1970s Teen Films
by krmickey | created - 28 Dec 2019 | updated - 05 Feb 2023 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Meatballs (1979)
PG | 94 min | Comedy
Wacky hijinks of counselors and campers at a less-than-average summer camp.
Director: Ivan Reitman | Stars: Bill Murray, Harvey Atkin, Kate Lynch, Russ Banham
Votes: 23,838 | Gross: $43.05M
2. Corvette Summer (1978)
PG | 105 min | Adventure, Comedy
A high school grad and a hooker-in-training try to track down his stolen Corvette.
Director: Matthew Robbins | Stars: Mark Hamill, Annie Potts, Eugene Roche, William Bryant
Votes: 3,867 | Gross: $15.50M
3. Ice Castles (1978)
PG | 108 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
An inexperienced yet naturally gifted ice skater makes a spectacular debut in the skating world before encountering an event that could possibly derail her hopes and dreams.
Director: Donald Wrye | Stars: Lynn-Holly Johnson, Robby Benson, Colleen Dewhurst, Tom Skerritt
Votes: 4,047 | Gross: $20.71M
4. American Graffiti (1973)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of teenagers in California's central valley spend one final night after their 1962 high school graduation cruising the strip with their buddies before they pursue their varying goals.
Director: George Lucas | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith
Votes: 98,066 | Gross: $115.00M
5. Grease (1978)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Good girl Sandy Olsson and greaser Danny Zuko fell in love over the summer. When they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?
Director: Randal Kleiser | Stars: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway
Votes: 300,263 | Gross: $188.76M
6. Carrie (1976)
R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery
Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, John Travolta
Votes: 206,480 | Gross: $33.80M
7. The Wanderers (1979)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
The Wanderers is a teenage, Italian gang in Bronx, NYC, 1963. They have their confrontations with other gangs. Drugs and weapons are uncool. Adult life awaits them.
Director: Philip Kaufman | Stars: Ken Wahl, Karen Allen, John Friedrich, Toni Kalem
Votes: 12,352 | Gross: $0.01M
8. Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Music
Ramones fanatic and delinquent Riff Randell battles it out with the strict new principal of Vince Lombardi High School, Miss Togar, with help from the Ramones.
Directors: Allan Arkush, Joe Dante | Stars: P.J. Soles, Vincent Van Patten, Clint Howard, Dey Young
Votes: 11,196
9. Take Down (1979)
PG | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
An unqualified teacher finds himself saddled with coaching duties after a small group of high school seniors form a wrestling team in a last ditch effort to end a 9-year losing streak against a rival school.
Director: Kieth Merrill | Stars: Edward Herrmann, Kathleen Lloyd, Lorenzo Lamas, Maureen McCormick
Votes: 258
10. Cooley High (1975)
PG | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1964 on Chicago's Near-North Side, the lives of four carefree high school seniors and best friends, including an aspiring playwright and an all-city basketball champion, takes a tragic turn.
Director: Michael Schultz | Stars: Glynn Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Garrett Morris, Cynthia Davis
Votes: 5,541
11. Aaron Loves Angela (1975)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
In New York City, a young black boy and Puerto Rican girl fall in love despite objections from each other's families.
Director: Gordon Parks Jr. | Stars: Moses Gunn, Kevin Hooks, Irene Cara, Robert Hooks
Votes: 307
12. Lemon Popsicle (1978)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Three friends live their lives in 1950s Israel, each looking for someone to love.
Director: Boaz Davidson | Stars: Yftach Katzur, Anat Atzmon, Jonathan Sagall, Zachi Noy
Votes: 3,668
13. I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)
PG | 104 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
In 1964, six teenagers from New Jersey run off to see The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) in the hope of meeting their idols. However, they don't have tickets. Along the way, they learn new things about friendship and growing up.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Nancy Allen, Bobby Di Cicco, Marc McClure, Susan Kendall Newman
Votes: 5,612
14. Summer of '42 (1971)
PG | 104 min | Drama, Romance
During his summer vacation on Nantucket Island in 1942, a youth eagerly awaiting his first sexual encounter finds himself developing an innocent love for a young woman awaiting news on her soldier husband's fate in WWII.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Jennifer O'Neill, Gary Grimes, Jerry Houser, Oliver Conant
Votes: 9,109 | Gross: $7.38M
15. Over the Edge (1979)
PG | 95 min | Crime, Drama
A group of bored teenagers rebel against authority in the community of New Granada after the death of one of their own.
Director: Jonathan Kaplan | Stars: Matt Dillon, Michael Eric Kramer, Pamela Ludwig, Vincent Spano
Votes: 8,118
16. The Last Picture Show (1971)
R | 118 min | Drama, Romance
In 1951, a group of high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied North Texas town that is slowly dying, both culturally and economically.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson
Votes: 52,338 | Gross: $29.13M
17. Laserblast (1978)
PG | 85 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A teenager stumbles upon an alien weapon, which transforms him into a grotesque killer.
Director: Michael Rae | Stars: Kim Milford, Cheryl Smith, Gianni Russo, Ron Masak
Votes: 6,696
18. The Warriors (1979)
R | 93 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A street gang known as the Warriors must fight its way from the Bronx to its home turf on Coney Island when its members are falsely accused of assassinating a respected gang leader.
Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Michael Beck, James Remar, Dorsey Wright, Brian Tyler
Votes: 110,580 | Gross: $22.49M
19. Badlands (1973)
PG | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town, and her older greaser boyfriend, embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota Badlands.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri
Votes: 78,314
20. Female Trouble (1974)
NC-17 | 89 min | Comedy, Crime
A spoiled schoolgirl runs away from home, gets pregnant while hitch-hiking, and ends up as a fashion model for a pair of beauticians who like to photograph women committing crimes.
Director: John Waters | Stars: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole
Votes: 10,448
21. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
Approved | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
The story of a hooded, berserk killer who terrorized the border town of Texarkana, Arkansas in 1946--leaving no fewer than five murder victims in his wake. He was never caught. Based on one of America's most baffling murder cases.
Director: Charles B. Pierce | Stars: Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, Dawn Wells, Jimmy Clem
Votes: 9,774
22. To Find a Man (1972)
GP | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
The platonic friendship between two high school youths is explored through the attempts to get the girl an abortion. Her young male friend offers his support and tries to find her a doctor.... See full summary »
Director: Buzz Kulik | Stars: Pamela Sue Martin, Darren O'Connor, Lloyd Bridges, Phyllis Newman
Votes: 166 | Gross: $0.11M
23. Jaws 2 (1978)
PG | 116 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
Police chief Brody must protect the citizens of Amity after a second monstrous shark begins terrorizing the waters.
Director: Jeannot Szwarc | Stars: Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Joseph Mascolo
Votes: 84,435 | Gross: $102.92M
24. The Fury (1978)
R | 118 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A former CIA agent uses the talents of a young psychic to help retrieve his telekinetic son from a shadowy secret government agency.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Charles Durning
Votes: 17,311
25. Jennifer (1978)
PG | 90 min | Horror
Ostracized at a snooty private school because of her rural, poor background, a scholarship student is tormented to the point where her only remaining recourse is revenge, using the only method she knows: her psychic control over snakes!
Director: Brice Mack | Stars: Lisa Pelikan, Bert Convy, Nina Foch, Amy Johnston
Votes: 752
26. Halloween (1978)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes
Votes: 306,579 | Gross: $47.00M
27. Our Time (1974)
PG | 90 min | Drama
A student at Penfield Girls' School falls in love with a male student in 1955. They are deeply in love but meet difficulties and disapproval on every corner.
Director: Peter Hyams | Stars: Pamela Sue Martin, Betsy Slade, Parker Stevenson, George O'Hanlon Jr.
Votes: 327 | Gross: $0.45M
28. The Van (1977)
R | 92 min | Comedy
Bobby blows all his college savings on a van and tries to get the girl of his dreams. It's a wild time with Bobby and his friends.
Director: Sam Grossman | Stars: Stuart Goetz, Deborah White, Danny DeVito, Harry Morgan Moses
Votes: 1,040 | Gross: $0.35M
29. The Pom Pom Girls (1976)
PG | 89 min | Comedy, Romance
A group of carefree high school seniors are having the time of their lives, filled with sex, romance, and teen high jinks.
Director: Joseph Ruben | Stars: Robert Carradine, Jennifer Ashley, Michael Mullins, Lisa Reeves
Votes: 1,239 | Gross: $17.88M
30. Sunnyside (1979)
R | 100 min | Action, Drama
Nick Martin, a young street tough, has a change of heart and attempts to stop the gang violence in his neighborhood.
Director: Timothy Galfas | Stars: Joey Travolta, John Lansing, Stacey Pickren, Andrew Rubin
Votes: 90
31. Massacre at Central High (1976)
R | 87 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A high-school transfer student pushed to the edge by a trio of brutal bullies resorts to murder to reclaim the school from oppression, and later turns against the students wanting to fill the vacuum of their oppressors.
Director: Rene Daalder | Stars: Derrel Maury, Andrew Stevens, Robert Carradine, Kimberly Beck
Votes: 2,712
32. Goodbye, Franklin High (1978)
PG | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
During his senior year, a high-school student must deal with his girlfriend and parents, and make a difficult decision whether to do the safe thing and go to college or try for a glamorous baseball career.
Director: Mike MacFarland | Stars: Lane Caudell, Julie Adams, William Windom, Darby Hinton
Votes: 58
33. Satan's Cheerleaders (1977)
R | 92 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
The janitor at a local high school is actually the scout for a coven of Satanists on the lookout for a virgin to sacrifice. One day he kidnaps the cheerleading squad to use for their ... See full summary »
Director: Greydon Clark | Stars: John Ireland, Yvonne De Carlo, Jack Kruschen, John Carradine
Votes: 1,235
34. Horror High (1973)
PG | 85 min | Horror
A shock-filled tale of a serious and shy but brilliant science student who, when wrongfully forced to consume a new drug he'd created, becomes a modern day Jekyll and Hyde.
Director: Larry N. Stouffer | Stars: Pat Cardi, Austin Stoker, Rosie Holotik, John Niland
Votes: 1,174
35. The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Romance
The girl next door makes a teen born with immune deficiencies want to leave his germ-free bubble.
Director: Randal Kleiser | Stars: John Travolta, Glynnis O'Connor, Robert Reed, Diana Hyland
Votes: 5,567
36. Almost Summer (1978)
PG | 88 min | Comedy
A high school student body presidential race gets nasty when the expected winner, beautiful and popular Christine, is challenged by an unknown candidate, Darryl, carefully chosen and managed by Christine's Machiavelian ex-boyfriend.
Director: Martin Davidson | Stars: Bruno Kirby, Lee Purcell, John Friedrich, Didi Conn
Votes: 341
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