Top Grossing Films (U.S.)
| Rank | Title | Studio | Actors | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Raiders of the Lost Ark | Paramount/Lucasfilm | Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman | $209,562,121 |
| 2. | On Golden Pond | Universal | Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Katharine Hepburn | $119,285,432 |
| 3. | Superman II | Warner Bros. | Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman | $108,185,706 |
| 4. | Arthur | Warner Bros. | Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud | $95,461,682 |
| 5. | Stripes | Columbia | Bill Murray, Harold Ramis | $85,297,000 |
| 6. | The Cannonball Run | 20th Century Fox | Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Adrienne Barbeau, Dom Deluise, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin | $72,179,579 |
| 7. | Chariots of Fire | Warner Bros./The Ladd Company | Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Ian Holm | $58,972,904 |
| 8. | For Your Eyes Only | United Artists | Roger Moore, Carole Bouquet, Topol, Julian Glover | $54,812,802 |
| 9. | The Four Seasons | Universal | Alan Alda, Carol Burnett, Sandy Dennis | $50,427,646 |
| 10. | Time Bandits | Embassy Pictures | John Cleese, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, | $42,365,581 |
| 11. | Clash of the Titans | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Harry Hamlin, Laurence Olivier, Ursula Andress | $41,092,328 |
| 12. | Absence of Malice | Columbia Pictures | Paul Newman, Sally Field | $40,716,963 |
| 13. | Reds | Paramount Pictures | Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton Jack Nicholson and Gene Hackman | $40,382,659 |
| 14. | The Fox and the Hound | Walt Disney Animation Studios | Mickey Rooney, Kurt Russell | $39,900,000 |
| 15. | Tarzan, the Ape Man | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Bo Derek, Miles O'Keeffe, Richard Harris | $36,565,280 |
| 16. | Taps | 20th Century Fox | George C. Scott, Timothy Hutton, Ronny Cox, Sean Penn and Tom Cruise | $35,856,053 |
| 17. | Sharky's Machine | Warner Bros. | Burt Reynolds, Vittorio Gassman, Rachel Ward | $35,610,100 |
| 18. | Excalibur | Warner Bros. | Nigel Terry | $34,967,437 |
| 19. | History of the World, Part I | 20th Century Fox | Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman | $31,672,907 |
| 20. | Bustin' Loose | Universal Studios | Richard Pryor and Cicely Tyson | $31,261,269 |
Box office results courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
Read more about this topic: 1981 In Film
Famous quotes containing the words top and/or films:
“Oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight; and the higher the top of that delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)