Netflix Adds Collection of 40 Year Old ’80s Classics


Netflix’s big cinematic gimmick for 2024 is what are calling “Milestone Movies” — films that were released in years that have big anniversaries. They already did a whole collection of 50-year-old titles from 1974; this month they are uploading a group of more than 20 titles that were originally released to theaters in 1984.

1984 being 40 years ago … that’s going to take a few weeks to get over.

The films Netflix is offering is … an eclectic bunch. Of the highest-grossing films of 1984, they’re only offering two: Beverly Hills Cop (which, coincidentally, Netflix has made a new sequel to, coming later this summer) and Footloose. You’ll have to stream the other top hits of the year — including GhostbustersIndiana Jones and the Temple of DoomGremlinsThe Karate Kid — elsewhere.

Netflix does at least have the year’s Best Picture winner — Amadeus — and another one of the Best Picture nominees (A Passage to India.)

Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures

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The full list of 1984 titles now on Netflix is…

  • 2010: The Year We Make Contact
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street
  • Against All Odds
  • Amadeus
  • Beverly Hills Cop
  • Birdy
  • Body Double
  • Conan the Destroyer
  • Falling in Love
  • Firestarter
  • Firstborn
  • Footloose
  • Iceman
  • Joy of Sex
  • Micki & Maude
  • Moscow on the Hudson
  • A Passage to India
  • Places in the Heart
  • Repo Man
  • The River
  • Sixteen Candles
  • Starman
  • Top Secret!

All of these films went up on Netflix on April 1. So they are available right now. Let the ’80s bingerewatch begin. Conan the Destroyer followed by A Nightmare on Elm Street would make a pretty fun double feature, actually. Or Repo Man and Top Secret! I might do that one tonight, in fact.

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Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky