This 1980s Movie Will Never Get Old

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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This 1980s Movie Will Never Get Old

© Courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

People who were born in the 1990s will not have seen 1980s movies when they were released for the first time. They may have seen them later on cable TV or streaming services. Perhaps it is not fair to compare a movie from the 1980s to those from the 1970s or 1990s. A day or two here or there blurs the line of when a movie was released. A movie out on December 31, 1989, cannot be compared to one released on January 1, 1990? It is an odd convention.

Nevertheless, movies do get sorted by decade. One measure used is which feature films are best remembered. Again, it may not be fair, but it is simple.

Why do some movies become unforgettable? Perhaps it is one character, played by a talented actor. It could be a script, or how a movie was filmed. Is one yardstick better than others? 24/7 Tempo worked to answer that question.

To identify the best movie you will remember from the 1980s, 24/7 Tempo reviewed the 271 movies that had at least 50,000 reviews on IMDb (an online movie database owned by Amazon) or Rotten Tomatoes (an online movie and TV review aggregator). We calculated an index of each movie’s IMDb rating, Rotten Tomatoes audience score and Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score. All ratings were weighted equally. Data on domestic box office came from The Numbers, an online movie database owned by consulting firm Nash Information Services, last updated in April 2021. Box office figures are not adjusted for inflation. Casting and other supplemental data come from IMDb.
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Based on our criteria, one movie of the decade was truly memorable. “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back” was released in 1980, directed by Irvin Kershner and starred Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams. Its domestic box office gross totaled $291.7 million, which ranked it number three out of 359 movies released in the 1980s.

In this installment of the popular franchise, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia must continue their fight against Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire after the destruction of the Death Star. Luke begins his Jedi training on the remote planet of Dagobah, with the help of Jedi Master Yoda. This sequel took home an Oscar and a Special Achievement Award.

Click here to read about all the best 1980s movies that will never get old.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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