10 Highest-Grossing '80s Movies Ranked Worst To Best
7. Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom
Year: 1984
Box Office: $179 million
Despite how easily the film tends to inspire the accusation, Temple Of Doom is not "awkward middle child" of the original Indiana Jones trilogy nor a challenging sequel, it is an under-appreciated gem. But that probably depends on whether you like Jonathan Ke Quan's adorable Short Round or if you're just a bad person, generally.
Some of the action is the best in the entire quadrilogy, it's more intense and more grown-up than its book-end films and the conscious adoption of more horror movie-like conventions was a great move. It also deserves commendation for being brave and changing up the formula, which ultimately is why most people take issue with it and why it pulled in significantly less than its predecessor at the box office.
Oddly for a Spielberg movie, Temple Of Doom has a sort of rough-edged charm to it, but you really can't argue with how entertaining it is. It's just a shame that some of the stereotypes in there are unquestionably a bit racist.