One of the best things about watching a movie is escaping reality for a few hours. The rest of the world fades away, and you find yourself immersed into the world of the film. As you watch, the characters come alive, and you’re glued to the screen until the very end. This feeling can be pure magic. However, after the film ends, you find yourself back in the real world and wondering what’s next. Unless, of course, the film has a sequel, and you can start the process all over again.

Hollywood loves making movie franchises. That’s because they are almost a surefire way to ensure a return on investment and make a profit. After all, if the first movie did well, who wouldn’t love to see a sequel with all their favorite characters and elements?

While there have been many memorable decades to achieve cinematic success in the realm of film franchises, none were quite like the ’80s. During this decade of dance party music, explosive curly hair, and bold ’80s fashion like colorful spandex and leotards, we got many of the best cult classics, such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Goonies, and The Breakfast Club. In addition to these stand-alone masterpieces, the ’80s also gave us an array of film franchises which have continued to this day, four decades later.

With the new Top Gun: Maverick, Indiana Jones 5, and Beverly Hills Cop4 all highly anticipated, it’s clear that many movie series which started in the ’80s continue to be popular and re-watched today. These are some of the best movie franchises which started in the ’80s.

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7 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)

     Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

There are many things that spouses dread hearing; “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” is certainly among those dreaded phrases. Inventor Wayne Szalinski is a bit eccentric. He invents an experimental shrink ray that accidentally shrinks his two kids and their neighbors after they sneak into his lab to receive a baseball. Believing his device to be useless, he throws it out, throwing out the shrunken children in the process. Now, the 1/4-inch-tall children must brave the trip back to the house by surviving lawn sprinklers, puddles, giant ants, and other treacherous obstacles. In addition to two sequels: Honey, I Blew Up The Kid and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, the series was also turned into a television show that ran for three seasons and 66 episodes. There’s even a reboot sequel with Josh Gad in the works.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

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6 Lethal Weapon (1987)

     Warner Bros. Pictures

It’s no secret that opposites attract and bring out the best in each other, especially when it comes to comedic duos. Lethal Weapon is the perfect example of polar opposites coming together to make comedic magic. After the death of his wife, police detective Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) has a death wish and goes to extreme lengths to do his job. Meanwhile, detective Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is calm and collected. He is close to retirement and counting down the days. Put these two characters together, and you have a recipe for success that’s sure to bring in the laughs, and has for decades; a fifth movie is expected to go straight to HBO Max.

5 The Terminator (1984)

     Orion Pictures

When The Terminator, a cyborg assassin (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), she must fight for her life to live and bear the son that will later save mankind from extinction. Nearly 40 years and six films later, The Terminator is still among the more popular film franchises in its genre. That’s because when it comes to sci-fi action films, The Terminator has it all: action sequences, a fast-paced plot, a likable hero to root for, and a slick villain. You can be sure that it will be back.

4 Friday The 13th (1980)

     Paramount Pictures

Friday The 13th is among the most well-known and beloved (if you can call a horror movie beloved) horror film franchises. The movie series introduced the world to Camp Crystal Lake and Jason Voorhees, who remains one of the top horror icons and popular Halloween costumes. The original film is an ’80s horror slasher movie at its best. It delivers on jump scares and has a slew of bloody surprises in-store. To date, Friday the 13th has been popular enough for 12 movies, so it seems the world can’t get enough of Jason’s murderous madness and vengeance. Now, thanks to the franchise, there is even more fear associated with Fridays falling on the 13th of a month.

3 Ghostbusters (1984)

     Columbia Pictures

If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters! In addition to giving us one of the best-known ’80s Halloween party songs, Ghostbusters gave us one of the most popular fantasy sci-fi film franchises that changed the way we viewed ghosts. Prior to the Ivan Reitman classic, most ghost movies were scary and haunting, heavily relying on jump scares. However, Ghostbusters made ghosts funny and laughable. In the films, we witnessed slimy ghosts pigging out on food, ghosts getting shocked in electric chairs, and even one giant, cute but deadly Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. With last year’s acclaimed Ghostbusters: Afterlife, it’s clear the franchise will haunt the world for some time.

2 Back to The Future (1985)

     Universal Pictures

No movies made time traveling look as cool or as fun as the Back to The Future trilogy. It’s rare that a movie’s sequel is just as entertaining as the first installment, but the rest of the Back to The Future trilogy lived up to the expectations set by the original classic. However, 2015 came and went, and we didn’t get size-adjustable, self-drying jackets, self-tying shoes, or flying cars, and hoverboards aren’t as widely accessible as we would have hoped. Yet, despite the sequel having some gaping errors, we can still enjoy it for what it is: a time-traveling adventure into the wonderful unknown.

1 Indiana Jones and the Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981)

Indiana Jones is the series that made history and archeology fun. It inspired us to want to explore temples and risk our lives to find hidden treasures. As an action hero and one of the most iconic movie characters, Indiana Jones checks all the boxes, as he is charismatic, brave, witty, and funny, not to mention handsome. Indiana Jones was initially a trilogy, with the first three movies premiering within years of each other in 1981, 1984, and 1989. However, in 2008, we got the fourth installment, and the series isn’t done yet, as Indy is set to reappear in Indiana Jones 5 which is set to be released on June 30, 2023.