Music is art. Movies are art. When they collide, magic can happen that can, and has, impacted pop culture.
The soundtrack album is almost like a time capsule. Often, it captures a moment in time, like the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever and the age of disco or the soundtrack for Singles and the era where Seattle’s grunge scene ruled the world. It even works on films that period pieces like Forrest Gump, whose soundtrack highlighted some of the biggest hits of the ’60s and ’70s, or The Wedding Singer, which honored some of the biggest artists of the ’80s.
These time capsules have often translated into major sales figures, especially before the digital era where you can stream literally any song you can think of at the touch of a button. Plenty of movie soundtracks have sold one million copies, but with this list, we’re going to focus on the soundtracks that have moved two million copies and more in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA.)
From comedies to dramas and everywhere in between, here are 80 movie soundtracks certified multi-platinum.
