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La Bamba

1987 · directed by Luis Valdez · 108 min
24,277 feet · Prominence
698th of 15,261 films scored
Not coveredNo Rewatchables episode on file.

How this film scores

Draw58

$54m worldwide in 1987 — $157m in today's money.

As released$54mIn 2026 money$157mRank1,974 of 8,589In 198720 of 130

How Draw works

Inflation-adjusted worldwide box office, on one global curve, and nothing else. It does not know whether a film was good.

Praise74

Critics 74, awards 0. Half each, so Praise lands at 74.

Critics74 → 37Awards0 → 0

No award rows on file. The awards pass reads Wikidata, which is thin for older and non-English films, so an empty ledger is usually missing data rather than an absence of honours.

How Praise works

Half critics, half a tiered award record where Picture and Directing carry most of the weight. Praise is the verdict at the time; Legacy is the verdict since.

Legacy58

Judged directly: Registry and Criterion, Valens biopic, hit soundtrack.

Verdict58 of 100IMDb7 from 38kWikipedia29k views a monthAge39 years

On the listsNational Film RegistryCriterion Collectionevidence, not an input to the score
Scored beside it · 580 of 3,430 films judged

If it does not belong in this company, the number is wrong.

How Legacy works

Legacy is a judgment, not a formula. A film can be adored by critics and culturally quiet, or lightly reviewed and permanently lodged in the culture, and no arithmetic over IMDb numbers tells the difference. Every signal behind it keeps updating.

draw 58 praise 74 legacy 58averages 63, which places it at24,277 ft
How the three become one number

Added, not multiplied, so a film transcendent on one pillar and weak on another is not zeroed out. A compression curve then squeezes the top, because the seven greatest films ever made should not be four thousand feet apart.

In these careers — elevation for this film

No scored career runs through this film yet. The people-side engine currently covers 108careers, and this film’s cast sits outside them. Top billing: Lou Diamond Phillips, Danielle von Zerneck, Elizabeth Peña, Rosanna DeSoto.