Movie Auditor › Rankings › 1980
Best Movies of 1980, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
58 films from 1980 are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is The Empire Strikes Back ('1980), at 8.7 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.1. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Somewhere in Time, 7.2 on IMDb against 29 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Empire Strikes Back '1980 | Action / Sci-Fi | 8.7 | 93% | 82 | 8.4 | Irvin Kershner |
| 2 | The Shining '1980 | Horror / Thriller | 8.4 | 84% | 68 | 8.2 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 3 | The Elephant Man '1980 | Drama | 8.2 | 91% | 78 | 8.1 | David Lynch |
| 4 | Raging Bull '1980 | Drama | 8.1 | 92% | 90 | 7.9 | Martin Scorsese |
| 5 | The Blues Brothers '1980 | Musical / Comedy / Crime | 7.9 | 72% | 60 | 7.7 | John Landis |
| 6 | Airplane! '1980 | Comedy | 7.7 | 97% | 78 | 7.3 | Jerry Zucker |
| 7 | Kagemusha '1980 | Action / Drama / War | 7.9 | 89% | 84 | 7.8 | Akira Kurosawa |
| 8 | Ordinary People '1980 | Drama | 7.7 | 90% | 86 | 7.4 | Robert Redford |
| 9 | Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears '1980 | Drama / Comedy / Romance | 8.0 | 40% | - | 7.5 | Vladimir Menshov |
| 10 | The Long Good Friday '1980 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 7.5 | 97% | 82 | 7.2 | John Mackenzie |
| 11 | The Gods Must Be Crazy '1980 | Action / Comedy | 7.3 | 86% | 73 | 7.3 | Jamie Uys |
| 12 | Caddyshack '1980 | Comedy | 7.2 | 73% | 48 | 6.6 | Harold Ramis |
| 13 | The Taming of the Scoundrel '1980 | Comedy | 7.6 | - | - | 7.1 | Pipolo |
| 14 | Somewhere in Time '1980 | Drama / Fantasy / Romance | 7.2 | 54% | 29 | 7.5 | Jeannot Szwarc |
| 15 | Atlantic City '1980 | Crime / Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 100% | 85 | 6.8 | Louis Malle |
| 16 | The Last Metro '1980 | Drama / Romance / War | 7.3 | 86% | - | 7.2 | François Truffaut |
| 17 | Stardust Memories '1980 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 66% | - | 6.9 | Woody Allen |
| 18 | The King and the Mockingbird '1980 | Animation / Fantasy | 7.7 | 100% | 87 | 7.8 | Paul Grimault |
| 19 | Brubaker '1980 | Crime / Drama | 7.2 | 74% | 54 | 7.1 | Stuart Rosenberg |
| 20 | The Changeling '1980 | Horror | 7.1 | 85% | 70 | 7.0 | Peter Medak |
| 21 | The Big Red One '1980 | Drama / War | 7.1 | 88% | 77 | 6.7 | Samuel Fuller |
| 22 | Dressed to Kill '1980 | Thriller / Mystery / Horror | 7.0 | 84% | 74 | 6.9 | Brian De Palma |
| 23 | Nine to Five '1980 | Comedy | 7.0 | 71% | 58 | 7.0 | Colin Higgins |
| 24 | Little Lord Fauntleroy '1980 | Drama | 7.4 | - | - | 7.3 | Jack Gold |
| 25 | Fun Is Beautiful '1980 | Comedy | 7.2 | - | - | 7.1 | Carlo Verdone |
| 26 | Fantozzi Against the Wind '1980 | Comedy | 7.1 | - | - | 6.7 | Neri Parenti |
| 27 | Altered States '1980 | Horror / Sci-Fi / Thriller | 6.9 | 85% | 58 | 6.7 | Ken Russell |
| 28 | The Long Riders '1980 | Western | 6.9 | 80% | 68 | 6.7 | Walter Hill |
| 29 | City of Women '1980 | Comedy / Fantasy | 6.9 | 68% | - | 7.0 | Federico Fellini |
| 30 | The Fog '1980 | Horror | 6.8 | 77% | 55 | 6.7 | John Carpenter |
| 31 | The Miser '1980 | Comedy | 6.6 | - | - | 6.3 | Louis de Funès |
| 32 | Superman II '1980 | Sci-Fi / Action | 6.8 | 88% | 83 | 6.8 | Richard Lester |
| 33 | The Party '1980 | Drama / Romance / Comedy | 6.7 | - | - | 6.6 | Claude Pinoteau |
| 34 | The Under-Gifted '1980 | Comedy | 6.5 | - | - | 6.5 | Claude Zidi |
| 35 | Used Cars '1980 | Comedy | 6.7 | 77% | 68 | 6.4 | Robert Zemeckis |
| 36 | Heaven's Gate '1980 | Drama / Western | 6.7 | 57% | 57 | 6.7 | Michael Cimino |
| 37 | The Final Countdown '1980 | War / Action / Sci-Fi | 6.7 | 52% | 51 | 6.6 | Don Taylor |
| 38 | Stir Crazy '1980 | Comedy / Crime | 6.7 | 69% | 56 | 6.5 | Sidney Poitier |
| 39 | Fame '1980 | Drama / Musical | 6.6 | 81% | 58 | 6.4 | Alan Parker |
| 40 | Super Fuzz '1980 | Fantasy / Action / Comedy / Sci-Fi | 6.3 | 14% | - | 6.5 | Sergio Corbucci |
| 41 | Inferno '1980 | Horror / Thriller | 6.5 | 65% | 69 | 6.6 | Dario Argento |
| 42 | Cruising '1980 | Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 6.5 | 50% | 43 | 6.6 | William Friedkin |
| 43 | Bronco Billy '1980 | Drama / Romance / Comedy | 6.2 | 75% | 66 | 6.3 | Clint Eastwood |
| 44 | Flash Gordon '1980 | Sci-Fi / Action | 6.5 | 83% | 58 | 6.3 | Mike Hodges |
| 45 | Maniac '1980 | Horror | 6.3 | 45% | 22 | 6.4 | William Lustig |
| 46 | City of the Living Dead '1980 | Horror / Fantasy / Mystery | 6.2 | 41% | - | 6.5 | Lucio Fulci |
| 47 | American Gigolo '1980 | Crime / Drama / Mystery | 6.3 | 73% | 57 | 6.2 | Paul Schrader |
| 48 | Alligator '1980 | Horror / Sci-Fi / Thriller | 6.1 | 87% | 62 | 6.0 | Lewis Teague |
| 49 | Any Which Way You Can '1980 | Action / Comedy | 6.1 | 20% | 51 | 5.8 | Buddy Van Horn |
| 50 | Private Benjamin '1980 | Comedy | 6.2 | 84% | 59 | 6.0 | Howard Zieff |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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