Movie trivia has become ingrained into pop culture, whether it's a frequent topic at your local bar trivia, a category on Jeopardy! or a hobby for cinephiles looking to learn a bit more about the movies and stars they love. We love movie trivia too, which is why we've put together this list of 50 fascinating movie trivia facts that you should know.
For this roundup of movie trivia facts, we wanted to go deeper than some of the more widely known ones like Toy Story being the first fully computer-animated movie or that Viggo Mortensen broke his toe in a Lord of the Rings scene. Instead, we did some research to find movie trivia facts on some of classic movies from the early days of Hollywood to today that we think you'll get a kick out of.
Without further adieu, let's get to the movie trivia facts (feel free to use any and all of the below to impress your friends and family with your newfound movie knowledge).
1. 'I am your father' was not the line said on set for The Empire Strikes Back
The reveal that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father is one of the greatest twists in movie history (make sure to have your kids watch the Star Wars movies in order of their release so they get it too), but it was also one of the best kept secrets in movie history, so much so the line wasn't even uttered on set. During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Mark Hamill explained they filmed the scene with Darth Vader (played by David Prowse on set) saying "Obi-Wan killed your father," but he was secretly told by the director Irvin Kershner the real line, which would later be added by James Earl Jones' voice work. Hamill said he had to keep the secret for a year-and-a-half until the movie premiered.
2. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' Star Wars bet
Here's another bit of Star Wars trivia. The friendship between Steven Spielberg and George Lucas is well documented, dating back to the early 1970s when they were both emerging filmmakers. But the pair of them had a friendly wager when they were making their own sci-fi epics — Spielberg Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Lucas Star Wars. Lucas thought Close Encounters would be the bigger hit, so they agreed to trade each other 2.5% of their profit points from the movie. Well, that decision ultimately netted Spielberg a reported $40 million as Star Wars more than doubled Close Encounters' box office.
3. 'First female filmmaker' directed 464 short and feature length movies
From those legendary directors to an often overlooked figure in movie history, Alice Guy. The French director is often referred to as the "world's first female filmmaker." She had a prolific career, as between 1896 and 1920 she directed a total of 464 short and feature length movies, while also occasionally serving as a writer and producer on her movies.
4. Barbie is already in the record books
Someone who is continuing the legacy of female filmmakers is Greta Gerwig, whose Barbie is the newest movie on this list, but it has already secured its spot in movie history. Gerwig's movie is the highest-grossing movie ever directed by a woman, with a $1.44 billion worldwide gross. In general, Barbie is the 14th highest-grossing movie of all time at the worldwide box office (not adjusted for inflation).
5. Color in movies has been around almost forever
You'd be forgiven for thinking that before Dorothy opened the door to Oz in The Wizard of Oz that color had not been a part of movies, but that's technically not true. While film could only capture images in black and white, some of the earliest movies, like 1903's The Great Train Robbery, were able to add color, it just required that individual frames be painted by hand. It would have taken a long time to paint all the pink in Barbie.
6. The first 3D movie was released in 1922
Another surprising early bit of technology was 3D. While most of us associate it with more recent movies, in fact the first commercial 3D movie ever released was The Power of Love in 1922; it even included the two-colored glasses that are so often associated with 3D movies. Unfortunately, The Power of Love never got a wide release and at this point is lost.
7. The Jazz Singer is not the first fully sound movie
The next great technological advancement in movies was sound. 1927's The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson is credited as the first sound movie in Hollywood. While it certainly is one of the first uses of synchronized sound and dialogue in a movie, The Jazz Singer only features a handful of scenes with the effect. However, after The Jazz Singer created the demand, it only took Hollywood a year to release its first fully sound movie, 1928's Lights of New York.
8. Psycho featured a surprising first in movie history
Even though it's been parodied to death, the shower scene in Psycho can still make you jump. But when the movie originally released in 1960, it wasn’t just the murder that may have shocked some people. Continuing with movie firsts, just before Janet Leigh's Marion is killed, audiences see her flush something down the toilet, making it the first time a toilet being flushed was ever shown on the big screen, earning it an official entry in the Guinness World Records.
9. The term 'horror movie' was first used in 1931
Psycho is an example of a horror movie, one of the most popular genres. But "horror" hasn't always been a descriptor for movies like drama or comedy. In fact, the first known use of the term "horror movie" comes from 1931's Dracula. In an essay by Gary Rhodes for the Library of Congress, it was critics who coined the term horror movie while reviewing Dracula. The success of Dracula pretty much makes it the grandfather of all horror movies.
10. Scream's original title was Scary Movie
One of the most successful horror franchise of all time is Scream. The Scream franchise now totals six movies (with a seventh on the way) and is beloved by horror fans for not only its thrills but meta commentary on the genre. However, it almost had an entirely different title. Writer Kevin Williamson's original treatment for the movie had the title as Scary Movie, but Miramax's Bob Weinstein said he didn't want the movie to be seen as a parody and suggested the change, with Michael Jackson's song "Scream" serving as inspiration, according to Vanity Fair. Of course, Scary Movie would have its day, as it became a horror parody franchise, where the first movie it lampooned was Scream.
11. James Bond's iconic score was written for another movie
Another famous franchise that took from another is the James Bond movies. James Bond's theme song is one of the most recognizable movie scores ever recorded, but the tune was not originally meant for 007. As NPR reported, Morty Norman composed the tune while he was working on a stage musical adaptation of V.S. Naipaul's book A House for Mr. Biswas, but after the play never made it to the stage he was able to repurpose it for Bond.
12. Every Lord of the Rings prop was hand-crafted
Let's focus on some other fun behind the scene facts. In the Lord of the Rings movies, to create the world of Middle Earth, Peter Jackson strove for the greatest authenticity, literally crafting every prop over the course of the trilogy from scratch with the help of his 2,400-person production crew. Jackson said he wanted "the levels of detail creating the illusion that the viewers were immersing themselves in a real world."
13. Stanley Kubrick ordered all 2001: A Space Odyssey props to be destroyed
Stanley Kubrick was a one of a kind filmmaker and his and his crew's work on 2001: A Space Odyssey was nothing short of revolutionary, but Kubrick was also a bit eccentric. That can be backed up by the fact Kubrick apparently ordered all of the original props from 2001 to be destroyed upon completion of the movie so another sci-fi movie could not reuse them. Thankfully, they crew didn't follow through entirely and some props have preserved.
14. Moulin Rouge! had the most expensive piece of jewelery ever made for a movie
While the Titanic's Heart of the Ocean if real reportedly would have been worth $300 million, the actual prop was only worth $10,000. That makes the intricate diamond necklace worn by Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!, which featured 1,308 diamonds and weighed 134 carats, the most expensive piece of jewelery made for a movie at a reported $1 million.
15. Monty Python and the Holy Grail used coconuts instead of horses because they had no money
Inversely, the classic joke in Monty Python and the Holy Grail of King Arthur and his knights prancing around as their squires bang coconuts together instead of riding horses was a cost saving measure. The hope of the Monty Python crew was to have a high-end production, but when the could only scrounge up a shoestring budget, Michael Palin (per John Cleese) conceived of the idea to use coconuts as horse replacements, leading to many great gags in the movie.
16. Lawrence of Arabia is the only movie to ever use a special piece of film equipment
A separate movie "invention" came with David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia to help capture the Arabian desert. The iconic shot of Omar Sharif’s Sherif Ali riding through a mirage-like haze was captured with a specially created Panavision 450mm lens. In the 61 years since Lawrence of Arabia's release, the lens has not been used for any other production.
17. The horse head in The Godfather was real
The Godfather scene where Hollywood producer Jack Woltz finds a decapitated horse head in his bed shows how dangerous and serious Vito Corleone is. Well, director Francis Ford Coppola was also serious, because instead of using a fake horse head that he deemed too unrealistic, he used an actual horse head for the scene, acquired by Bettye McCartt (and depicted in the Paramount Plus original series The Offer episode 7).
18. Sylvester Stallone corrected a widely-believed Rocky "error"
Sometimes rumors become legend with some movies, including one example with Rocky. The night before his fight with Apollo Creed, Rocky visits the arena and notes to the promoter the painted banner of him is wrong, he is wearing white trunks with red stripes, not red trunks with white stripes. It was long believed this scene was added after the art department made a mistake and colored the trunks wrong. However, in an Instagram post in 2018, Stallone shared an image of him wearing the red trunks with white stripes and said it was his decision at the last moment to change (and add the scene), not an art department mistake.
19. Quentin Tarantino shot a Pulp Fiction scene backwards
The memorable scene in Pulp Fiction when John Travolta's Vincent Vega stabs Uma Thurman's Mia Wallace with a shot of adrenaline to bring her back from an overdose (FYI, it's not medically advised) was shot backwards to make it look as real as possible. Travolta started the scene with the needle right at Thurman's chest and the jerked his arm up. When editing, they played it in reverse to get the finished result.
20. Bruce Willis improvised his most iconic line
Well, half improvised. Bruce Willis' John McLane's catchphrase "Yippee-ki-yay, motherf***er" from Die Hard is iconic, but screenwriter Steven E. de Souza says he only wrote half of it, the "yippee-ki-yay." In his script, the expletive was "a**hole," but Willis changed it up in one take, as he recalls it to amuse the crew. It's been amusing audiences ever since.
21. Robert De Niro made the 'You talkin' to me' scene his own
One of the most iconic scenes not just in Robert De Niro's career but in movie history, his “You talkin’ to me” monologue in Taxi Driver, was also heavily improvised. The lines "you talkin' to me" never appear in the Taxi Driver script. Based on De Niro's script notes from production, the scene that became "You talkin’ to me" only says that he stands in his apartment starring at the wall (De Niro notes "mirror"). Scorsese had De Niro improv the scene and it quickly became a classic.
22. A line from Thor: Ragnarok was suggested by a Make-a-Wish kid
Thor: Ragnarok is beloved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for its humor, a lot of which was improvised, according to stars. However, one of the movie's most recognizable lines came not from Chris Hemsworth or director Taika Waititi, but a fan who visited set as part of a Make-a-Wish experience. As Hemsworth recalled, he was talking with the fan between takes on set when the kid suggested he refer to the Hulk as "a friend from work" during their fight scene. They tried it and lo and behold it ended up in the movie.
23. Jim Caviezel was struck by lighting, twice, when making Passion of the Christ
Whether it was a higher power trying to tell people something or just pure coincidence, during the making of The Passion of the Christ Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in his final days, was struck by lighting not once, but twice. Caviezel said that being struck ultimately resulted in him having two heart surgeries and taking medication, but said his issues were corrected in 2014.
24. Home Alone has a stunt named after it
Turning away from freak accidents to stunt work, the booby traps on Home Alone are iconic not just for movie fans, but for the stunt industry. The ingenuity for creating stunts that sent the movie's villains flying earned such a reputation that the movie's cinematographer, Julio Macat, explains in the Netflix docuseries The Movies That Made Us similar stunts in other movies are now referred to as "The Home Alone."
25. The Harry Potter movies had backup teeth ready for young stars
Sticking with a Christopher Columbus-directed movie featuring young stars, the Harry Potter movies had a particularly way to avoid potential continuity headaches — making molds of everyone's teeth. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Radcliffe confirmed this to be the case so in the event anyone lost a tooth while filming they had a backup tooth they could use. Whether or not this scenario ever played out is unclear.
26. It took three-and-a-half years to make The Nightmare Before Christmas
The beloved holiday movie The Nightmare Before Christmas was the first feature-length stop-motion movie, coming in at 90 minutes. While that is relatively short (especially compared to how long movies are today), it was a painstaking process, as director Henry Selick detailed it took three-and-a-half years to complete the stop-motion animation, with 120 people working on the movie at its peak, Selick said in another interview.
27. Ben Affleck and David Fincher got into a sports debate in Gone Girl
David Fincher's Gone Girl is a hit adaptation of the best-selling mystery thriller from Gillian Flynn. While the story has plenty of twists and turns that will shock and entertain, one of the craziest things to happen on set was the breakout of a sports rivalry for Ben Affleck. In a scene where Affleck's Nick is trying to be incognito at an airport, Fincher wanted the character to wear a New York Yankees hat. However, Affleck, famously from Boston, refused to wear the hat of the Boston Red Sox's main rival, worried about the flack he would get from it. They eventually settled on a New York Mets had. There are rumors that this argument shut down the set for multiple days, but that has been refuted by co-star Carrie Coon.
28. Jeff Bridges wore some of his own clothes for The Big Lebowski
Also wardrobe related, Jeff Bridges is The Dude in more ways than one it seems. While the actor famously played the aloof protagonist of the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski, he was also a point of reference for the character's look. Bridges spoke with Larry King and revealed a number of things The Dude wears in the movie — the jellie sandals and some of the t-shirts — came from his own closet, with costume designer Mary Zophres approval. Anything else that The Dude wore came from Venice Beach thrift stores.
29. Marilyn Monroe's 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend' dress was almost very different
One more costume-related bit of trivia: the pink dress that Marilyn Monroe wears in the "Diamond's are a Girls' Best Friend" scene in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has become an iconic movie costume, but it almost looked very different, including using a lot more actual diamonds. The original design by costumer William Travilla was meant to be a bit more revealing of Monroe, as you can see here, but after a naked photo shoot incident of Monroe caused a public uproar, the studio wanted her dressed more moderately, which led to the pink dress.
30. Jackie Chan voiced a Disney prince
Jackie Chan is one of the greatest action stars in movie history, but he also is associated with a beloved animated classic, and we're not talking about Kung Fu Panda (though we enjoy that movie too). Chan provided the Chinese dubbing for Disney's Beauty and the Beast in 1991, even singing some of the iconic songs.
31. Laurence Fishburned lied about his age to star in Apocalypse Now
Also in the realm of casting trivia, while it wasn't his first movie, the first major movie that Laurence Fishburne appeared in was Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, where he played 17-year-old Tyrone "Clean" Miller (credited as Larry Fishburne), despite being only 14 at the time. As he explained in a CBC interview, he told them he was 16 when first meeting with Coppola, though he seems confident they knew he was lying, but when a secretary agreed that he could play older, that helped secure him the part.
32. Back to the Future's ending changed after its original release
Back to the Future had some changes between the original movie and the sequel. Most notable was in the cast (Claudia Wells and Crispin Glover out, Elisabeth Shue and Jeffrey Weissman in). What some may not know was that the ending was also tweaked from its original release. The "To Be Continued" that appears at the end of the movie now to get viewers excited for Back to the Future Part II was not included when it was originally in theaters as the sequel's plans were not locked in at the time.
33. Timothée Chalamet had a hidden aid in Call Me By Your Name's moving end credits
Call Me By Your Name is an emotional story of first love for Elio, played by Timothée Chalamet. At the end of the movie, when Elio's relationship with Oliver (Armie Hammer) has ended, he gets a call from Oliver revealing the two still have a connection, but one they can never act on. As Chalamet's Elio stares into the fireplace thinking about this, the credits begin to roll along with the song "Vision of Gideon" by Sufjan Stevens. It's a touching scene, but Chalamet revealed he had some help to bring the emotion, as he wore an earpiece playing the song to help him find the right emotion.
34. Two movies won a 'Best Picture' trophy at the first Oscars
Now for the Oscar trivia portion of this list. The Oscars have named 95 Best Picture winners, but there's an argument to be made that it's actually 96. At the very first Oscars in 1929 (which recognized movies released in 1927 and 1928), Wings won what was called Outstanding Picture and is now referred to as Best Picture. However, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, won for what was called Best Unique and Artistic Picture, which at the time was an equal award to Outstanding Picture. However, that was the only year a Best Unique and Artistic Picture award has handed out at the Oscars and the Academy does not officially recognize Sunrise as a Best Picture winner.
35. The first woman nominated for Best Director was from Italy
For nearly the first 50 years of the Oscars, Best Director nominees were exclusively men. That all changed in 1976 thanks to Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller, who was nominated for her movie Seven Beauties (she was also nominated for the movie's screenplay). Unfortunately, it would take another 33 years before Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman Best Director winner for The Hurt Locker. To date, only eight women have been nominated for Best Director in Oscar history; three have won.
36. A blacklisted writer won two Oscars in the 1950s
The 1950s were a dark time in Hollywood as individuals were blacklisted from working because of alleged communist affiliations, but that didn't stop screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. A member of the Hollywood Ten, the most famous individuals blacklisted during the period, Trumbo still managed to win two Oscars while not technically allowed to work. The first was for Roman Holiday, when a fellow writer used his own name to front for Trumbo, and the second was for The Brave One with Trumbo using the pseudonym Robert Rich. Trumbo is now properly credited as winning those Oscars.
37. The Oscars have nominated a fictitious person
While Trumbo used fake names, that isn't the Oscar's strangest nomination, as they've literally nominated a fictitious movie character for an actual award. 2002's Adaptation depicts Charlie Kaufman's struggles adapting the book The Orchid Thief as a movie and his relationship with his brother Donald Kaufman. Come the Oscars, Charlie and Donald Kaufman were both nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. The issue is Donald Kaufman was a creation of the movie, as Charlie Kaufman does not have a brother named Donald.
38. Anthony Hopkins does not have the record for shortest Oscar-winning lead performance
A lot of people know that Anthony Hopkins' Best Actor-winning turn as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs is the shortest performance to ever win that prize, as he appears on screen for just 24 minutes and 52 seconds of the movie. However, Patricia Neal actually bests him when you consider both Best Actor and Best Actress, as she won Best Actress for her role in Hud, for which she was on screen for 21 minutes and 51 seconds.
39. Gone with the Wind has sold the most movie tickets of all time
Let's get into some fun movie stats and other odd bits, starting with the movie with the most movie tickets ever sold, Gone with the Wind. While Avatar and Star Wars: The Force Awakens have the worldwide and US box office records, respectively, those numbers are impacted by inflation; a movie ticket today costs more than it did 10, 20 and 100 years ago. When looking at just tickets sold, nothing beats 1939's Gone with the Wind, with 202,286,200 tickets sold since its release, according to Box Office Mojo. The next closest movie, the original Star Wars with 178,119,500 tickets.
40. The Wizard of Oz is the most watched movie of all time
Tickets, schmickets; according to the Library of Congress, The Wizard of Oz is the most-watched movie of all time. The basis for this assertion are the TV airings of The Wizard of Oz that became major events, with the Los Angeles Times saying it drew 45 million viewers the first time it aired on TV in 1956. With the movie playing once a year as a big TV event to today where it is reaired more frequently, it's not hard to understand how The Wizard of Oz earned this title.
41. Casablanca has been shown more than any other movie on Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies has become a beacon for movie lovers of all ages to rewatch or watch for the first time some of the most important and influential movies ever made. While the first movie that it ever aired was Gone with the Wind, the movie that the cable channel has aired the most throughout its run has been Casablanca, which according to stats shared for the channel's 25th anniversary in 2019 has aired 150 times; which has assuredly only increased since then.
42. Mel Brooks is the last filmmaker to accomplish rare box office feat
Many directors have double dipped with two movies in a single year, like Steven Spielberg's 1993 pairing of Jurassic Park and Schindler's List or Ridley Scott's 2001 with Black Hawk Down and Hannibal. But Mel Brooks is the last director to have two movies in the same year end in the top five at the US box office with 1974's Blazing Saddles (No. 1) and Young Frankenstein (no. 4).
43. The Bodyguard soundtrack is best selling movie soundtrack of all time
Move over Sound of Music, Grease and all you other movie musicals, Whitney Houston is the queen of the movie soundtrack. The Bodyguard, which saw Houston star alongside Kevin Costner, is the best-selling movie soundtrack of all time, with 45 million copies sold, five million more than the next closest movie, Saturday Night Fever. The songs that made it a hit include the Oscar-nominated original tunes "I Have Nothing" and "Run to You," as well as Houston singing her version of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You."
44. The first DVD was a 1996 blockbuster
DVDs may not be as popular as they once were (though perhaps a DVD revolution is in order) they are still fixtures of the entertainment industry. The DVD era officially started with 1996's Twister, starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, being the first movie to receive a DVD release.
45. The first and last DVDs that Netflix shipped
Speaking of DVDs, Netflix may now be known as a streaming service, but it was founded as a company that would ship DVDs directly to people's home rather than have to go out and get them at a Blockbuster or other video store. Sadly, after 25 years Netflix's red envelopes were shipped for the last time in September 2023. For posterity, the first DVD that Netflix ever sent out was Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (which is getting a sequel with Beetlejuice 2 in 2024) and the final DVD mailed was the Coen Brother's 2010 remake of True Grit.
46. The Coen brothers didn't share a directing credit until 2004
While we're on the Coen Brothers' related fact, Joel and Ethan Coen have worked together for almost their entire careers (just recently doing solo projects like The Tragedy of Macbeth and Drive-Away Dolls). They've shared writing credits since their first movie in 1984 (Blood Simple), but they didn't share their first co-directing credit (despite it being a mostly known fact they were co-directors) until 2004's The Ladykillers because of a DGA rule that required only one director be listed. The Coens could have applied for a waiver but opted not to until The Ladykillers.
47. Memento premiered before the short story that inspired it
More brotherly related trivia: Christopher Nolan loves to play with time in his movies, but he did a bit of trick with Memento, when his movie premiered before the short story that inspired it was even published. The reason that happened was because Nolan's brother Jonathan is the author of the short story and he told the concept to Christopher on a road trip and the two began working on their versions simultaneously. Christopher Nolan was ultimately quicker, premiering Memento at the Venice Film Festival in 2000. However, the movie was officially released in the same month the short story was published in Esquire Magazine (March 2001).
48. Musician Jackson Brown didn’t know he was part of The Royal Tenenbaums
Wes Anderson movies have great uses of music, including in The Royal Tenenbaums when Gwyneth Paltrow's Margot is first introduced to "These Days" by Jackson Browne. However, Jackson Browne apparently wasn't aware (or didn't remember) his music was being used until he saw the movie. Vulture highlighted an anecdote where Browne saw the movie with Cameron Crowe and when he saw the scene in question didn't realize it was his performance until Crowe pointed it out.
49. Rian Johnson shared a way to always ID the killer in modern murder mysteries
Johnson is the creative force behind the popular murder mystery movies Knives Out and Glass Onion with Daniel Craig as brilliant detective Benoit Blanc. The director pulled the curtain back on a detail that can help amateur sleuths watching ID the killer in a movie as well. In a video for Vanity Fair, Johnson explains that if you are using Apple products in your movie, the company makes sure the villain does not use an Apple product at all.
50. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the most expensive movie ever made
Book-ending this piece with some more Star Wars trivia, to date, the most expensive movie ever made in Hollywood is Star Wars: The Force Awakens. According to MovieWeb, the first movie in Disney's sequel trilogy cost a total of $447 million dollars to make, including marketing budget. However, The Force Awakens still managed to be profitable, as it is the movie at the US box office of all time with $936.66 million and more than $2 billion worldwide.
