iTunes Launches Sale on 'Iconic' and 'Essential' Decade-Based Movie Collections - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

iTunes Launches Sale on 'Iconic' and 'Essential' Decade-Based Movie Collections

by

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

117 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)
117 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
117 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
117 months ago
What happened here!? This is yesterday's news...
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dilster3k Avatar
117 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
117 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

Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

11 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 18 Pro

Monday May 11, 2026 9:01 am PDT by
We're only four months out from the launch of Apple's premium next-generation smartphone lineup, and while we're not expecting a sea change in terms of functionality, there are still several enhancements rumored to be coming to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth noting is that Apple is reportedly planning a major change to its iPhone release cycle this year, adopting a...
General Apps Reddit Feature

Reddit Starts Blocking Mobile Website, Pushing Users to App Instead

Monday May 11, 2026 6:10 am PDT by
Social network Reddit recently began blocking mobile visitors to its website while pushing them to download the official Reddit app, and it's fair to say that the move is not going down well with users. If you visit reddit.com on your iPhone today, you may see a new popup that can't be dismissed, asking you to "get the app to keep using Reddit." A Reddit spokesperson told Ars Technica...
iOS 26

iOS 26.5 Features: Everything New in iOS 26.5

Monday May 11, 2026 5:09 pm PDT by
Apple released iOS 26.5 after a few months of beta testing, and while it doesn't have the Siri features we were hoping for since those are being held until iOS 27, there are a handful of useful changes worth knowing about. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. End-to-End Encryption for RCS Support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages between iPhone and...
Related Apple News: News | Sport | Health | Education | Travel