Top 80s Movies - The 100 top box office movie list for the 1980s

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So which top 80s movies managed to rake in the most money? Well Steven Speilberg and George Lucas cornered five of the top ten slots, including the first four positions. Interestingly, some of the most defining movies of the 80's barely made it into the charts. Airplane! came in at 81, Terminator at 84, Footloose followed at 85, BettleJuice at 95 and Ferris Bueller's Day Off scraped in at 99, only beating Private Benjamin (100) by the tiniest of margins for last place. Other notable top 80s movies to make to top 100 list include Rocky III and IV (the first two movies came out in the 76 and 79). If the original Star Trek movie had been made in the 1980s, it would have landed around 48th place, beating it's three sequels which enter the movie list at 68, 76 and 51 (respectively for II, II and IV).

The figures for the top 80s movie list are in US dollars and a number of factors need to be considered before you can look closely at them, for more details see The numbers game, which also gives a year by year total total box office.

RANK	FILM	BOX OFFICE $USM	YEAR OF RELEASE
1	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	705	1982
2	Return of the Jedi	573	1983
3	The Empire Strikes Back	513	1980
4	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	495	1989
5	Batman	413	1989
6	Rain Man	413	1988
7	Raiders of the Lost Ark	384	1981
8	Who Framed Roger Rabbit	349	1988
9	Back to the Future	348	1985
10	Top Gun	345	1986
11	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom	333	1984
12	Back to the Future Part II	332	1989
13	Crocodile Dundee	328	1986
14	Fatal Attraction	320	1987
15	Beverly Hills Cop	316	1984
16	Rocky IV	301	1985
17	Rambo: First Blood Part II	300	1985
18	Beverly Hills Cop II	300	1987
19	Look Who's Talking	297	1989
20	Ghostbusters	292	1984
21	Coming to America	289	1988
22	Crocodile Dundee II	240	1988
23	Out of Africa	240	1985
24	Dead Poets Society	236	1989
25	Lethal Weapon 2	227	1989
26	Honey, I Shrunk the Kids	223	1989
27	The Little Mermaid	222	1989
28	Twins	217	1988
29	Ghostbusters II	216	1989
30	For Your Eyes Only	195	1981
31	The Living Daylights	191	1987
32	A Fish Called Wanda	190	1988
33	Rambo III	189	1988
34	The Untouchables	186	1987
35	Octopussy	184	1983
36	Aliens	180	1986
37	Tootsie	177	1982
38	Dirty Dancing	170	1987
39	Three Men and a Baby	168	1987
40	Terms of Endearment	164	1983
41	Born on the Fourth of July	160	1989
42	Licence to Kill	156	1989
43	Platoon	153	1986
44	A View to a Kill	152	1985
45	The Golden Child	149	1986
46	Gremlins	148	1984
47	Driving Miss Daisy	146	1989
48	The Color Purple	142	1985
49	Die Hard	137	1988
50	Black Rain	134	1989

51	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home	133	1986
52	An Officer and a Gentleman	130	1982
53	Staying Alive	127	1983
54	Good Morning, Vietnam	124	1987
55	Rocky III	123	1982
56	Poltergeist	122	1982
57	On Golden Pond	119	1981
58	The Karate Kid, Part II	115	1986
59	Big	115	1988
60	Romancing the Stone	115	1984
61	Sea of Love	111	1989
62	The Abyss	110	1989
63	Superman II	108	1980
64	Porky's	106	1981
65	Nine to Five	103	1980
66	Stir Crazy	101	1980
67	Parenthood	100	1989
68	Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan	97	1982
69	Harlem Nights	96	1989
70	Arthur	96	1981
71	Flashdance	93	1983
72	When Harry Met Sally...	93	1989
73	Back to School	91	1986
74	The Karate Kid	91	1984
75	Trading Places	90	1983
76	Star Trek III: The Search for Spock	87	1984
77	Stripes	85	1981
78	Da Boot	85	1981
79	Steel Magnolias	84	1989
80	War of the Roses, The	84	1989
81	Airplane (aka Flying High)	83	1980
82	Police Academy	81	1984
83	Moonstruck	81	1987
84	The Terminator	80	1984
85	Footloose	80	1984
86	Coal Miner's Daughter	80	1980
87	WarGames	80	1983
88	Cocktail	78	1988
89	The Naked Gun	78	1988
90	The Name of the Rose	77	1986
91	Always	77	1989
92	Cocoon	76	1985
93	48 HRS	76	1982
94	Oliver & Company	74	1988
95	Beetlejuice	73	1988
96	Ruthless People	72	1986
97	Christmas Vacation	71	1989
98	Turner & Hooch	71	1989
99	Ferris Bueller's Day Off	70	1986
100	Private Benjamin	70	1980

Source: Worldwide Box Office. Note that there are probably some omissions of 80's movies from this list due to the lack of data.