Best College Movies
by 3THEREAL | created - 7 months ago | updated - 7 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Stomp the Yard (2007)
PG-13 | 115 min | Drama, Music, Romance
When his brother is murdered, a street dancer moves to Georgia to work his way through college. He joins a fraternity's step dancing team for a competition. Will he also get an education and the girl?
Director: Sylvain White | Stars: Columbus Short, Meagan Good, Ne-Yo, Darrin Dewitt Henson
Votes: 26,444 | Gross: $61.36M
2. Van Wilder: Freshman Year (2009 Video)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Romance
Van Wilder starts his freshman year at Coolidge College and embarks on an adventure to land the campus hottie and liberate his school from sexual oppression and party dysfunction.
Director: Harvey Glazer | Stars: Jonathan Bennett, Shaun Bowman, Kristin Cavallari, Kurt Fuller
Votes: 15,122
3. National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002)
R | 92 min | Comedy, Romance
The most popular kid on campus meets a beautiful journalist who makes him realize that maybe he's afraid to graduate.
Director: Walt Becker | Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Tara Reid, Tim Matheson, Kal Penn
Votes: 115,329 | Gross: $21.01M
4. Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (2006)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Romance
Taj Mahal Badalandabad leaves Coolidge College behind for the halls of Camford University in England, where he looks to continue his education, and teach an uptight student how to make the most out of her academic career.
Director: Mort Nathan | Stars: Kal Penn, Lauren Cohan, Daniel Percival, Glen Barry
Votes: 23,993 | Gross: $4.26M
5. 21 & Over (2013)
R | 93 min | Comedy
The night before his big medical school interview, a promising student celebrates his 21st birthday with his two best friends.
Directors: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore | Stars: Miles Teller, Justin Chon, Jonathan Keltz, Sarah Wright
Votes: 77,179 | Gross: $25.68M
6. Life of the Party (I) (2018)
PG-13 | 105 min | Comedy
After her husband abruptly asks for a divorce, a middle-aged mother returns to college in order to complete her degree.
Director: Ben Falcone | Stars: Melissa McCarthy, Matt Walsh, Molly Gordon, Ben Falcone
Votes: 39,633 | Gross: $53.06M
7. The Waterboy (1998)
PG-13 | 90 min | Comedy, Sport
A waterboy for a college football team discovers he has a unique tackling ability and becomes a member of the team.
Director: Frank Coraci | Stars: Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates, Henry Winkler, Fairuza Balk
Votes: 178,345 | Gross: $161.49M
8. The House Bunny (2008)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy
After Playboy bunny Shelley is kicked out of the Playboy Mansion, she finds a job as the house mother for a sorority full of socially awkward girls.
Director: Fred Wolf | Stars: Anna Faris, Colin Hanks, Emma Stone, Kat Dennings
Votes: 90,317 | Gross: $48.24M
9. With Honors (1994)
PG-13 | 101 min | Comedy, Drama
Convinced his thesis will have him graduate with honors from Harvard University, a stuffy student finds himself at the mercy of a homeless man's demands when he holds the papers hostage.
Director: Alek Keshishian | Stars: Joe Pesci, Brendan Fraser, Moira Kelly, Patrick Dempsey
Votes: 15,904 | Gross: $20.04M
10. Sydney White (2007)
PG-13 | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A modern retelling of Snow White set against students in their freshman year of college in the greek system.
Director: Joe Nussbaum | Stars: Amanda Bynes, Sara Paxton, Matt Long, Jack Carpenter
Votes: 51,262 | Gross: $11.89M
11. Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
PG-13 | 117 min | Drama
A free-thinking art professor teaches conservative 1950s Wellesley girls to question their traditional social roles.
Director: Mike Newell | Stars: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Votes: 90,931 | Gross: $63.86M
12. St. Elmo's Fire (1985)
R | 110 min | Drama, Romance
A group of friends, just out of college, struggle with adulthood.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Emilio Estevez
Votes: 46,388 | Gross: $37.80M
13. St. Elmo's Fire
Announced
A group of close friends struggling with career, commitment and the responsibilities of adulthood.
14. Accepted (2006)
PG-13 | 93 min | Comedy
A high school slacker who's rejected by every school he applies to opts to create his own institution of higher learning, the South Harmon Institute of Technology, on a rundown piece of property near his hometown.
Director: Steve Pink | Stars: Justin Long, Jonah Hill, Blake Lively, Adam Herschman
Votes: 140,009 | Gross: $36.32M
15. Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016)
R | 92 min | Comedy
When their new next-door neighbors turn out to be a sorority even more debaucherous than the fraternity that lived there before, Mac and Kelly team with their former enemy, Teddy, to bring the girls down.
Director: Nicholas Stoller | Stars: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Chloë Grace Moretz
Votes: 130,190 | Gross: $55.46M
16. Higher Learning (1995)
R | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
People from all different walks of life, encounter racial tension, rape, responsibility, and the meaning of an education on a university campus.
Director: John Singleton | Stars: Omar Epps, Kristy Swanson, Michael Rapaport, Jennifer Connelly
Votes: 21,546 | Gross: $38.29M
17. The Rules of Attraction (2002)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The incredibly spoiled and overprivileged students of Camden College are a backdrop for an unusual love triangle between a drug dealer, a virgin and a bisexual classmate.
Director: Roger Avary | Stars: James Van Der Beek, Ian Somerhalder, Shannyn Sossamon, Jessica Biel
Votes: 53,324 | Gross: $6.53M
18. School Daze (1988)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
A not so popular young man wants to pledge to a popular fraternity at his historically black college.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Tisha Campbell, Kyme
Votes: 8,034 | Gross: $14.55M
19. 21 (2008)
PG-13 | 123 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Inspired by real events and people, 21 is about six MIT students who become trained to be experts in card counting in Black Jack and subsequently took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings.
Director: Robert Luketic | Stars: Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Aaron Yoo
Votes: 266,481 | Gross: $81.16M
20. Road Trip (2000)
R | 93 min | Comedy
Four college buddies embark on a road trip to retrieve an illicit tape mistakenly mailed to a female friend.
Director: Todd Phillips | Stars: Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, Amy Smart, Paulo Costanzo
Votes: 178,263 | Gross: $68.54M
21. Damsels in Distress (2011)
PG-13 | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A trio of girls set out to change the male-dominated environment of the Seven Oaks college campus, and to rescue their fellow students from depression, grunge and low standards of every kind.
Director: Whit Stillman | Stars: Greta Gerwig, Adam Brody, Lio Tipton, Megalyn Echikunwoke
Votes: 9,987 | Gross: $1.01M
22. Legally Blonde (2001)
PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Romance
Elle Woods, a fashionable sorority queen, is dumped by her boyfriend. She decides to follow him to law school. While she is there, she figures out that there is more to her than just looks.
Director: Robert Luketic | Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair, Matthew Davis
Votes: 248,090 | Gross: $96.52M
23. Drumline (2002)
PG-13 | 118 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A band director recruits a Harlem street drummer to play at a Southern university.
Director: Charles Stone III | Stars: Nick Cannon, Zoe Saldana, Orlando Jones, Leonard Roberts
Votes: 36,045 | Gross: $56.40M
24. Revenge of the Nerds (1984)
R | 90 min | Comedy
At Adams College, a group of bullied outcasts and misfits resolve to fight back for their peace and self-respect.
Director: Jeff Kanew | Stars: Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Timothy Busfield, Andrew Cassese
Votes: 58,369 | Gross: $40.90M
25. Old School (2003)
R | 88 min | Comedy
Three friends attempt to recapture their glory days by opening up a fraternity near their alma mater.
Director: Todd Phillips | Stars: Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Jeremy Piven
Votes: 243,332 | Gross: $75.59M
26. Neighbors (I) (2014)
R | 97 min | Comedy
After they are forced to live next to a fraternity house, a couple with a newborn baby do whatever they can to take them down.
Director: Nicholas Stoller | Stars: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Lisa Kudrow
Votes: 329,371 | Gross: $150.16M
27. Neighbors (1981)
R | 94 min | Comedy
A quiet man's peaceful suburban lifestyle is threatened by the new, obnoxious couple that moves in next door.
Director: John G. Avildsen | Stars: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Kathryn Walker, Cathy Moriarty
Votes: 8,589 | Gross: $29.92M
28. We Are Marshall (2006)
PG | 131 min | Drama, Sport
When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.
Director: McG | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, Anthony Mackie, David Strathairn
Votes: 64,823 | Gross: $43.55M
29. Barry (2018–2023)
TV-MA | 30 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A hit man from the Midwest moves to Los Angeles and gets caught up in the city's theatre arts scene.
Stars: Bill Hader, Stephen Root, Sarah Goldberg, Anthony Carrigan
Votes: 122,438
30. Scream 2 (1997)
R | 120 min | Horror, Mystery
Two years after the first series of murders, as Sidney acclimates to college life, someone donning the Ghostface costume begins a new string of killings.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jada Pinkett Smith
Votes: 209,702 | Gross: $101.36M
31. Liberal Arts (2012)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When 30-something Jesse returns to his alma mater for a professor's retirement party, he falls for Zibby, a college student, and is faced with a powerful attraction that springs up between them.
Director: Josh Radnor | Stars: Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen, Zac Efron, Elizabeth Reaser
Votes: 40,287 | Gross: $0.32M
32. Black Christmas (1974)
R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon
Votes: 48,345 | Gross: $4.05M
33. Pitch Perfect (2012)
PG-13 | 112 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
Beca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.
Director: Jason Moore | Stars: Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp
Votes: 330,694 | Gross: $65.00M
34. Night of the Creeps (1986)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Alien brain parasites, entering humans through the mouth, turn their host into a killing zombie. Some teenagers start to fight against them.
Director: Fred Dekker | Stars: Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow
Votes: 26,111 | Gross: $0.59M
35. Back to School (1986)
PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Romance, Sport
To help his discouraged son get through college, a funloving and obnoxious rich businessman decides to enter the school as a student himself.
Director: Alan Metter | Stars: Rodney Dangerfield, Sally Kellerman, Burt Young, Keith Gordon
Votes: 36,188 | Gross: $91.26M
36. Starter for 10 (2006)
PG-13 | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Set in 1985, working-class student Brian Jackson (McAvoy) navigates his first year at Bristol University.
Director: Tom Vaughan | Stars: James McAvoy, Alice Eve, Rebecca Hall, Joseph Friend
Votes: 25,077 | Gross: $0.21M
37. The Sure Thing (1985)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Walter Gibson is a university freshman going through a dry spell. His old buddy arranges a "sure thing" for him in California. Gibson and his classmate Allison then take a long road trip out to Cali, and both foil each other's plans.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: John Cusack, Daphne Zuniga, Anthony Edwards, Boyd Gaines
Votes: 22,178 | Gross: $18.14M
38. The Freshman (1990)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Crime
An N.Y.C. film school student accepts a job with a local mobster who resembles a famous cinema godfather and who takes the young man under his wing, after demanding total loyalty.
Director: Andrew Bergman | Stars: Marlon Brando, Matthew Broderick, Bruno Kirby, Penelope Ann Miller
Votes: 22,041 | Gross: $21.46M
39. 22 Jump Street (2014)
R | 112 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt and Jenko when they go deep undercover at a local college.
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller | Stars: Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Ice Cube, Nick Offerman
Votes: 406,047 | Gross: $191.72M
40. Wonder Boys (2000)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Drama
An English Professor tries to deal with his wife leaving him, the arrival of his editor who has been waiting for his book for seven years, and the various problems that his friends and associates involve him in.
Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey Jr.
Votes: 66,595 | Gross: $19.39M
41. The Paper Chase (1973)
PG | 113 min | Comedy, Drama
A first-year law student at Harvard Law School struggles with balancing his coursework and a woman, unaware that she has a connection that affects their relationship.
Director: James Bridges | Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, John Houseman, Graham Beckel
Votes: 8,687 | Gross: $1.85M
42. The Paper Chase (1978–1986)
60 min | Drama
The trials of a group of law students under the tutelage of a strict professor.
Stars: John Houseman, James Stephens, Tom Fitzsimmons, James Keane
Votes: 1,082
43. The Great Debaters (2007)
PG-13 | 126 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.
Director: Denzel Washington | Stars: Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Kimberly Elise, Nate Parker
Votes: 62,854 | Gross: $30.23M
44. Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)
R | 117 min | Comedy
In 1980, a group of college baseball players navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood.
Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Blake Jenner, Tyler Hoechlin, Ryan Guzman, Zoey Deutch
Votes: 58,613 | Gross: $3.37M
45. National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
R | 109 min | Comedy
At a 1962 college, Dean Vernon Wormer is determined to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi Fraternity, but those troublemakers have other plans for him.
Director: John Landis | Stars: John Belushi, Karen Allen, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst
Votes: 129,326
46. The Graduate (1967)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels
Votes: 288,396 | Gross: $104.95M
47. The Graduates (2023)
87 min | Drama
A year after her boyfriend dies from gun violence, a young woman prepares to graduate high school as she navigates an uncertain future alongside a community that is searching for ways to heal.
Director: Hannah Peterson | Stars: Musa Aden, Nicholas Anderson, Kaci Arena, Stephen Fuller Austin
Votes: 25
48. The Roommate (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 91 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
When college freshman Sara arrives on campus for the first time, she befriends her roommate, Rebecca, unaware that the girl is becoming dangerously obsessed with her.
Director: Christian E. Christiansen | Stars: Minka Kelly, Leighton Meester, Cam Gigandet, Aly Michalka
Votes: 41,348 | Gross: $37.30M
49. The Way We Were (1973)
PG | 118 min | Drama, Romance
During post-WWII McCarthyism, a diametrically opposed couple come together only to find out that genuine friendship and physical attraction is not enough to overcome fundamental societal beliefs.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman, Lois Chiles
Votes: 27,474
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