Gregor's Top 40 of 1996
by Movie-Mate | created - 07 Dec 2013 | updated - 19 Jan 2020 | Public- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Scream (1996)
R | 111 min | Horror, Mystery
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich
Votes: 388,313 | Gross: $103.05M
2. The Frighteners (1996)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
After a tragic car accident that kills his wife, a man discovers he can communicate with the dead, and he uses that gift to con people. However, when a demonic spirit appears, he may be the only one who can stop it from killing the living and the dead.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin
Votes: 95,466 | Gross: $16.76M
3. The Birdcage (1996)
R | 117 min | Comedy
A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's right-wing moralistic parents.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest
Votes: 100,561 | Gross: $124.06M
4. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
R | 108 min | Action, Crime, Horror
Two criminals and their hostages unknowingly seek temporary refuge in a truck stop populated by vampires, with chaotic results.
Director: Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Juliette Lewis, Quentin Tarantino
Votes: 340,524 | Gross: $25.75M
5. The Rock (1996)
R | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A mild-mannered chemist and an ex-con must lead the counterstrike when a rogue group of military men, led by a renegade general, threaten a nerve gas attack from Alcatraz against San Francisco.
Director: Michael Bay | Stars: Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, John Spencer
Votes: 358,055 | Gross: $134.07M
6. Fargo (1996)
R | 98 min | Crime, Thriller
Minnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare
Votes: 726,462 | Gross: $24.61M
7. Trainspotting (1996)
R | 93 min | Drama
Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd
Votes: 725,492 | Gross: $16.50M
8. Sling Blade (1996)
R | 135 min | Drama
Karl Childers, a simple man hospitalized since his childhood murder of his mother and her lover, is released to start a new life in a small town.
Director: Billy Bob Thornton | Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter
Votes: 98,792 | Gross: $24.48M
9. The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
R | 130 min | Biography, Drama
The story of controversial pornography publisher Larry Flynt, and how he became a defender of free speech.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, Edward Norton, Brett Harrelson
Votes: 100,713 | Gross: $20.19M
10. Executive Decision (1996)
R | 133 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
When terrorists seize control of an airliner, an intelligence analyst accompanies a commando unit for a midair boarding operation.
Director: Stuart Baird | Stars: Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, Steven Seagal, John Leguizamo
Votes: 61,552 | Gross: $56.57M
11. Mission: Impossible (1996)
PG-13 | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
An American agent, under false suspicion of disloyalty, must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organization.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny
Votes: 470,172 | Gross: $180.98M
12. Jerry Maguire (1996)
R | 139 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent agent with the only athlete who stays with him and his former colleague.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, Kelly Preston
Votes: 286,957 | Gross: $153.95M
13. Mad Dog Time (1996)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
With his boss in the madhouse, a mobster is temporary boss of the criminal empire just as vicious rivals threaten the control of the empire.
Director: Larry Bishop | Stars: Michael J. Pollard, Henry Silva, Gabriel Byrne, Jeff Goldblum
Votes: 3,674 | Gross: $0.08M
14. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
G | 91 min | Animation, Drama, Family
A deformed bell-ringer must assert his independence from a vicious government minister in order to help his friend, a gypsy dancer.
Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise | Stars: Demi Moore, Jason Alexander, Mary Kay Bergman, Corey Burton
Votes: 171,623 | Gross: $100.14M
15. A Time to Kill (1996)
R | 149 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In Canton, Mississippi, a fearless young lawyer and his assistant defend a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his ten-year-old daughter, inciting violent retribution and revenge from the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey
Votes: 181,592 | Gross: $108.77M
16. Sleepers (1996)
R | 147 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After a prank goes disastrously wrong, a group of boys are sent to a detention center where they are brutalized. Thirteen years later, an unexpected random encounter with a former guard gives them a chance for revenge.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric
Votes: 237,515 | Gross: $49.10M
17. Primal Fear (1996)
R | 129 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An altar boy is accused of murdering a priest, and the truth is buried several layers deep.
Director: Gregory Hoblit | Stars: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward Norton, John Mahoney
Votes: 246,945 | Gross: $56.12M
18. Fudoh: The New Generation (1996)
98 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
In order to settle a business dispute, a mob leader murders one of his own teenage sons. The surviving son vows to avenge his brother's death, and organizes his own gang of teenage killers to destroy his father's organization.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Shôsuke Tanihara, Miho Nomoto, Tamaki Kenmochi, Marie Jinno
Votes: 3,833
19. Bound (1996)
R | 109 min | Crime, Thriller
Tough ex-con Corky and her lover Violet concoct a scheme to steal millions of stashed mob money and pin the blame on Violet's crooked boyfriend Caesar.
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano, John P. Ryan
Votes: 60,730 | Gross: $3.80M
20. Broken Arrow (1996)
R | 108 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Terrorists steal nuclear warheads from the U.S. military but don't count on a pilot and park ranger spoiling their plans.
Director: John Woo | Stars: John Travolta, Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Delroy Lindo
Votes: 105,208 | Gross: $70.77M
21. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
PG-13 | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight reaching warp speed.
Director: Jonathan Frakes | Stars: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton
Votes: 132,033 | Gross: $92.00M
22. Tin Cup (1996)
R | 135 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A washed-up golf pro working at a driving range tries to qualify for the U.S. Open in order to win the heart of his successful rival's girlfriend.
Director: Ron Shelton | Stars: Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, Don Johnson, Cheech Marin
Votes: 53,250 | Gross: $53.85M
23. The English Patient (1996)
R | 162 min | Drama, Romance, War
At the close of World War II, a young nurse tends to a badly burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 200,815 | Gross: $78.65M
24. The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
R | 110 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
A bridge engineer and an experienced old hunter begin a hunt for two lions after they start attacking local construction workers.
Director: Stephen Hopkins | Stars: Michael Douglas, Val Kilmer, Tom Wilkinson, John Kani
Votes: 65,954 | Gross: $38.62M
25. DragonHeart (1996)
PG-13 | 103 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
The last dragon and a disillusioned dragonslaying Knight must cooperate to stop an evil King, who was given partial immortality.
Director: Rob Cohen | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Sean Connery, Dina Meyer, Pete Postlethwaite
Votes: 101,758 | Gross: $51.37M
26. Freeway (1996)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A twisted take on "Little Red Riding Hood", with a teenage juvenile delinquent on the run from a social worker travelling to her grandmother's house and being hounded by a charming, but sadistic, serial killer and pedophile.
Director: Matthew Bright | Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Bokeem Woodbine, Paul Perri
Votes: 31,737 | Gross: $0.30M
27. Crash (1996)
NC-17 | 100 min | Drama
After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims who use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger
Votes: 66,339 | Gross: $2.04M
28. First Strike (1996)
PG-13 | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
This fourth installment of Chan's Police Story film franchise has our hero trying to locate a missing nuclear warhead.
Director: Stanley Tong | Stars: Jackie Chan, Jackson Lou, Annie Wu, Bill Tung
Votes: 22,515 | Gross: $15.32M
29. Michael Collins (1996)
R | 133 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
Neil Jordan's historical biopic of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, the man who led a guerrilla war against the UK, helped negotiate the creation of the Irish Free State, and led the National Army during the Irish Civil War.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Julia Roberts, Ian Hart
Votes: 33,745 | Gross: $11.09M
30. The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
R | 121 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Samantha Caine lives in a small town with her daughter. Eight years ago she emerged, two months pregnant, from a nearby river with no memory of her past or who she is. However, she's getting closer to finding out about her past.
Director: Renny Harlin | Stars: Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Yvonne Zima, Craig Bierko
Votes: 85,657 | Gross: $33.33M
31. Space Truckers (1996)
PG-13 | 95 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
A space trucker and his cute fiancee are on their way from a space station to Earth with an unknown cargo. When space pirates hijack them, 5000 disintegrator robots are found in the cargo.
Director: Stuart Gordon | Stars: Tim Loane, Ian Beattie, Olwen Fouéré, Shane Rimmer
Votes: 8,699
32. Eko Eko Azarak II: Birth of the Wizard (1996)
83 min | Horror
Kimika Yoshino returns in this prequel to 'Wizard of Darkness' to play Misa Kuroi before she was famous, or at least before she realized she was a witch. 'Birth of the Wizard' begins in ... See full summary »
Director: Shimako Sato | Stars: Kimika Yoshino, Wataru Shihôdô, Chieko Shiratori, Akira Otani
Votes: 332
33. Before and After (1996)
PG-13 | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two parents deal with the effects when their son is accused of murdering his girlfriend.
Director: Barbet Schroeder | Stars: Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson, Edward Furlong, Julia Weldon
Votes: 9,966 | Gross: $8.80M
34. Multiplicity (1996)
PG-13 | 117 min | Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi
A man who never has enough time for the things he wants to do is offered the opportunity to have himself duplicated.
Director: Harold Ramis | Stars: Michael Keaton, Andie MacDowell, Zack Duhame, Katie Schlossberg
Votes: 35,031 | Gross: $20.10M
35. Black Mask (1996)
R | 99 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A survivor of a supersoldier project must fight his former comrades as a masked hero.
Director: Daniel Lee | Stars: Jet Li, Ching Wan Lau, Karen Mok, Françoise Yip
Votes: 12,283 | Gross: $12.49M
36. Lupin III: Dead or Alive (1996)
95 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
When Lupin heads to the kingdom of Zufu to pilfer its treasure, he incurs the wrath of its psychotic ruler General Headhunter, who places a dead-or-alive bounty on his head.
Directors: Monkey Punch, Jun Kawagoe | Stars: Kan'ichi Kurita, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Makio Inoue, Eiko Masuyama
Votes: 692
Lupin The 3rd - Dead Or Alive
37. Twister (I) (1996)
PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Two storm chasers on the brink of divorce must work together to create an advanced weather alert system by putting themselves in the cross-hairs of extremely violent tornadoes.
Director: Jan de Bont | Stars: Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz
Votes: 213,504 | Gross: $241.72M
38. Phenomenon (1996)
PG | 123 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
An ordinary man sees a bright light descend from the sky, and discovers he now has super-intelligence and telekinesis.
Director: Jon Turteltaub | Stars: John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, Robert Duvall
Votes: 83,775 | Gross: $104.64M
39. Michael (1996)
PG | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Two tabloid reporters checking out a report of the Archangel Michael living with an old woman find that it's true. But that's not the only surprise.
Director: Nora Ephron | Stars: John Travolta, Andie MacDowell, William Hurt, Bob Hoskins
Votes: 45,070 | Gross: $95.32M
40. Bottle Rocket (1996)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Three friends plan to pull off a simple robbery and go on the run.
Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Ned Dowd, Shea Fowler
Votes: 83,499 | Gross: $0.56M
41. White Squall (1996)
PG-13 | 129 min | Adventure, Drama
Teenage boys discover discipline and camaraderie on an ill-fated sailing voyage.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Caroline Goodall, John Savage, Scott Wolf
Votes: 25,447 | Gross: $10.30M
42. Independence Day (1996)
PG-13 | 145 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth. Fighting superior technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive.
Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell
Votes: 605,471 | Gross: $306.17M
Tell Your Friends