The ten classic sci-fi movies below run from 1951 to 1999, from The Thing from Another World to The Matrix, with 2001: A Space Odyssey at the top. Every one of them is in the Library of Congress National Film Registry, which means the Library decided they were worth keeping for good.
Updated October 11, 2026.
Years of rewatching these films teaches one lesson about the genre. The effects are never what lasts. The movies that hold up are built on one strong idea, a visitor, a replicant, a machine that thinks, and they keep the camera on faces long enough for the idea to land. The ones that lean on spectacle alone are the ones that date.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubrick directed it for MGM and wrote the screenplay with Arthur C. Clarke. It premiered on April 2, 1968 in Washington, D.C., and cost about $10.5 million. Worldwide grosses reach roughly $148.5 million by one count. It won the Oscar for visual effects, the only Academy Award Kubrick ever received, and entered the National Film Registry in 1991. Its argument is patience. Long silences, music by Richard Strauss and György Ligeti, and a computer named HAL 9000 that turns into the scariest character on screen.
Blade Runner (1982)
Ridley Scott’s film reached theaters on June 25, 1982, distributed by Warner Bros. It cost $30 million and took in $41.8 million in its original run, a letdown that later reviews reversed. It adapts Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and earned two Oscar nominations, for art direction and visual effects. The Library of Congress added it to the registry in 1993, and Warner released Scott’s Final Cut in theaters on October 5, 2007. The argument: a detective story where the real case is who counts as a person.
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
George Lucas made it through Lucasfilm, and Twentieth Century-Fox released it on May 25, 1977. The budget was $11 million. Total box office across its releases stands at about $775.4 million. It won six Academy Awards and joined the National Film Registry in 1989. Its argument is craft over polish. The ships are scuffed and the droids are dented, so the galaxy feels used rather than designed, and later blockbusters copied that look for decades.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Robert Wise directed it for 20th Century Fox, released September 18, 1951. Michael Rennie plays the visitor Klaatu, Patricia Neal plays Helen Benson, and Bernard Herrmann wrote the score. The story comes from Harry Bates’s 1940 short story Farewell to the Master. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave it a special Golden Globe for promoting international understanding, and the film entered the registry in 1995. Its argument turns the usual invasion plot around. The alien asks humans to behave, and the threat is us.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Steven Spielberg’s film opened June 11, 1982 from Universal on a $10.5 million budget. It earned about $792 million worldwide after its re-releases and held the worldwide record until Jurassic Park passed it in 1993. It won four Oscars (score, sound, sound effects editing and visual effects) and lost Best Picture to Gandhi. The registry took it in 1994. Its argument is point of view. The camera sits at a ten-year-old’s height, so the adults are mostly legs and flashlights.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Spielberg wrote and directed it for Columbia Pictures, with a premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre on November 16, 1977. The budget was $19.4 million, and the film has passed $300 million worldwide. Vilmos Zsigmond won the cinematography Oscar, and Frank Warner won a special achievement award for sound effects editing. Douglas Trumbull supervised the effects, and John Williams chose a five-note motif out of more than 300 candidates. The registry added it in 2007. Its argument is wonder: first contact as music, not combat.
The War of the Worlds (1953)
Byron Haskin directed and George Pal produced it for Paramount, in three-strip Technicolor, on a $2 million budget. The film moves H.G. Wells’s story from Victorian England to 1950s Southern California. It won the Academy Award for visual effects at the 1954 ceremony, and the registry selected it in 2011. Its argument is scale. The Martian war machines and the Cold War mood make a seventy-year-old special-effects picture still look threatening.
Back to the Future (1985)
Robert Zemeckis directed it from a script he wrote with Bob Gale, produced by Amblin Entertainment and released by Universal on July 3, 1985. It cost $19 million and grossed between $393 million and $398 million worldwide. Michael J. Fox replaced Eric Stoltz in the lead early in 1985. The time machine is a modified DeLorean, and the registry listed the film in 2007. Its argument is structure. Every setup in 1985 pays off in 1955, and the comedy never stops the plot.
The Thing from Another World (1951)
RKO released it on April 7, 1951. Christian Nyby has the director credit, though people still debate how much Howard Hawks, whose Winchester Pictures made it, directed in practice. It is based on John W. Campbell’s 1938 novella Who Goes There?, written under the name Don A. Stuart, and it earned $1.95 million in US rentals. The registry added it in 2001. John Carpenter’s 1982 remake, The Thing, adapted the same novella and reused the original’s burning-letters title. The argument: dread built from crowded rooms and overlapping dialogue.
The Matrix (1999)
The Wachowskis wrote and directed it for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow, and it opened on March 31, 1999. The budget was $63 million, and the original run earned about $463.5 million. It won four Oscars: film editing, sound, sound effects editing and visual effects. The film made bullet time famous, an effect that slows the action while the camera keeps moving. The registry selected it in 2012. Its argument is that a philosophy question can drive an action movie.
What are the best classic sci-fi movies?
What is the oldest of these classic sci-fi movies?
The Thing from Another World is the oldest of these classic sci-fi movies by release date. RKO released it on April 7, 1951. The Day the Earth Stood Still followed on September 18, 1951, and The War of the Worlds arrived in 1953. All three are in the National Film Registry, selected in 2001, 1995 and 2011.
Which classic sci-fi movies earned the most at the box office?
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial leads, with about $792 million worldwide after its re-releases. Star Wars follows at roughly $775.4 million, then The Matrix at about $463.5 million for its original run. Back to the Future took between $393 million and $398 million. Sources count re-releases differently, so these totals are approximate.
Which classic sci-fi movies won Academy Awards?
2001: A Space Odyssey won the visual effects Oscar, Kubrick’s only one. Star Wars won six Academy Awards. E.T. won four: score, sound, sound effects editing and visual effects. Close Encounters won for cinematography plus a special achievement award for sound effects editing. The War of the Worlds won for visual effects, and The Matrix won four, including film editing.
Are these classic sci-fi movies based on books?
At least four are. Blade Runner adapts Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The Day the Earth Stood Still comes from Harry Bates’s 1940 short story Farewell to the Master. The Thing from Another World comes from John W. Campbell’s 1938 novella Who Goes There? The War of the Worlds adapts H.G. Wells, and 2001 was written alongside Arthur C. Clarke.