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Highest Grossing 1980s Movies

Here is a list of the top 20 box office hits of the 1980s. How many can you name?
U.S. gross - not adjusted for inflation
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 7, 2019
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First submittedDecember 23, 2012
Times taken55,276
Average score65.0%
Rating4.42
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Gross
Clue
Answer
$359 m
Reeses-loving alien wants to return to his home planet
E.T.: The Extra-
Terrestrial
$253 m
Once again, galactic rebels must blow up a gigantic space station
The Return of the Jedi
$251 m
The Caped Crusader faces his greatest enemy
Batman
$235 m
Brash Detroit detective goes to sunny California to solve a crime
Beverly Hills Cop
$229 m
Quartet of paranormal exterminators must save New York
Ghostbusters
$211 m
A teenager must travel to the 1950s to help his parents hook up
Back to the Future
$210 m
Whip-wielding adventurer races Nazis to obtain a powerful relic
Raiders of the Lost Ark
$209 m
Galactic rebels are on the run from the Imperial fleet and a bounty hunter
The Empire Strikes Back
$197 m
Whip-wielding adventurer races Nazis to obtain a different powerful relic
Indiana Jones and the
Last Crusade
$180 m
Professor and his short friend crash land in India and discover
a cult where hearts are removed from living bodies
Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom
$177 m
Actor uses crossdressing to advance his career
Tootsie
$177 m
Talented but reckless pilot learns how to dogfight at an elite Navy school
Top Gun
$175 m
Australian bushman woos a sophisticated Sheila from the States
Crocodile Dundee
$173 m
Shallow young man reconnects with his brother, an autistic savant
Rain Man
$168 m
Hilarity ensues as three confirmed bachelors are forced to take care of an infant
Three Men and a Baby
$157 m
Crazed woman stalks a married man with whom she had a one-night stand
Fatal Attraction
$156 m
Cartoon characters live in the real world, and one of them is accused of murder
Who Framed
Roger Rabbit
$154 m
For the second time, Calfornia police get an assist from a
down and dirty Detroit detective
Beverly Hills Cop II
$150 m
Commando returns to Vietnam to free American POWs
Rambo:
First Blood Part II
$148 m
Cute animal from Chinatown multiplies then mutates into
evil and mischievous creatures
Gremlins
+2
Level 66
Dec 9, 2016
Why can I never remember Crocodile Dundee?! It's on EVERY QUIZ!
+1
Level 82
Dec 18, 2017
I can never remember the Star Wars or Indiana Jones movies.......they're all the same to me.
+1
Level 82
May 15, 2021
It's not on the Name the Popes quiz...
+2
Level 65
Dec 6, 2021
It should be named "Thats not a knife" movie
+2
Level 58
Dec 23, 2016
The only one I've never seen is Rain Man. And also the only one I missed.
+5
Level 75
Apr 5, 2017
Hmm. I wonder if there's a correlation?

But you should really see it.

+1
Level 88
Jul 22, 2018
See it. Even if you are into the adventure blockbuster stuff like on the list.
+1
Level 89
Jun 16, 2020
I've somehow managed to see all of them.
+1
Level 81
Apr 16, 2017
I've only seen Star Wars and Back to the Future. 17/20 not bad
+1
Level 29
Apr 28, 2017
I wonder if 3 Türken & ein Baby is loosely based on 3 Men and A Baby...
+4
Level 61
May 22, 2017
maybe, the American film is based on an earlier French film itself. Trois hommes et un couffin
+1
Level 66
Jun 16, 2020
Which was itself based on the 1950s Eethray Enmay anday ay Abybay
+5
Level 82
May 15, 2021
which may have been based on an earlier story about 3 Magi in a Manger
+1
Level 12
May 22, 2017
"Caped Crusader" could also refer to Zorro, that is, if the Zorro movies were in the 80's
+1
Level 61
May 22, 2017
Zorro in the 80's was a TV Zorro basicly.
+3
Level 88
Jul 22, 2018
Since it's capitalized it could also pertain to a nickname for someone specifically....
+1
Level 67
May 22, 2017
How did only 37% get Batman? Only 63% got E.T., only 66% got Empire Strikes Back, and only 75% got Return of the Jedi. Kind of disappointing.
+2
Level 46
Sep 5, 2017
It blows my mind.
+1
Level 88
Jul 22, 2018
Batman was terrible, like someone forgot to pay the light bill, but still it's obnoxiously famous enough to know.
+6
Level 89
Jun 16, 2020
Is Batman supposed to be a light superhero?
+5
Level 86
Dec 18, 2017
Harrison Ford had a good decade, didn't he? In five of the top movies. Six, if his scene hadn't been cut from ET.
+2
Level 82
Dec 18, 2017
Pretty sure he was the highest paid actor of the era, if it wasn't Eddie Murphy or Tom Cruise.
+1
Level 67
Dec 18, 2017
TIL
+1
Level 66
Dec 18, 2017
Only missed Fatal Attraction, which I've heard of but never seen, and mix up with other movies frequently.
+3
Level 82
Dec 26, 2017
I can't remember, which is the one about the unstable woman who does unspeakable things with a bunny, and which one was Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
+2
Level 76
Jul 5, 2023
How dare you imply that Jessica Rabbit is unstable! She's not bad. She's just drawn that way.
+2
Level 66
Dec 19, 2017
I think Three Men and a Baby was more like "Mediocrity ensues as three confirmed bachelors are forced to take care of an infant."
+2
Level 44
Dec 19, 2017
While clearly it didn't throw anyone off, your summation of BTTF is not quite accurate....He accidentally travels back to the 50s, then must get his parents to hook up after unintentionally interacting with them...he didn't go there to get them to hook up.
+1
Level 88
Jul 22, 2018
I guess for all the press, praise and enormous extra actor participation that Gandhi had, peaceful thought provocation lost out to Teddy bears replacing a dog bear committing genocide against an entire mechanical planet....again.
+2
Level 67
Jun 16, 2020
Edgy.
+1
Level 48
Jan 21, 2019
100%... wow there are some surprisingly and disappointingly low percents here.
+1
Level 61
Jun 16, 2020
Not really, how many quiz takers are not from the US or were even born yet. My teen ages were in this decade but I couldn't tell you the all time movies of the 50s, 60s, or even 70s.
+1
Level 90
Jun 16, 2020
Crazy how inflation didn't completely skew the numbers towards movies later in the decade. General inflation was much worse in the early 1980s than early 2010s. Only 2 of the top 11 were from the second half of the decade. Doubt much from 2010 through 2014 would make the 2010s list much less be at the top.
+1
Level 71
Jun 18, 2020
Run that past me again?
+1
Level 25
Jun 20, 2020
How on earth are people not getting Rambo?
+3
Level 76
Jul 5, 2023
I would think it's because while the image of Rambo as a character has had a decent amount of staying power, the movies themselves haven't really stayed in the public consciousness. They're not movies that older audiences continue to watch and rewatch, or that subsequent generations have re-discovered and embraced. In short, people today could probably identify a picture of Rambo, but couldn't tell you what the movies were about.
+2
Level 48
Jul 5, 2023
Agreed. I've seen the first one and I completely forgot what it was actually about, aha.
+3
Level 40
Jul 19, 2020
How has Beverly Hills Cop got a higher percentage than the second when you get both by just typing

"Beverly Hills Cop"?

+1
Level ∞
Jun 26, 2023
I probably changed that at some point.
+1
Level 59
Oct 21, 2020
One missing and thats because I've never even heard of "Tootsie"
+1
Level 44
Oct 19, 2022
Ik it isn't on here but still great 80s movies!

Beetlejuice

Heathers

+1
Level 51
Jul 5, 2023
"A teenager must travel to the 1950s to help his parents hook up" isn't really an accurate description. He didn't have to travel back to the 1950s, he did it on accident, and he spends most of the movie figuring out how to get back. That along with helping his parents hook up, of course.
+1
Level 48
Jul 5, 2023
33% for "Fatal Attraction"? That's surprisingly low.
+2
Level 65
Jul 9, 2023
The clue describes a pretty broad genre in my mind. Hard to sort through a bunch of thrillers which all kind of blend together
+1
Level 66
Jul 6, 2023
Wow surprise to see Beverly Hills Cop placed above literally some of the most famous and enduring movies ever made! Do I need to watch this one?

I literally typed in The Long Goodbye for this which is obviously never grossing more than Indiana Jones lol.

+1
Level 50
Feb 20, 2024
Shouldn't there be a question mark at the end of who framed roger rabbit?