Top 40 1980's "Teen/Coming of Age" Movies: Captain Hixx
by CaptainHixx | created - 23 Sep 2017 | updated - 2 months ago | PublicDidn't include any "Period Flims", pure dramas, musicals, science fiction or fantasy. Only films shot during the current period being filmed in the 80's and lead by young actors. Sorry about "Back to the Future", "Outsiders", "Stand by Me" and "Diner". They didn't make the filter. Weird Science is my lone exception because I love it so.
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1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy
A popular high school student, admired by his peers, decides to take a day off from school and goes to extreme lengths to pull it off, to the chagrin of his Dean, who'll do anything to stop him.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones
Votes: 386,362 | Gross: $70.14M
2. The Karate Kid (1984)
PG | 126 min | Action, Drama, Family
A martial arts master agrees to teach karate to a bullied teenager.
Director: John G. Avildsen | Stars: Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Elisabeth Shue, Martin Kove
Votes: 244,421 | Gross: $90.82M
3. Can't Buy Me Love (1987)
PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An outcast secretly pays the most popular girl in school one thousand dollars to pretend to be his girlfriend for a month.
Director: Steve Rash | Stars: Patrick Dempsey, Amanda Peterson, Courtney Gains, Tina Caspary
Votes: 41,960 | Gross: $31.62M
4. Risky Business (1983)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A Chicago teenager is looking for fun at home while his parents are away, but the situation quickly gets out of hand.
Director: Paul Brickman | Stars: Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, Joe Pantoliano, Richard Masur
Votes: 99,813 | Gross: $63.50M
5. The Sure Thing (1985)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Walter Gibson is a university freshman going through a dry spell. His old buddy arranges a "sure thing" for him in California. Gibson and his classmate Allison then take a long road trip out to Cali, and both foil each other's plans.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: John Cusack, Daphne Zuniga, Anthony Edwards, Boyd Gaines
Votes: 22,176 | Gross: $18.14M
6. Sixteen Candles (1984)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Romance
A girl's "sweet" sixteenth birthday is anything but special: her family forgets about it, and she suffers from every embarrassment possible.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Justin Henry, Michael Schoeffling
Votes: 126,292 | Gross: $23.69M
7. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of Southern California high school students are enjoying their most important subjects: sex, drugs and rock n' roll.
Director: Amy Heckerling | Stars: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Robert Romanus
Votes: 115,709 | Gross: $27.09M
8. Weird Science (1985)
PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi
Two high-school nerds use a computer program to literally create the perfect woman, who promptly turns their lives upside-down.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Kelly LeBrock, Bill Paxton
Votes: 97,399 | Gross: $23.83M
9. St. Elmo's Fire (1985)
R | 110 min | Drama, Romance
A group of friends, just out of college, struggle with adulthood.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Emilio Estevez
Votes: 46,378 | Gross: $37.80M
10. Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
PG-13 | 102 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
A babysitter must battle her way through the big city after being stranded there with the kids she's looking after.
Director: Chris Columbus | Stars: Elisabeth Shue, Maia Brewton, Keith Coogan, Anthony Rapp
Votes: 49,105 | Gross: $34.37M
11. Soul Man (1986)
PG-13 | 104 min | Comedy, Romance
To achieve his dream of attending Harvard, a pampered teen poses as a young black man to receive a full scholarship.
Director: Steve Miner | Stars: C. Thomas Howell, Rae Dawn Chong, Arye Gross, James Earl Jones
Votes: 9,035 | Gross: $27.82M
12. Better Off Dead (1985)
PG | 97 min | Comedy, Romance
After his girlfriend ditches him for a boorish ski jock, Lane decides that suicide is the only answer. However, his increasingly inept attempts bring him only more agony and embarrassment. Filled with the wildest teen nightmares.
Director: Savage Steve Holland | Stars: John Cusack, David Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby, Demian Slade
Votes: 49,367 | Gross: $10.30M
13. All the Right Moves (1983)
R | 91 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
An ambitious young football star is trapped in a dying mill town--unless his gridiron skills can win him a way out.
Director: Michael Chapman | Stars: Tom Cruise, Lea Thompson, Craig T. Nelson, Charles Cioffi
Votes: 20,393 | Gross: $17.23M
14. WarGames (1983)
PG | 114 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A young man finds a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III.
Director: John Badham | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, John Wood, Dabney Coleman
Votes: 110,710 | Gross: $79.57M
15. Fire with Fire (1986)
PG-13 | 103 min | Drama, Romance
A young woman from a Catholic school and a young man from a nearby prison camp fall in love and must run away together to escape the law, the church and their parents.
Director: Duncan Gibbins | Stars: Craig Sheffer, Virginia Madsen, Jon Polito, J.J. Cohen
Votes: 1,894 | Gross: $4.64M
16. Say Anything (1989)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A noble underachiever and a beautiful valedictorian fall in love the summer before she goes off to college.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor
Votes: 95,911 | Gross: $20.78M
17. The Breakfast Club (1985)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama
Five high school students meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a great deal more in common than they thought.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy
Votes: 436,416 | Gross: $45.88M
18. Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
PG-13 | 95 min | Drama, Romance
When Keith goes out with Amanda, the girl of his dreams, Amanda's ex-boyfriend plans to get back at Keith. Meanwhile, Keith's best friend, tomboy Watts, realizes she has feelings for Keith.
Director: Howard Deutch | Stars: Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson, Lea Thompson, Craig Sheffer
Votes: 34,646 | Gross: $18.55M
19. Hot Pursuit (1987)
PG-13 | 93 min | Comedy
Dan arrives too late for his girlfriend's family's plane to the Caribbean. He gets the next. Once there, Dan's hot pursuit of his girlfriend includes 3 friendly locals, a dubious yacht skipper, corrupt police, hijacker, pirates etc.
Director: Steven Lisberger | Stars: John Cusack, Robert Loggia, Jerry Stiller, Wendy Gazelle
Votes: 4,034 | Gross: $4.22M
20. Tuff Turf (1985)
R | 112 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
The new kid in school must battle a gang of street toughs after stealing the gang leader's girl.
Director: Fritz Kiersch | Stars: James Spader, Kim Richards, Paul Mones, Matt Clark
Votes: 5,929 | Gross: $9.40M
21. Bad Boys (1983)
R | 123 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Chicago crime kid Mick O'Brien is sent to reform school after accidentally killing a rival's kid brother.
Director: Rick Rosenthal | Stars: Sean Penn, Reni Santoni, Jim Moody, Eric Gurry
Votes: 17,059 | Gross: $9.20M
22. Little Darlings (1980)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama
Two fifteen year-old girls from different sides of the tracks compete to see who will be the first to lose their virginity while at a summer camp.
Director: Ron Maxwell | Stars: Tatum O'Neal, Kristy McNichol, Armand Assante, Matt Dillon
Votes: 6,569 | Gross: $34.33M
23. About Last Night (1986)
R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A man and woman meet and try to have a romantic affair, despite their personal problems and the interference of their disapproving friends.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Jim Belushi, Elizabeth Perkins
Votes: 17,316 | Gross: $38.70M
24. Heathers (1988)
R | 103 min | Comedy, Crime
At Westerburg High where cliques rule, jocks dominate and all the popular girls are named Heather, it's going to take a Veronica and mysterious new kid to give teen angst a body count.
Director: Michael Lehmann | Stars: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk
Votes: 115,813 | Gross: $1.11M
25. Pretty in Pink (1986)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A poor girl must choose between the affections of dating her childhood sweetheart or a rich but sensitive playboy.
Director: Howard Deutch | Stars: Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer, Harry Dean Stanton, Annie Potts
Votes: 88,560 | Gross: $40.47M
26. She's Having a Baby (1988)
PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Young newlyweds find out just how unprepared they are for their future together.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth McGovern, Alec Baldwin, James Ray
Votes: 13,880 | Gross: $16.03M
27. Valley Girl (1983)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Romance
Julie, a girl from the valley, meets Randy, a punk from the city. They are from different worlds and find love. Somehow they need to stay together in spite of her trendy, shallow friends.
Director: Martha Coolidge | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, Elizabeth Daily, Michael Bowen
Votes: 18,425 | Gross: $16.80M
28. Revenge of the Nerds (1984)
R | 90 min | Comedy
At Adams College, a group of bullied outcasts and misfits resolve to fight back for their peace and self-respect.
Director: Jeff Kanew | Stars: Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Timothy Busfield, Andrew Cassese
Votes: 58,364 | Gross: $40.90M
29. Lucas (1986)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A socially inept fourteen-year-old experiences heartbreak for the first time when his two best friends - Cappie, an older-brother figure, and Maggie, the new girl with whom he is in love - fall for each other.
Director: David Seltzer | Stars: Corey Haim, Kerri Green, Charlie Sheen, Courtney Thorne-Smith
Votes: 17,527 | Gross: $8.20M
30. Youngblood (1986)
R | 110 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
A 17 year old farm boy is offered an ice hockey tryout. His brother drives him to Canada. He has fast legs, slow fists, but is chosen. Will he learn to use his fists and play ice hockey the Canuck way? Will he get the coach's cute daughter?
Director: Peter Markle | Stars: Rob Lowe, Cynthia Gibb, Patrick Swayze, Ed Lauter
Votes: 15,864 | Gross: $15.45M
31. My Bodyguard (1980)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
When a boy comes to a new school and gets harassed by a bully, he acquires the services of the school's most feared kid as a bodyguard.
Director: Tony Bill | Stars: Chris Makepeace, Adam Baldwin, Matt Dillon, Paul Quandt
Votes: 10,837 | Gross: $22.48M
32. Secret Admirer (1985)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Romance
An anonymous love letter left in Michael Ryan's locker on the last day of school wreaks havoc on his life and the lives of everyone who come in contact with it.
Director: David Greenwalt | Stars: C. Thomas Howell, Lori Loughlin, Kelly Preston, Dee Wallace
Votes: 8,015 | Gross: $8.62M
33. Oxford Blues (1984)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
A young American hustler pursues the girl of his dreams to Oxford, where he must enroll to obtain her.
Director: Robert Boris | Stars: Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy, Amanda Pays, Julian Sands
Votes: 3,450 | Gross: $8.79M
34. Endless Love (1981)
R | 116 min | Drama, Romance
Parental disapproval of a passionate romance between two teenagers leads to arguments, circumstance, insanity and tragedy.
Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: Brooke Shields, Martin Hewitt, Shirley Knight, Don Murray
Votes: 9,575 | Gross: $31.18M
35. Vision Quest (1985)
R | 107 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
A high school wrestler in Spokane, Washington has trouble focusing on his training regimen when a beautiful young drifter takes up temporary residence at his home.
Director: Harold Becker | Stars: Matthew Modine, Linda Fiorentino, Michael Schoeffling, Ronny Cox
Votes: 10,249 | Gross: $12.90M
36. Class (1983)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young man in private school spends one crazy night out, and only later does he learn more about the woman who enlivened his night.
Director: Lewis John Carlino | Stars: Jacqueline Bisset, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Cliff Robertson
Votes: 12,042
37. Porky's (1981)
R | 94 min | Comedy
In 1954, a group of Florida high-school guys try to help their buddy lose his virginity, which leads them to seek revenge on a sleazy nightclub owner and his redneck sheriff brother for harassing them.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Dan Monahan, Mark Herrier, Wyatt Knight, Roger Wilson
Votes: 45,746 | Gross: $111.29M
38. Just One of the Guys (1985)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Romance
Terry feels discriminated against when the summer jobs at the Sun Tribune go to two guys. She decides to do something about it. She dresses like a guy and gets a haircut. Will students at the other high school notice? Girls notice "him".
Director: Lisa Gottlieb | Stars: Joyce Hyser, Clayton Rohner, Billy Jayne, Toni Hudson
Votes: 17,850 | Gross: $11.50M
39. The Last American Virgin (1982)
R | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Pizza delivery boy Gary, loudmouth David and hunky Rick are three high school students out to lose their virginity any way they can. Gary falls for transfer student Karen, who gets involved with Rick.
Director: Boaz Davidson | Stars: Lawrence Monoson, Diane Franklin, Steve Antin, Joe Rubbo
Votes: 9,776 | Gross: $5.83M
40. Losin' It (1982)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Drama
Set in 1965, four rowdy teenage guys travel to Tijuana, Mexico for a night of partying when they are joined by a heartbroken housewife who is in town seeking a quick divorce.
Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jackie Earle Haley, John Stockwell, John P. Navin Jr.
Votes: 5,228 | Gross: $1.25M
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