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99 free Famous Movie trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
15 free Famous Movie trivia questions with answers. Famous Movie trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Movies trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01Who directed the 1960 horror film Psycho, with its celebrated shower scene?
Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock directed and produced Psycho (1960), shooting it cheaply in black and white with the crew from his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Q 02In Citizen Kane, Rosebud is revealed as a trade name printed on which object?
A sled
Rosebud is the trade name on Kane's childhood sled; as his possessions are burned in the final scene, the name shows through the flames.
Q 03In L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's magic shoes are which colour, changed for the 1939 film?
Silver
Silver Shoes became ruby slippers because red showed off the new Technicolor process better; Glinda magically transfers them onto Dorothy's feet.
Q 04The malfunctioning mechanical sharks built for Jaws were nicknamed what by the film crew?
Bruce
Three full-size pneumatic props were built and named after Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer. Because they kept failing, Spielberg largely suggested the shark with John Williams's score instead of showing it.
Q 05Who directed The Godfather (1972)?
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola directed The Godfather (1972) and co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, adapting Puzo's 1969 novel.
Q 06Titanic (1997) tied Ben-Hur's record for most Oscars won by one film. How many?
Eleven
It also tied All About Eve (1950) for the most nominations, making it the most successful individual film in Academy Award history at the time.
Q 07Who wrote and directed the original 1977 Star Wars film?
George Lucas
George Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars (1977), later retitled Episode IV – A New Hope; it was his third feature after THX 1138 and American Graffiti.
Q 08Jurassic Park (1993) was adapted from a 1990 novel by whom?
Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton wrote the 1990 novel Jurassic Park and co-wrote the screenplay with David Koepp for Steven Spielberg's 1993 film.
Q 09The Shawshank Redemption was adapted from a 1982 novella by which author?
Stephen King
Stephen King's novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption appeared in his 1982 collection Different Seasons; Frank Darabont wrote and directed the 1994 film.
Q 10Which 1994 Quentin Tarantino film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes?
Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction premiered at Cannes that May and went on to be a major critical and commercial hit, with an Oscar for its screenplay.
Q 11The Matrix (1999) was written and directed by which pair of siblings?
The Wachowskis
The Wachowskis followed it with two sequels in 2003, Reloaded and Revolutions, and the film's 'bullet time' effect became the most imitated shot of its decade.
Q 12Casablanca (1942) is set in December 1941 in a port city then under French control in which North African country?
Morocco
Morocco's Casablanca was French-controlled in December 1941, when Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine runs his nightclub and gambling den there.
Q 13In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Elliott lures the alien back to the house with a trail of which sweet?
Reese's Pieces
Q 21The Wizard of Oz won two Academy Awards, one for its score. What was the other?
Best Original Song
'Over the Rainbow' took the prize, and Judy Garland received a special Juvenile Award.
Q 22In The Wizard of Oz, who reveals the Wizard to be an ordinary man by pulling back a curtain?
Toto
Toto tugs the curtain aside to expose the humbug Wizard; the dog was played by Terry, a female Cairn terrier.
Q 23Jaws was shot mostly on location on which Massachusetts island?
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard stood in for the fictional Amity Island; shooting on the open ocean there sent the film wildly over budget and schedule.
Reese's Pieces got the placement after Mars, Incorporated refused to let M&M's appear in the 1982 film; the Hershey candy's sales rose sharply afterwards.
Q 14Hattie McDaniel became the first African American Oscar winner for which 1939 film?
Gone with the Wind
Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress for playing Mammy in Gone with the Wind, the first Black performer both nominated for and awarded an Oscar.
Q 15Which sentient computer runs the Discovery One in 2001: A Space Odyssey?
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) controls Discovery One; Mother is the ship's computer in Alien and Skynet belongs to The Terminator.
Q 16How much did Paramount pay for The Godfather film rights before the novel took off?
$80,000
Paramount secured the rights in 1967 for $80,000 in total, before Mario Puzo's novel became a bestseller; Puzo, owing gambling debts, accepted readily.
Q 17Warner Bros. paid a then-record sum for which unproduced stage play, which became the screenplay for Casablanca?
Everybody Comes to Rick's
Everybody Comes to Rick's, by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, had not been staged when Warner Bros. bought it.
Q 18In Casablanca, which song does Ilsa ask the pianist Sam to play?
"As Time Goes By"
"As Time Goes By" was a 1931 Herman Hupfeld tune before the film made it immortal; hearing it again is the first sign for Rick that Ilsa is back.
Q 19Roughly how many unknown actresses were interviewed for the role of Scarlett O'Hara?
1,400
Selznick's two-year search interviewed about 1,400 unknown actresses for Scarlett O'Hara before the British actress Vivien Leigh won the part late in 1938.
Q 20How much did David O. Selznick pay Margaret Mitchell for the film rights to her Civil War novel in 1936?
$50,000
Selznick paid Margaret Mitchell $50,000 in July 1936, a month after publication and a record for a first novel, having initially passed on the book.
Q 24In Jaws, how much does the shark hunter Quint demand to kill the shark?
$10,000
Quint demands $10,000 — 'for that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing' — after the $3,000 Kintner bounty drew a chaotic amateur hunt.
Q 25Which actor was originally cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future before Michael J. Fox replaced him?
Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz shot for several weeks before being replaced; Michael J. Fox had been the first choice but was tied up with Family Ties.
Q 26In Back to the Future, the DeLorean must reach what speed to travel through time?
88 miles per hour
88 miles per hour is the magic number, along with 1.21 gigawatts, which in 1955 only a lightning bolt can supply.
Q 27In The Shining, Hallorann warns Danny to stay out of which number at the Overlook Hotel?
237
Room 237 replaced the novel's 217 at the request of Oregon's Timberline Lodge, which supplied the exteriors and did not want a real room stigmatised.
Q 28The Shining's final shot settles on a 1921 photograph of a ball at the Overlook Hotel, held on which date?
July 4th
'Overlook Hotel – July 4th Ball – 1921' reads the caption, with Jack Torrance front and centre, grinning.
Q 29How long did Sylvester Stallone reportedly take to write the screenplay for Rocky?
Three days
Stallone reportedly wrote Rocky in about three days in 1975, then refused to sell the script unless he starred, rejecting offers said to reach $350,000.
Q 30What was the approximate production budget of Rocky (1976)?
About $1 million
About $1 million bought a Best Picture winner from ten nominations, and Rocky popularised the rags-to-riches theme of the sports drama.