Movie Auditor › Rankings › 1981
Best Movies of 1981, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
58 films from 1981 are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Raiders of the Lost Ark ('1981), at 8.4 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.1. Biggest split between audiences and critics: The Beyond, 6.6 on IMDb against 38 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raiders of the Lost Ark '1981 | Action | 8.4 | 94% | 86 | 7.9 | Steven Spielberg |
| 2 | Das Boot '1981 | Drama / War | 8.3 | 98% | 85 | 8.1 | Wolfgang Petersen |
| 3 | Mad Max 2 '1981 | Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi | 7.6 | 93% | 77 | 7.4 | George Miller |
| 4 | An American Werewolf in London '1981 | Comedy / Horror / Fantasy | 7.5 | 80% | 55 | 7.4 | John Landis |
| 5 | On Golden Pond '1981 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 91% | 68 | 7.3 | Mark Rydell |
| 6 | Blow Out '1981 | Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 7.4 | 88% | 86 | 7.3 | Brian De Palma |
| 7 | My Dinner with Andre '1981 | Drama / Comedy | 7.6 | 93% | 83 | 7.5 | Louis Malle |
| 8 | Christiane F. '1981 | Drama | 7.5 | 80% | 55 | 7.3 | Uli Edel |
| 9 | Gallipoli '1981 | War / Drama | 7.4 | 91% | 65 | 7.1 | Peter Weir |
| 10 | Body Heat '1981 | Thriller / Crime | 7.4 | 96% | 77 | 7.0 | Lawrence Kasdan |
| 11 | Thief '1981 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 7.4 | 80% | 78 | 7.2 | Michael Mann |
| 12 | Excalibur '1981 | Fantasy | 7.3 | 73% | 56 | 7.0 | John Boorman |
| 13 | The Fox and the Hound '1981 | Animation / Drama | 7.2 | 75% | 65 | 7.2 | Ted Berman |
| 14 | Possession '1981 | Horror | 7.2 | 87% | 75 | 7.3 | Andrzej Żuławski |
| 15 | Reds '1981 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 90% | 76 | 6.9 | Warren Beatty |
| 16 | The Professional '1981 | Action / Thriller | 7.4 | - | - | 7.2 | Georges Lautner |
| 17 | Quest for Fire '1981 | Drama / Fantasy | 7.3 | 88% | 79 | 7.0 | Jean-Jacques Annaud |
| 18 | Escape from New York '1981 | Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi | 7.1 | 70% | 76 | 7.0 | John Carpenter |
| 19 | The Inquisitor '1981 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.6 | - | - | 7.5 | Claude Miller |
| 20 | Chariots of Fire '1981 | Drama | 7.1 | 84% | 78 | 6.8 | Hugh Hudson |
| 21 | La Chèvre '1981 | Comedy / Crime | 7.3 | 50% | - | 7.1 | Francis Veber |
| 22 | The Marquis of Grillo '1981 | Comedy | 7.7 | - | - | 7.8 | Mario Monicelli |
| 23 | Southern Comfort '1981 | Thriller / Action | 7.1 | 81% | 63 | 6.8 | Walter Hill |
| 24 | Bianco, rosso e Verdone '1981 | Comedy | 7.4 | - | - | 7.3 | Carlo Verdone |
| 25 | The Great Muppet Caper '1981 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery / Romance | 7.1 | 78% | 70 | 6.9 | Jim Henson |
| 26 | The Woman Next Door '1981 | Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 85% | - | 7.1 | François Truffaut |
| 27 | Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure '1981 | Action / Comedy | 7.1 | - | - | 6.9 | Sergio Corbucci |
| 28 | I'm Starting from Three '1981 | Comedy | 7.4 | - | - | 7.6 | Massimo Troisi |
| 29 | Madly in Love '1981 | Comedy | 6.9 | - | - | 6.7 | Pipolo |
| 30 | Fracchia The Human Beast '1981 | Comedy | 6.7 | - | - | 6.7 | Neri Parenti |
| 31 | Arthur '1981 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 6.9 | 86% | 69 | 6.5 | Steve Gordon |
| 32 | Clash of the Titans '1981 | Fantasy / Action | 6.9 | 65% | 59 | 6.9 | Desmond Davis |
| 33 | Time Bandits '1981 | Fantasy / Sci-Fi / Comedy | 6.9 | 92% | 79 | 6.6 | Terry Gilliam |
| 34 | Ms .45 '1981 | Crime / Thriller / Action | 6.8 | 86% | 62 | 6.7 | Abel Ferrara |
| 35 | Taps '1981 | Drama | 6.8 | 69% | 49 | 6.7 | Harold Becker |
| 36 | History of the World: Part I '1981 | Comedy | 6.8 | 62% | 47 | 6.7 | Mel Brooks |
| 37 | The Cabbage Soup '1981 | Comedy / Sci-Fi | 6.5 | - | - | 6.4 | Jean Girault |
| 38 | Stripes '1981 | Action / Comedy | 6.8 | 67% | 68 | 6.6 | Ivan Reitman |
| 39 | Escape to Victory '1981 | Drama / War | 6.7 | 70% | 57 | 6.9 | John Huston |
| 40 | Dragonslayer '1981 | Fantasy | 6.6 | 84% | 68 | 6.6 | Matthew Robbins |
| 41 | Dead & Buried '1981 | Horror / Mystery | 6.5 | 71% | 71 | 6.4 | Gary Sherman |
| 42 | The Beyond '1981 | Horror | 6.6 | 75% | 38 | 6.9 | Lucio Fulci |
| 43 | The Postman Always Rings Twice '1981 | Crime / Romance / Drama / Thriller | 6.6 | 73% | 61 | 6.5 | Bob Rafelson |
| 44 | Scanners '1981 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 6.7 | 69% | 60 | 6.7 | David Cronenberg |
| 45 | Outland '1981 | Sci-Fi / Action / Thriller / Crime / Western | 6.6 | 58% | 48 | 6.4 | Peter Hyams |
| 46 | Heavy Metal '1981 | Animation / Sci-Fi / Fantasy / Musical | 6.6 | 66% | 51 | 6.5 | Gerald Potterton |
| 47 | For Your Eyes Only '1981 | Action / Thriller | 6.7 | 69% | 54 | 6.5 | John Glen |
| 48 | The Howling '1981 | Horror | 6.5 | 76% | 68 | 6.6 | Joe Dante |
| 49 | The Burning '1981 | Horror | 6.3 | 86% | 42 | 6.2 | Tony Maylam |
| 50 | Nighthawks '1981 | Action / Crime / Thriller | 6.3 | 71% | 56 | 6.4 | Bruce Malmuth |
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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