Flash Gordon (1980)
79%RT Audience Score: 69%
Awards & Nominations: 2 wins & 12 nominations total
Campy charm and a knowing sense of humor help to overcome a silly plot involving a spacefaring ex-football player, his adoring bevy of groupies, and a supervillain named Ming the Merciless
Flash Gordon is the perfect movie to watch when you want to escape reality and enter a world of pure campy fun. It’s a movie that’s so bad it’s good, with over-the-top acting, cheesy special effects, and a plot that’s all over the place. But that’s what makes it so enjoyable! You’ll find yourself rooting for Flash and his team as they battle Ming the Merciless, and laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. It’s a classic that deserves to be watched again and again.
Production Company(ies)
Alcon Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, Sony
Distributor
Cinema Classics, Universal Pictures, Video Classics, MCA/Universal Pictures [us]
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Airstrip, Breakish, Skye, Highland, Scotland, UK
MPAA / Certificate
PG
Year of Release
1980
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:2.35 : 1
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Runtime:1h 50m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Dec 5, 1980 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2004
Genre(s)
Sci-fi
Keyword(s)
Worldwide gross: $27,177,647
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $102,142,814
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,005
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 11,138,802
US/Canada gross: $27,107,960
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $101,880,906
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 738
US/Canada opening weekend: $3,934,030
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $14,785,419
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 796
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $20,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $75,166,782
Production budget ranking: 559
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $40,477,312
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$13,501,281
ROI to date (est.): -12%
ROI ranking: 1,458
Tom Wilkinson – President Lyndon Baines Johnson
Carmen Ejogo – Coretta Scott King
Giovanni Ribisi – Lee White
Alessandro Nivola – John Doar
Cuba Gooding Jr. – Fred Gray
Director(s)
Mike Hodges
Writer(s)
Alex Raymond, Michael Allin, Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Producer(s)
Dino De Laurentiis
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
2 wins & 12 nominations total
Academy Awards
All Critics (49) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (8)
Basically, whether laughing with this film, or at it, you’ll have a blast.
August 10, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Charlotte O’Sullivan
London Evening Standard
TOP CRITIC
Perhaps, like many a superhero film, this one flags just a little in the final battle sequences, but Von Sydow is always there to keep things bizarre, playing it absolutely straight.
July 31, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
a mid-air skirmish of corny old-fashioned retrofuturism and knowing postmodernism, even as its veneer of homespun innocence keeps being subverted by the corrupting powers of kink.
July 31, 2020
Anton Bitel
Little White Lies
TOP CRITIC
The expensive new version of Flash Gordon is a lot more gaudy, and just as dumb, as the original series starring Buster Crabbe.
March 26, 2009
Variety Staff
Variety
TOP CRITIC
A respectable time-waster.
April 16, 2007
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
Laughably bad and fantastically good all at once, this is a guilty pleasure that everyone can enjoy.
November 3, 2005 | Rating: 4/5
Adam Smith
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
While it is undoubtedly messy, silly and incoherent, Flash Gordon still works 40 years on from its original release.
May 5, 2022 | Rating: 4/5
Laurence Boyce
VODzilla.co
Once upon a time, comic book movies weren’t always such serious affairs.
May 10, 2021 | Rating: 3/4
Kathy Fennessy
Seattle Film Blog
The combination of so many forms of bad filmmaking results in a campy bit of surreally over-the-top fun.
September 6, 2020 | Rating: 6/10
Mike Massie
Gone With The Twins
Director Mike Hodges’ Flash Gordon is a wonderfully executed piece of science fiction cinema. It’s a film which has become a much deserved cult classic since its original release way back in 1980.
August 7, 2020 | Rating: 5/5
Niall Browne
Movies in Focus
You’ll never see anything else quite like it.
August 6, 2020
Rob Aldam
Backseat Mafia
A kaleidoscopic trip, Flash Gordon remains a cheerful tale of rich textural spaces.
August 4, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Alasdair Bayman
CineVue…
Plot
American footballer Flash Gordon is thrust into the journey of a lifetime: joined with Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov, the three earthbound space travellers will soon become the first humans to encounter alien life, and try to stop the tyrannical alien warlord Emperor Ming the Merciless from destroying the Earth.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
NA
Mike-Hodges.jpg
