Did all '80's movies stink?

A while ago I overheard someone expressing the opinion that all of the movies made in the 1980's were bad. Being of a skeptical mindset, I wondered if this was really true. Why should the '80's have films that were worse than any other decade. A quick web search brought up 100 Best Movies of All Time by Mr. Showbiz. If we judge according to how many films made the list of the top 100, the '80's don't stand out as a particularly bad decade for film-making. Here is a breakdown by decade:

# of films making the top 100 by decade

30's 40's 50's 60's 70's 80's 90's

Readers 2 5 9 11 17 24 32

Critics 12 16 16 16 18 15 7

The "Readers" choices probably are more reflective of the opinion of the general public. Looking at these figures, it seems that the 1980's should be seen as part of a longer period of time during which films underwent a steady improvement. This would fit in with the conversation that I overheard in a certain sense. He indicated that the films that are being made today are much, much better.

The critics seem to be more likely to admire films of the past. They liked the films made in the '40's, '50's and '60's more than those made in the '30's. They liked roughly the same number of films in the '70's as the general public, but seem to think that film-making has undergone a deterioration since that point in time. If the critics are right, which I doubt, then the '80's were worse than most decades, but the '90's were even worse. In either case, the '80's don't stand out as being particularly bad.