The Philly Home Girls love movies and we love real estate. Everyone knows about scary movie season around Halloween, but how about REAL ESTATE movies? They feel like nightmares to us! This list involves movies that have the house (or realtor) as a star. Some are goofy, downright spooky and there may be a couple of stretches in the connection to real estate, but we’ve included them anyway!
Obviously this one is at the tippy top of the list…
#1 The Money Pit
Released in 1986 starring Tom Hanks & Shelley Long
This movie must be as inspiring as it is scary because every buyer we represent who is considering a fixer-upper references this movie before we do. It’s a slapstick comedy about a couple who bought their dream house, only to find the fixer-upper was a nightmare. Everything that can go wrong does, and the Money Pit nearly ruins them. SPOILER ALERT: In the end, their relationship wins and turns out to be stronger for it. Fun fact, this film was actually a remake of a 1948 movie, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, starring Cary Grant.
#2 Funny Farm
Released in 1988 starring Chevy Chase & Madolyn Smith Osborne
If you liked the Money Pit, you’ll love Funny Farm. Not only is it a movie about real estate, but it is a holiday movie, two of our favorite genres in one! In the same ilk as The Money Pit, this slapstick comedy features two naïve city slickers who decide that the grass is greener in the country. However, they quickly discover that anything that can go wrong, will. Comedy ensues and pushes their relationship over the edge. They end up hiring the community to pose as a Norman Rockwell vignette in order to sell the house (great marketing idea!) and through the process fall back in love and with each other and with their home.
#3 Pacific Heights
Released in 1990 starring Melanie Griffith, Matthew Modine, & Michael Keaton
We shouldn’t tell you about this because once you see it you’ll never want to buy and live in a duplex. This Hitchcockian-style suspense thriller made it to Bravo’s top 100 scariest movie moments. Again, a naive couple wearing rose-colored glasses go house-poor buying and renovating an idyllic duplex in San Fran only to rent it to the worst tenant. (Turns out “a naive city slicker couple….” is the way a lot of movie plots start.)
#4 Duplex
Released in 2003 Starring Ben Stiller & Drew Barrymore
Speaking of duplexes, rather than going house-poor and renting to a nightmare tenant, this couple of city slickers buy a duplex with a nightmare tenant already in place. The funny part is that the tenant is a dear, sweet old lady. Don’t worry, in Philly, silly NYC, when will you ever be as cool as Philly?
#5 Moving
Released in 1988 starring Richard Pryor
The Philly Home Girls represent a lot of relocation clients who are coming to Philly to buy a house in one weekend without ever having been here before. Luckily, they get connected with us and our objective is to learn about their lifestyle and find the location that best suits them. In Moving, Richard Pryor accepts what seems to be a dream promotion to Idaho. He soon discovers, however, that moving has its own share of problems.
#6 I Love You Man
Released in 2009 starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, and Rashida Jones
Jeanne's favorite actor on earth, the adorable and sexy Paul Rudd, goes on a series of man-dates to find a best man for his wedding. How is this real estate-themed? Well, we’ll tell you. Paul Rudd plays a real estate agent (see what we did there?) and his new BFF goes on a marketing spree to both enhance his career and work his way to the top of the friend list.
#7 Date Night
Released in 2010 starring Steve Carell, Tina Fey, and Mark Wahlberg
Tina Fey plays a real estate agent (yes, please, can I have some more). There are two very accurate, funny scenes portraying Tina's character and her clients. One scene shows Tina touring a house that was originally listed at $1.3M and is now reduced to a ridiculously low $320K. Her buyers feel they can wait it out in the hopes of getting it cheaper. In another scene, her shirtless client, Mark Wahlberg talks about all the time she spent with him alone in empty houses in front of Steve Carell, who plays Tina Fey’s husband. Oh real estate humor!
#8 American Beauty
Released in 1999 starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening
The magical real estate moment in this movie is when Annette Bening, portraying an ambitious real estate agent, does an amazing job getting a property ready for an open house. This moment is such an accurate interpretation of how we feel that when we host an open house that we often use “Annette Bening” as a verb. We describe to our selling clients exactly how we’re going to treat their open house, “ I’m going to Annette Bening this open house!”
#8 Beetlejuice
Released in 1988 starring Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, and Michael Keaton#9 Beetlejuice
You forgot this movie was about real estate, didn’t you? It is on so many levels. First, Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin literally embody tenants from hell. Second, Catherine O’Hara moves her family and her daughter, Winona Ryder, into a house where the previous owners died. Come on now, we know that every time the buyers ask, “Who are the sellers?” they really mean, “Who died here?”. Finally, the furniture that Catharine O’Hara moves into the house is so iconic that it’s become its own genre of home decor.
#10 The War of the Roses
Released in 1989 starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner
What list of real estate movies would be complete without one divorce? It is one of the top two reasons people sell houses! This couple of city slickers (fourth time! Take a drink) decide to divorce but refuse to move out of their renovated mansion. True to our theme, whatever bad things can happen, will, including a famous scene where a chandelier gets used as a weapon of mass destruction. It’s hard to watch but worth every gut-wrenching second!
#11 Haunted Mansion
Released in 2023 starring LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson and Owen Willson
We figured it may be time for a current movie in this list. A single mom suspects her newly bought mansion is haunted. She hires a tour guide, psychic, priest and a historian to help exorcise the ghosts. Sound a little like a 2003 film starring Eddie Murphy? It is a remake, but this one is filled to the brim with a great cast, special effects and it doesn’t get TOO scary but does tug on the emotional heartstrings (thanks Disney).
#12 Monster House
Released in 2023 starring LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson and Owen Willson
If you’re looking for a super natural animated movie with a super bizarre plot look no further! There’s a cast of characters with names like Chowder and Mr Nebblecracker and of course house that is actually a live breathing monster that steals toys and belongings. Oh yeah, and theirs a body that has been cemented into the unfinished basment foundation. We told you it was weird, and totally worth the watch.
#13 The Descendants
Released in 2011 starring George Clooney, Shailene and Beau Bridges
George Clooney is the trustee of family land and is pressured by family to sell it for a pretty penny. The pressure is real, but bam, his wife just had a boating accident and is now in a coma. That’s when we find out that the wife was having an affair with….. A REALTOR/DEVELOPER. Yup, it’s happening people! It’s a long road about hard decisions, forgiveness, truth and some dark humor thrown in.
#14 Psycho
Released in 1960 starring Anthony Perkins , Janet Leigh, Vera Miles and John Gavin
This movie is a reminder for all of us to CHECK THE BASEMENT when touring a home. You know the story, Marion (a real estate secretary) steals a clean crisp $40k to solve her problems. A little tiff with an officer lands her at the Bates motel for the night. All goes downhill from there. A few iconic stabbings later, the trip to the reveling basement uncovers the underlying reason for Normans erratic behavior. It’s a classic Hitchcock, it’s creepy and it’s excellent.
Hmmm maybe we should make this a top 100 Real Estate Themed Movie list. We haven’t touched Poltergeist, The Others, I See You, The Watcher and Stranger Things (last two are TV series but oh so good). What’s on your list? You pick the flick and we’ll bring the popcorn.
The perfect treasure-hunting weekend is only 1.5 hours away. Head to Adamstown, PA in Lancaster county and enjoy a visit to the antique capital of the US.