definitely has its moments. I love the scene with the very fake sunset and all of the critters grooving along.

It definitely has its moments. I love the scene with the very fake sunset and all of the critters grooving along.

Was The Incredible Shrinking Woman the only big Tomlin production?

9 to 5! Nashville! Big Business!

I don’t know Big Business, but those others shared some serious co-billing. I’m talking like what The Jerk
was for Martin.

Big Business is essentially a two-hander with Bette Midler - they each play a pair of twins, separated at birth and raised as country mice and city mice. So I take the ensemble point - though if anyone's the centerpiece of Nashville, she is, and it's her sole Oscar nom.

Hollywood sexism has to be part of the picture here... I think Shrinking Woman would have needed to do much, much better business to convince execs that audiences would reliably turn out to see a funny lady who wasn't Goldie Hawn.