Apple recently opened up a limited-time sale within iTunes for a selection of movies dating back to the 1950s, which the company has grouped into "Iconic" and "Essential" collections (via Variety). The bundles include movies like Dr. Strangelove, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and many more.

The sale starts with a group of $19.99 "Iconic" movie bundles for each decade, beginning with the 1950s, each including ten movies.

itunes movie sale decades
All of the movies included in every collection are listed below:

  • 1950s: The Country Girl, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Sabrina, Sunset Boulevard, To Catch a Thief, War and Peace, Houseboat, A Place in the Sun, The Greatest Show on Earth, Funny Face
  • 1960s: The Odd Couple, Alfie, Barbarella, Hud, Barefoot in the Park, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, In Harm’s Way, True Grit, The Italian Job, The Nutty Professor
  • 1970s: Paper Moon, The Great Gatsby, Love Story, Grease, The Out-of-Towners, Harold and Maude, Heaven Can Wait, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Bad News Bears, Plaza Suite
  • 1980s: The Naked Gun, Airplane!, Footloose, Urban Cowboy, Clue, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, Terms of Endearment, Crocodile Dundee, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
  • 1990s: Wayne’s World, Clueless, The Truman Show, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Galaxy Quest, Ghost, Kingpin, Superstar, Runaway Bride, Tommy Boy
  • 2000s: Zoolander, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Tropic Thunder, Almost Famous, School of Rock, I Love You, Man, She’s the Man, Mean Girls, Old School

The "Essential" films aren't bundled under one price point, and instead iTunes has accumulated popular films from each decade and marked them down to $4.99 each. The amount of movies included in each decade's Essential sale ranges from 26 to nearly 100, although the 1950s are not included.

itunes movie sales essentials
Some of the $4.99 films in each decade's sale are listed below:

  • 1960s: Dr. Strangelove, Lawrence of Arabia, The Graduate, Psycho, West Side Story
  • 1970s: Rocky, Carrie, Apocalypse Now, The French Connection, Serpico, Marathon Man
  • 1980s: Back to the Future, Die Hard, The Breakfast Club, Dirty Dancing, WarGames, The Thing
  • 1990s: The Big Lebowski, Fight Club, American Beauty, Jerry Maguire, Reservoir Dogs, The Silence of the Lambs
  • 2000s: Shaun of the Dead, Juno, (500) Days of Summer, Cloverfield, Ghost World, Legally Blonde, Bring It On

iTunes has also marked down specific categories of Essential films, including "Summer Blockbuster Essentials," "Based on a True Story Essentials," "Essential Actors + Directors," and more.

Apple regularly runs sales within the movies section of iTunes, most recently giving the storefront a LEGO-themed makeover and placing some DC movies on sale to coincide with the digital release of The LEGO Batman Movie. Last year, the movies section of iTunes turned ten years old and in celebration Apple debuted bundles of ten films for $10 each.

Tag: iTunes
Related Forum: Mac Apps

Top Rated Comments

JBaker122586 Avatar
103 months ago
It's not a bad deal but you'd buys 10 older films on dvds for less than $19.99
Who wants DVD-quality films in 2017?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
svendobbelaere Avatar
103 months ago
I sure hope the Apple Music equivalent of movies will be coming soon... Gone are the days that I, along so many others, will pay certain amounts of money just to watch a movie once.
Netflix?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bigsk8r Avatar
103 months ago
The fact it always takes someone who isn't white, for anyone to notice an unfair practice is precisely why the world is trying to fight racism in the first place.
I would submit that in this case, you are a little late. Until the 2000's, there just weren't a lot of hit movies made with non-white leads, proportionally speaking.

Direct that angst at the people who made the movies available in the first place. Given that Apple doesn't have agreements with every studio, you might be painting with a bit of a broad brush there.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Amazing Iceman Avatar
103 months ago
What happened here!? This is yesterday's news...
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dilster3k Avatar
103 months ago
I sure hope the Apple Music equivalent of movies will be coming soon... Gone are the days that I, along so many others, will pay certain amounts of money just to watch a movie once.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bbeagle Avatar
103 months ago

Why would you buy anything you only plan to use once?
Movie tickets, plane tickets, concert tickets, hamburgers, pizza, soda ... most things in life are things you buy that you only plan to use only once.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iphone 16 display

iPhone 17's Scratch Resistant Anti-Reflective Display Coating Canceled

Monday April 28, 2025 12:48 pm PDT by
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors. Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Reaches Key Milestone Ahead of Mass Production

Monday April 28, 2025 8:44 am PDT by
Apple has completed Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) for at least one iPhone 17 model, according to a paywalled preview of an upcoming DigiTimes report. iPhone 17 Air mockup based on rumored design The EVT stage involves Apple testing iPhone 17 prototypes to ensure the hardware works as expected. There are still DVT (Design Validation Test) and PVT (Production Validation Test) stages to...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Blue

20th Anniversary iPhone Likely to Be Made in China Due to 'Extraordinarily Complex' Design

Monday April 28, 2025 4:29 am PDT by
Apple will likely manufacture its 20th anniversary iPhone models in China, despite broader efforts to shift production to India, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In 2027, Apple is planning a "major shake-up" for the iPhone lineup to mark two decades since the original model launched. Gurman's previous reporting indicates the company will introduce a foldable iPhone alongside a "bold"...
iphone 17 air iphone 16 pro

iPhone 17 Air USB-C Port May Have This Unusual Design Quirk

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years. iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack) At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...
apple watch ultra yellow

What's Next for the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3

Friday April 25, 2025 2:44 pm PDT by
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too. 2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3 Apple didn't update the...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 13 New Features

Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iPhone 17 Pro on Desk Feature

All iPhone 17 Models Again Rumored to Feature 12GB of RAM

Tuesday April 29, 2025 3:36 am PDT by
All upcoming iPhone 17 models will come equipped with 12GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence, according to the Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station. The claim from the Chinese leaker, who has sources within Apple's supply chain, comes a few days after industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max will all be equipped with 12GB of RAM. ...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...