**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Terminator | James Cameron | 80 |
| 2 | This Is Spinal Tap | Rob Reiner | 143 |
| 3 | Ghostbusters | Ivan Reitman | 151 |
| 4 | Once Upon a Time in America | Sergio Leone | 157 |
| 5 | Amadeus** | Milos Forman | 190 |
| 6 | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Wes Craven | 248 |
| 7 | Paris, Texas | Wim Wenders | 353 |
| 8 | The Karate Kid | John G. Avildsen | 521 |
| 9 | Blood Simple | Joel Coen | 609 |
| 10 | Stop Making Sense | Jonathan Demme | 622 |
| 11 | Repo Man | Alex Cox | 658 |
| 12 | The NeverEnding Story | Wolfgang Petersen | 672 |
| 13 | Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind | Hayao Miyazaki | 710 |
| 14 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | Steven Spielberg | 722 |
| 15 | Stranger than Paradise | Jim Jarmusch | 809 |
| 16 | Gremlins | Joe Dante | 840 |
| 17 | The Natural | Barry Levinson | 920 |
| 18 | The Killing Fields* | Roland Joffé | 930 |
| 19 | The Times of Harvey Milk | Rob Epstein | 1028 |
| 20 | 28 Up | Michael Apted | 1040 |
| 21 | Beverly Hills Cop | Martin Brest | 1143 |
| 22 | Purple Rain | Albert Magnoli | 1186 |
| 23 | Sixteen Candles | John Hughes | 1389 |
| 24 | Top Secret! | Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker | 1492 |
| 25 | Romancing the Stone | Robert Zemeckis | 1899 |
| 26 | Love Streams | John Cassavetes | 2105 |
| 27 | Footloose | Herbert Ross | 2117 |
| 28 | The Brother from Another Planet | John Sayles | 2130 |
| 29 | Heimat | Edgar Reitz | 2163 |
| 30 | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | W.D. Richter | 2174 |
| 31 | 1984 | Michael Radford | 2260 |
| 32 | Body Double | Brian De Palma | 2339 |
| 33 | Dune | David Lynch | 2345 |
| 34 | Starman | John Carpenter | 2373 |
| 35 | Broadway Danny Rose | Woody Allen | 2395 |
| 36 | The Toxic Avenger | Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman | 2509 |
| 37 | Yellow Earth | Kaige Chen | 2535 |
| 38 | The Company of Wolves | Neil Jordan | 2698 |
| 39 | A Passage to India* | David Lean | 2717 |
| 40 | The Last Starfighter | Nick Castle | 2783 |
| 41 | Threads | Mick Jackson | 3054 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Back to the Future | Robert Zemeckis | 30 |
| 2 | Brazil | Terry Gilliam | 114 |
| 3 | Ran | Akira Kurosawa | 186 |
| 4 | Shoah | Claude Lanzmann | 254 |
| 5 | Come and See | Elem Klimov | 255 |
| 6 | The Goonies | Richard Donner | 335 |
| 7 | The Breakfast Club | John Hughes | 418 |
| 8 | The Color Purple* | Steven Spielberg | 719 |
| 9 | Re-Animator | Stuart Gordon | 761 |
| 10 | The Purple Rose of Cairo | Woody Allen | 990 |
| 11 | My Beautiful Laundrette | Stephen Frears | 997 |
| 12 | Pee-wee's Big Adventure | Tim Burton | 1017 |
| 13 | After Hours | Martin Scorsese | 1021 |
| 14 | A Room with a View* | James Ivory | 1043 |
| 15 | Day of the Dead | George A. Romero | 1197 |
| 16 | Tampopo | Jûzô Itami | 1246 |
| 17 | Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters | Paul Schrader | 1248 |
| 18 | Out of Africa** | Sydney Pollack | 1259 |
| 19 | Witness* | Peter Weir | 1335 |
| 20 | Desert Hearts | Donna Deitch | 1498 |
| 21 | Desperately Seeking Susan | Susan Seidelman | 1526 |
| 22 | Vagabond | Agnès Varda | 1545 |
| 23 | Police Story | Jackie Chan | 1553 |
| 24 | Sherman's March | Ross McElwee | 1644 |
| 25 | My Life as a Dog | Lasse Hallström | 1651 |
| 26 | Lost in America | Albert Brooks | 1675 |
| 27 | Clue | Jonathan Lynn | 1778 |
| 28 | Pale Rider | Clint Eastwood | 1825 |
| 29 | Silverado | Lawrence Kasdan | 1881 |
| 30 | The Return of the Living Dead | Dan O'Bannon | 1913 |
| 31 | Commando | Mark L. Lester | 1918 |
| 32 | To Live and Die in L.A. | William Friedkin | 1967 |
| 33 | Return to Oz | Walter Murch | 2098 |
| 34 | Rambo: First Blood Part II | George P. Cosmatos | 2230 |
| 35 | Runaway Train | Andrey Konchalovskiy | 2462 |
| 36 | Better Off Dead… | Savage Steve Holland | 2470 |
| 37 | Fright Night | Tom Holland | 2510 |
| 38 | The Time to Live and the Time to Die | Hsiao-hsien Hou | 2597 |
| 39 | The Official Story | Luis Puenzo | 2598 |
| 40 | Rocky IV | Sylvester Stallone | 2657 |
| 41 | Kiss of the Spider Woman* | Hector Babenco | 2789 |
| 42 | Prizzi's Honor* | John Huston | 2863 |
| 43 | Ladyhawke | Richard Donner | 2906 |
| 44 | Legend | Ridley Scott | 2909 |
| 45 | Mask | Peter Bogdanovich | 2949 |
| 46 | Cocoon | Ron Howard | 2996 |
| 47 | The Last Dragon | Michael Schultz | 3007 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Aliens | James Cameron | 50 |
| 2 | Blue Velvet | David Lynch | 133 |
| 3 | The Fly | David Cronenberg | 147 |
| 4 | Platoon** | Oliver Stone | 268 |
| 5 | Ferris Bueller's Day Off | John Hughes | 270 |
| 6 | Stand by Me | Rob Reiner | 307 |
| 7 | Hannah and Her Sisters* | Woody Allen | 567 |
| 8 | Labyrinth | Jim Henson | 611 |
| 9 | Hoosiers | David Anspaugh | 754 |
| 10 | Top Gun | Tony Scott | 816 |
| 11 | Down by Law | Jim Jarmusch | 961 |
| 12 | Pretty in Pink | Howard Deutch | 986 |
| 13 | Laputa: Castle in the Sky | Hayao Miyazaki | 1039 |
| 14 | Little Shop of Horrors | Frank Oz | 1076 |
| 15 | She's Gotta Have It | Spike Lee | 1087 |
| 16 | Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer | John McNaughton | 1115 |
| 17 | The Sacrifice | Andrei Tarkovsky | 1202 |
| 18 | The Color of Money | Martin Scorsese | 1269 |
| 19 | Jean de Florette | Claude Berri | 1504 |
| 20 | Manhunter | Michael Mann | 1626 |
| 21 | Highlander | Russell Mulcahy | 1671 |
| 22 | Big Trouble in Little China | John Carpenter | 1748 |
| 23 | Manon of the Spring | Claude Berri | 1874 |
| 24 | Betty Blue | Jean-Jacques Beineix | 1875 |
| 25 | A Better Tomorrow | John Woo | 1923 |
| 26 | Summer | Éric Rohmer | 1988 |
| 27 | Salvador | Oliver Stone | 2009 |
| 28 | The Mission* | Roland Joffé | 2060 |
| 29 | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | Leonard Nimoy | 2068 |
| 30 | The Name of the Rose | Jean-Jacques Annaud | 2180 |
| 31 | Sid and Nancy | Alex Cox | 2241 |
| 32 | 9 1/2 Weeks | Adrian Lyne | 2321 |
| 33 | Parting Glances | Bill Sherwood | 2333 |
| 34 | Something Wild | Jonathan Demme | 2465 |
| 35 | An American Tail | Don Bluth | 2478 |
| 36 | The Great Mouse Detective | Ron Clements, Burny Mattinson, David Michener, and John Musker | 2626 |
| 37 | When the Wind Blows | Jimmy T. Murakami | 2845 |
**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
