To make this list a movie had to be made in 1981. Obviously many movies made in 1980 earned box office dollars in 1981. On the other side many movies made in 1981 made money in 1942 and later. This page will looks at over 135 movies made in 1981. The movies are listed in two massive tables that lets you rank the movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.
Our UMR Top 50 of 1981
1981 Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort 1981 Movies by movie titles and movie trailers
- Sort 1981 Movies by the stars or in some cases the director of the movie.
- Sort 1981 Movies by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort 1981 Movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each 1981 Movies received and how many Oscar® wins each 1981 Movies received.
- Sort 1981 Movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking Score (UMR). Our UMR score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Diva
Acclaimed French Film
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082269
BAFTA 1/0
César 5/4
OUTLAND:
This site: $17.4 million
Box Office Mojo: $42,365,581
Someone is a little off. Are you sure that your figures are grosses and not rentals?
Hey Robert. Thanks for the question. My total for actual domestic box office ($17,374,595) comes directly from Box Office Mojo. I think we differ in the adjusted total. I am thinking the $42,365,581 you see for them is their adjusted gross to our adjusted calculation of $56,936,000. Typically I bow to their numbers from 1980 to today. Anything before 1980…..I do not have much trust in their numbers as they tend to used the rental number as their gross number. Speaking of box office rentals….Outland has a reported $10,000,000 in rental numbers. If we used that figure the numbers would be $25,641,000 in actual gross and $84,025,000 in adjusted gross. Which is correct? We might not ever know.
You are correct. I was somehow looking at the wrong film (another Sean Connery picture, Time Bandits). That’s the one with the $42 million. I was flipping back and forth between browser tabs and somehow didn’t see that I was on the wrong one. My apologies.
I’ve seen 48 of the 141 films listed on the chart. Many films on there I’d never even heard of which surprised me.
Looking at my files I have 58 films from 1981 in my collection.
My favorites are –
American Pop
American Werewolf in London
Blow Out
Cannonball Run ,The
Caveman
Clash of the Titans
Death Wish II
Dragonslayer
Escape from New York
Escape to Victory
Evil Dead ,The
Excalibur
Final Conflict ,The
For Your Eyes Only
Fox and the Hound ,The
Ghost Story
Halloween II
Heavy Metal The Movie
History of the World P.1
Howling ,The
Lion of the Desert
Mad Max 2 aka The Road Warrior
Nighthawks
Outland
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Scanners
Sharky’s Machine
Stripes
Superman II
This is Elvis
Time Bandits
Wolfen
zz-Italy – Beyond ,The
zz-Italy – House by the Cemetery ,The
Good to see Raiders of the Lost Ark topping the charts, the best film of the year.
You have Polyester topping the critics chart with 100% which has to be a mistake.
Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve
1. Thanks for checking out our 1981 page.
2. Yep…Polyester was an error…..seems lately the database has been doing some strange things…..the other day I noticed it had given Teen Titans Go To The Movie a 100% critical rating as well.
3. Doing the 1981 and 1982 movie page so quickly….let me see that for some reason I did not see as many movies in 1982 versus 1981….I assumed my tally would continue to grow the closer we got to modern years…but strangely that did not happen.
4. Who needs a Best Picture Oscar when you can be the UMR Movie of the Year….I am sure the people behind Raiders would much rather have this title than that Oscar one….lol.
5. Looking at your favorites list…I have seen them all except for the two Italian ones, This Is Elvis and Lion of the Desert.
6. Glad to see Time Bandits, Raiders, Heavy Metal, Excalibur, Escape To New York and Dragonslayer on your favorites list…as I like them a lot too.
7. I recently re-watched Dragonslayer…..it has aged nicely.
Good feedback as always.
Based on your rankings the following film I have seen in a cinema back in 1981 ( I’m just showing rank to save time); 1, 2, 4 through 25, 27 through 48, 50, 51,55 through 58, 60 through 63, 65, 67, 69, 71 through 79, 81, 82, 86, 89, 90, 95, 97, 98, 103, 106, 107, 112 through 114, 116 through 118, 120, 121 through 123, 125 through 134, 137, 138, 141. Through means all numbers including the first and the last.
These are the 39 1981’s I have seen for the first time since December 1992. Key is film, studio, stars if I listed, date seen and source (TV channel, DVD, tape). Obviously as I saw a lot of these films in the theaters the numbers for these post 1992 premieres is dropping.
ABSOLUTION 1981 TRANS WORLD RICHARD BURTON 12/10 2001 MAX
AMY 1981 BV JENNY AGUTTER BARRY NEWMAN 11/11 1995 DIS
BEYOND, THE (IT.) 1981 XXX XXX 6/25 2011 TCM
BLOODY BIRTHDAY 1981 REAROUND 1/22 2011 TCM
CHASTE AND PURE (IT.) 1981 INTL APOLLO XXX XXX 6/29 1995 TAPE
CHOICES 1981 OAK TREE 7/26 2013 DVD
CHOSEN, THE 1981 FOX 11/13 2012 TCM
DOGS OF WAR 1981 UA CHRISTOPHER WALKEN TOM BERENGER 10/3 1995 TMC
ESCAPE FROM GALAXY 3 (IT.) 1981 8/17 2012 DVD
EUREKA 1981 MGM/UA 3/16 1994 TNT
EYES OF A STRANGER 1981 WB JENNIFER JASON LEIGH 4/9 1995 TNT
FEAR NO EVIL 1981 COL XXX XXX 3/8 1993 TNT
FRIDAY THE 13TH PT. 2 1981 PAR XXX XXX 12/31 1996 TNT
FUNHOUSE, THE 1981 UNI XXX XXX 8/6 1995 A & E
GREGORY’S GIRL (U.K.) 1981 SAMUEL GOLDWYN 1/3 2011 TCM
GUY WITH SECRET KUNG FU (TAIWAN – H.K.) 1981 3/28 2012 DVD
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME 1981 COL GLENN FORD 4/15 2001 MYST
HELL NIGHT 1981 COMPASS INTL. LINDA BLAIR 1/28 2002 MYST
INGLORIOUS BASTARDS (IT.) 1981 AMERICAN TRANSCONTINENTAL 4/23 2012 IFC
INVINCIBLE FROM HELL 1981 8/19 2010 DVD
JANE AUSTEN IN MANHATTAN (U.K.) 1981 PUTNAM SQUARE ANNE BAXTER ROBERT POWELL 9/30 2011 TCM
JAWS OF SATAN 1981 UA XXX XXX 3/20 1996 TNT
KILLING HEAT (FOR.) 1981 SATORI KAREN BLACK 5/17 1994 55
LA CHEVRE (FR.) 1981 EUROPEAN CLASSICS GERARD DEPARDIEU 1/3 1996 BRAVO
LA JOROBADA (MEX.) 1981 4/23 2013 DVD
LOONEY LOONEY BUGS BUNNY MOVIE 1981 WB XXX XXX 11/17 2004 5STMAX
MY BLOODY VALENTINE 1981 PAR XXX XXX 4/5 2002 MAX
MYSTERY ON MONSTER ISLAND 1981 FOX 9/22 2009 FXM
PROWLER, THE 1981 SANDHURST 12/27 2016 SHO
RAGGEDY MAN 1981 UNI 9/2 2008 DRA
REBORN 1981 CLEAR CONGA PRODS. 9/4 2013 DVD
ROAD GAMES 1981 AVCO EMBASSY STACY KEACH JAMIE LEE CURTIS 3/20 1995 A & E
ROAR 1981 AMERICAN FILMWORKS 10/2 2016 TCM
SECOND HAND HEARTS 1981 FOX ROBERT BLAKE BARBARA HARRIS 6/5 2001 ENC
SEPARATE WAYS 1981 CROWN INTL 5/16 2012 DVD
SHAOLIN FIGHTERS VS. NINJA (H.K.) 1981 6/2 2010 DVD
SHOCK TREATMENT 1981 FOX XXX XXX 6/4 2001 FXM
THRESHOLD (CAN.) 1981 FOX DONALD SUTHERLAND 10/28 2011 MAX
TRANCES (FR DOC) 1981 OHRA SOGAN 8/1 2016 TCM
Hey Dan….that is a ton of movies seen in theaters. This is the first yearly page that I feel my “seen in theaters” is a decent total too. Seems I started looking old enough to get into movies even though they were rated R. In 1981 I saw Endless Love, Body Heat, Halloween 2 and Heavy Metal….all when I was 14 and should not have been allowed entry. Thanks for the list of movies seen after 1992. Good stuff.