Events

• The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.

• Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film.

• Michael Eisner becomes head of The Walt Disney Company

• Prince's first film, and overall best, Purple Rain, is released.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Awards

Films released in 1984

• 1984

• 2010

• Aaj Ki Awaaz

• Amadeus - Academy and Golden Globe (drama) Awards for Best Picture

• The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai

• Alley Cat

• All of Me

• Annie's Coming Out

• Angel

• Bachelor Party

• The Bay Boy - 1985 Genie Award for Best Canadian Motion Picture.

• Beat Street

• Before Stonewall

• Best Defense

• Beverly Hills Cop

• Birdy

• Blind Date

• Blood Simple

• Body Double

• Bolero

• Breakin

• Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

• The Bostonians

• Broadway Danny Rose

• Cannibal Holocaust

• Cannonball Run II

• Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure

• Children of the Corn

• Choose Me

• C.H.U.D.

• City Heat

• Cloak & Dagger

• The Company of Wolves, directed by Neil Jordan

• The Coolangatta Gold

• The Cotton Club

• Country

• La diagonale du fou, (Dangerous Moves) - Academy Award for Foreign Language Film

• Dune

• Electric Dreams

• Exterminator 2

• Eureka, directed by Nicolas Roeg

• Falling in Love, with Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep

• Fear City

• Finders Keepers

• Firestarter

• The Flamingo Kid

• Flashpoint

• Footloose

• Frankenweenie

• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

• The Funeral aka Death Japanese Style

• Gallavants

• Ghostbusters

• Give My Regards To Broad Street

• Gremlins

• Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes starring Sir Ralph Richardson in his final role.

• The Hotel New Hampshire

• Irreconcilable Differences

• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

• The Jesse Owens Story

• Just the Way You Are

• The Karate Kid

• The Killing Fields - British Academy Award for Best Film

• The Last Starfighter

• The Lonely Guy

• Love Streams - Golden Bear award winner

• Making the Grade

• Maria’s Lovers

• Micki + Maude

• Mike's Murder

• Missing In Action

• Monster Dog

• Monster Shark

• Moscow on the Hudson

• Mrs. Soffel

• The Muppets Take Manhattan

• The Naked Face

• National Lampoon's Joy of Sex

• The Natural

• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

• The NeverEnding Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte)

• The Ninja Mission

• A Nightmare on Elm Street

• Night of the Comet

• Old Enough, Sundance Grand Jury Prize

• Once Upon A Time In America

• Paris, Texas - Palme d'Or winner

• A Passage to India - Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film

• The Philadelphia Experiment

• Places in the Heart

• Police Academy

• The Pope of Greenwich Village

• A Private Function

• Purple Rain

• Reckless

• Red Dawn

• Repo Man

• The Return of Godzilla (also known as "Godzilla 1985")

• Revenge of the Nerds

• Rhinestone

• The River

• Roadhouse 66

• Romancing the Stone - Golden Globe Award for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy)

• Runaway

• Sheena

• Sixteen Candles

• Slapstick of Another Kind, starring Jerry Lewis

• A Soldier's Story

• Splash

• Starman

• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

• Stranger Than Paradise

• Streets of Fire

• A Sunday in the Country

• Supergirl

• Swing Shift

• Tank

• The Terminator

• Terror in the Aisles

• Thief of Hearts

• This Is Spinal Tap

• Top Secret!

• Under the Volcano

• Ultraman Story

• Ultraman Zoffy: Ultra Warriors vs. the Giant Monster Army

• The Warrior and the Sorceress

• Where the Boys Are '84

• Where The Toys Come From

• The Year of the Quiet Sun (Rok spokojnego slonca'') - Golden Lion winner

Wide-release movies

January-March

April-June

July-September

October-December

Births

• January 3 - Maya Ababadjani, actress

• February 12 - Alexandra Dahlstrom, actress

• September 19 - Edward O'Donnell, artist

• November 22 - Scarlett Johansson, actress

• November 28 - Mary Elizabeth Winstead, actress

Deaths

• January 20 - Johnny Weissmuller, actor

• January 29 - Frances Goodrich, screenwriter

• February 15 - Ethel Merman, singer, actress

• March 1 - Jackie Coogan, actor

• March 24 - Sam Jaffe, actor

• May 16 - Andy Kaufman, comedian

• May 21 - Andrea Leeds, actress

• May 21 - Ann Little, actress

• June 18 - Luis Moglia Barth, director

• July 27 - James Mason, British actor

• August 4 - Mary Miles Minter, actress

• August 5 - Richard Burton, actor

• September 17 - Richard Basehart, actor

• September 25 - Walter Pidgeon, actor

• October 21 - François Truffaut, French film director

• October 23 - Oskar Werner, actor

• October 25 - Pascale Ogier, French actress

• December 24 - Peter Lawford, actor

• December 28 - Sam Peckinpah, director

Film debuts

• Johnny Depp