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Best Romance Movies of the 1980s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
115 romance films from the 1980s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Cinema Paradiso (1988), at 8.5 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.4. 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 | Cinema Paradiso '1988 | Drama / Romance | 8.5 | 90% | 80 | 8.4 | Giuseppe Tornatore |
| 2 | The Princess Bride '1987 | Fantasy / Comedy / Romance | 8.0 | 93% | 78 | 7.7 | Rob Reiner |
| 3 | When Harry Met Sally... '1989 | Comedy / Romance / Drama | 7.7 | 90% | 76 | 7.4 | Rob Reiner |
| 4 | Wings of Desire '1987 | Drama / Fantasy / Romance | 7.9 | 95% | 79 | 7.8 | Wim Wenders |
| 5 | Time of the Gypsies '1988 | Drama / Crime / Fantasy / Romance | 8.1 | 100% | - | 7.6 | Emir Kusturica |
| 6 | A Short Film About Love '1988 | Drama / Romance | 8.1 | 95% | - | 7.8 | Krzysztof Kieślowski |
| 7 | Nostalgia '1983 | Drama / Romance | 7.9 | 89% | 78 | 7.8 | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| 8 | Tootsie '1982 | Comedy / Romance | 7.4 | 91% | 88 | 7.2 | Sydney Pollack |
| 9 | On Golden Pond '1981 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 91% | 68 | 7.3 | Mark Rydell |
| 10 | Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears '1980 | Drama / Comedy / Romance | 8.0 | 40% | - | 7.5 | Vladimir Menshov |
| 11 | Sophie's Choice '1982 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 75% | 68 | 7.3 | Alan J. Pakula |
| 12 | Dangerous Liaisons '1988 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 91% | 74 | 7.2 | Stephen Frears |
| 13 | The Purple Rose of Cairo '1985 | Fantasy / Comedy / Romance | 7.6 | 93% | 75 | 7.4 | Woody Allen |
| 14 | The Big Blue '1988 | Romance / Drama | 7.5 | 62% | 35 | 7.4 | Luc Besson |
| 15 | Victor/Victoria '1982 | Musical / Comedy / Romance | 7.6 | 85% | 84 | 7.3 | Blake Edwards |
| 16 | Reds '1981 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 90% | 76 | 6.9 | Warren Beatty |
| 17 | Maurice '1987 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 81% | 75 | 7.6 | James Ivory |
| 18 | Say Anything... '1989 | Romance / Comedy / Drama | 7.3 | 98% | 86 | 7.0 | Cameron Crowe |
| 19 | Dirty Dancing '1987 | Drama / Musical / Romance | 7.1 | 73% | 65 | 7.3 | Emile Ardolino |
| 20 | Somewhere in Time '1980 | Drama / Fantasy / Romance | 7.2 | 54% | 29 | 7.5 | Jeannot Szwarc |
| 21 | Fast Times at Ridgemont High '1982 | Comedy / Romance / Drama | 7.1 | 78% | 61 | 6.8 | Amy Heckerling |
| 22 | Moonstruck '1987 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 90% | 83 | 6.8 | Norman Jewison |
| 23 | Coming to America '1988 | Comedy / Romance | 7.1 | 71% | 47 | 6.9 | John Landis |
| 24 | Out of Africa '1985 | Romance / Drama | 7.2 | 62% | 69 | 7.2 | Sydney Pollack |
| 25 | Atlantic City '1980 | Crime / Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 100% | 85 | 6.8 | Louis Malle |
| 26 | The Last Metro '1980 | Drama / Romance / War | 7.3 | 87% | - | 7.2 | François Truffaut |
| 27 | An Officer and a Gentleman '1982 | Drama / Romance | 7.1 | 79% | 75 | 7.0 | Taylor Hackford |
| 28 | Stardust Memories '1980 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 66% | - | 6.9 | Woody Allen |
| 29 | Broadcast News '1987 | Comedy / Romance | 7.3 | 98% | 84 | 6.8 | James L. Brooks |
| 30 | A Room with a View '1986 | Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 100% | 83 | 6.9 | James Ivory |
| 31 | The Great Muppet Caper '1981 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery / Romance | 7.1 | 78% | 70 | 6.9 | Jim Henson |
| 32 | The Woman Next Door '1981 | Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 85% | - | 7.1 | François Truffaut |
| 33 | Top Gun '1986 | Action / Drama / Romance | 7.0 | 58% | 51 | 7.1 | Tony Scott |
| 34 | Rumble Fish '1983 | Crime / Drama / Romance | 7.1 | 77% | 63 | 7.0 | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 35 | The Unbearable Lightness of Being '1988 | Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 86% | 73 | 6.8 | Philip Kaufman |
| 36 | Betty Blue '1986 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 78% | 56 | 7.2 | Jean-Jacques Beineix |
| 37 | The Year of Living Dangerously '1982 | Romance / Drama | 7.1 | 88% | 65 | 6.7 | Peter Weir |
| 38 | The Green Ray '1986 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 94% | - | 7.5 | Éric Rohmer |
| 39 | Mona Lisa '1986 | Crime / Drama / Romance / Thriller | 7.3 | 98% | 85 | 6.9 | Neil Jordan |
| 40 | Arthur '1981 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 6.9 | 86% | 69 | 6.5 | Steve Gordon |
| 41 | Better Off Dead... '1985 | Comedy / Romance | 7.1 | 75% | 51 | 6.6 | Savage Steve Holland |
| 42 | Starman '1984 | Sci-Fi / Drama / Romance | 7.0 | 83% | 70 | 6.9 | John Carpenter |
| 43 | Children of a Lesser God '1986 | Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 81% | 80 | 6.9 | Randa Haines |
| 44 | Bull Durham '1988 | Comedy / Romance | 7.0 | 97% | 73 | 6.6 | Ron Shelton |
| 45 | Barfly '1987 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.1 | 76% | 70 | 6.9 | Barbet Schroeder |
| 46 | Shadows in Paradise '1986 | Drama / Romance | 7.4 | - | - | 7.3 | Aki Kaurismäki |
| 47 | Sid and Nancy '1986 | Drama / Romance | 7.0 | 87% | 76 | 6.7 | Alex Cox |
| 48 | Some Kind of Wonderful '1987 | Romance / Comedy | 7.0 | 76% | 55 | 6.8 | Howard Deutch |
| 49 | Romancing the Stone '1984 | Romance / Comedy | 6.9 | 86% | 63 | 6.8 | Robert Zemeckis |
| 50 | Fatal Attraction '1987 | Thriller / Drama / Romance | 6.9 | 74% | 67 | 6.8 | Adrian Lyne |
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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Other genres in the 1980s
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Directors on this list
Giuseppe Tornatore Rob Reiner Wim Wenders Emir Kusturica Krzysztof Kieślowski Andrei Tarkovsky Sydney Pollack Alan J. Pakula Woody Allen Luc Besson Blake Edwards Cameron Crowe
Actors on this list
Philippe Noiret Cary Elwes Robin Wright Meg Ryan Erland Josephson Dustin Hoffman Jessica Lange Katharine Hepburn Henry Fonda Meryl Streep Kevin Kline Glenn Close