Power Rankings: ’80s Movies You Wish You Could Have Seen Opening Night

The SAW Power Rankings is our weekly ranking of a certain movie-related topic. Please feel free to comment on our rankings and provide a list of your own in the comments below.

’80s Month continues at SAW. There are so many classics from the ’80s that even if you lived through the decade there’s a good chance you missed out on seeing some really great films in theaters. So, today’s we’re power ranking ’80s movies we wished we could have seen opening night in theaters. Here are our rankings:


Marmaduke Karlston

  1. Back to the Future
  2. Back to the Future Part II
  3. Teen Wolf
  4. The Secret of My Success
  5. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Bob Cram

  1. The Thing
  2. Evil Dead II
  3. Big Trouble in Little China
  4. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  5. Aliens

Billy Dhalgren

  1. Conan the Barbarian
  2. The Empire Strikes Back
  3. Blade Runner
  4. Beverly Hills Cop
  5. The Karate Kid

Lee McCutcheon

  1. Aliens
  2. The Empire Strikes Back
  3. Predator
  4. The Shining
  5. Ran

K. Alvarez

  1. The Empire Strikes Back
  2. The Thing
  3. Aliens
  4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
  5. Lethal Weapon

Well, The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, and The Thing seem to be the three films our team would love to watch for the first time on opening night. The rest of the rankings include some all-time favorites, which readers will see more of as our 100 Greatest ’80s Movies countdown continues next week.


Share your power ranking with us in the comments below!

Author: Marmaduke Karlston

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute Doc, uh, are you telling me you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?"