Movie and television cars are why we collect.

At least, it can be a significant part of why some collectors seek out certain cars.

Seriously, how many folks think that the DeLorean DMC-12 would be remembered as well or as fondly without its “Back to the Future” fame? It’d be in the same shit-bin category as the Bricklin SV-1 — a weird little oddity that has theoretically interesting but ultimately terrible doors. 

There’s your silver-screen factor.

Screen Size Hardly Mattered

Weekly appointment viewing did as much to burnish certain car’s reputations as much as a full-length feature flick. Consider the General Lee’s fame compared to any of Bond’s Aston Martins (at least in the United States). And how many “The Fall Guy” trucks have you seen in the last decade? “American Graffiti” had a ’32 Ford or a ’55 Chevrolet 150 to get behind, with both fairly easy to replicate to boot. For a couple of decades, it always seemed like one or two of the major, primetime programs had a car co-star.

And the brilliant part of all the smoke and mirrors of movie making? It really doesn’t matter what powers the vehicle, as long as it works for the scene. Chevy 350-ci V8 to the rescue… you know, just like a huge subset of hot rodding believes. 

Super Appealing Superhero Interest

Batman, like it or not, is an enduring part of the American pop-culture zeitgeist. Go figure, a superhero that uses gadgets instead of super powers inspires real-life gadgets.

Batmobiles are a key part of that appeal, and it plays out in the marketplace.

In the last few years, Mecum Auctions has sold four of them. The 1989 Batmobile that Mecum sold in Indianapolis 2025 for $352,000 (Lot S341) is a fine example of the Hollywood engineering. It was an officially licensed Warner Bros. show vehicle. Earlier in 2025 at Kissimmee, they sold a replica Dark Knight series Tumbler Batmobile (Lot U174), based on a 1995 Chevrolet Suburban, for $484,000. Two replicas of the 1966 Batman TV series sold, Lot S233 at Larry’s Legacy sale in September 2025 for $220,000, and Lot 243 at Kissimmee 2022 for $319,000. Big money is out there for fans of the Caped Crusader, either spending or selling, and that should tell you something about what powers those collectors. 

We’re still waiting on the Green Hornet’s Imperial to hit traction with a new audience. Maybe the Ringbrothers will take a shot at it.

Celebrity Merits

Barrett-Jackson found pay dirt with movie cars in the Dr. Stewart A. Burkowitz Collection back in January 2025 Scottsdale’s sale. From a “Fantasy Island” golf cart at $18,700 to a soft spot near and dear to my little black heart 1993 Ford Explorer in “Jurassic Park” regalia at $22,000 to a very impressive $110k for a “Speed Racer” Mach 5 on a 1989 Chevrolet Corvette chassis, with hits from “M*A*S*H” to “Dumb and Dumber” to “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” in between, this collection’s focus went all over Hollywood’s history. His “Green Hornet” Imperial went for $41,800 — a far cry from the Bruce Wayne-adjacent car values.

Barrett-Jackson continued the star-car string at their 2026 Arizona auction. It wasn’t one collection, but a number of consignments sprinkled throughout the run list to get these specific nostalgia juices flowing. Try finding another van to bring the same price as the Mystery Machine there. Another fun car was a ’60s style Batmobile (although on a ’75 Lincoln Continental Mark IV platform, from the Albert La Canne Collection) that sold for $247,500.

Like everything else with old cars, each of these serves as a link to the past. Movie and TV cars just add a level of celebrity to the old-car feels, which in turn, yes, can add to the bottom line when buying or selling. And there is something neat about a specific car being the one used in production. See most anything from Steve McQueen’s car-centric movies. Specifically, I’m talking about the 1970 Porsche 911S from “Le Mans” that RM Auctions sold for $1,375,000 at Monterey 2011, which was about 10x the going rate at the time.

I’m not even going to touch the “Fast and the Furious” cars here, as that universe can use its own breakdown. While the movies are cheesy enough and grew increasingly outlandish, the love of cars was always prevalent and hooked a new generation of car lovers.

Similar Can Be Good Enough

Here’s the thing, though: maybe you don’t need to have the ’77 Pontiac Trans Am from “Smokey and the Bandit” in black with the gold screaming chicken. Perhaps a silver one from ’79 will sufficiently scratch the itch. Let the folks who absolutely need it to be the exact one with the right specifications (specious as those specs might be) fight it out with their ilk and drive those prices up, up and away. Brown cars accelerate just a quickly as black or red ones given the same power plant. Fame-adjacent can be just as fulfilling.

Personal nerd disclosure, yes, I have my ’67 Chevy Impala because I loved the one in “Supernatural.” And, it’s a gorgeous car in its own right, even when it won’t behave sometimes. But I’m not going to make it a replica of that show’s car.

It’s Still About Having Fun

Owning collector cars, old trucks and vintage vehicles is a blast, for the most part. Some of the high comes from gawkers and folks flashing a thumbs up, but to get there, you’ve got to keep up with the aging mechanical bits. That’s not always easy.

As we move into the future, with the same wind-tunnel testing and fuel-efficiency requirements, modern cars increasingly look more and more the same within the same segment.

There very likely will be a time when starting the average vehicle no longer carries the familiar RPM rev up then drop, or any RPM at all. But, the American market needs to let Chinese EVs to come in cheap, cheap, cheap prices for that level of mass adoption. We’ll need a different political environment before that and probably a willingness to sacrifice domestic automotive manufacturing.

Just in case it needs to be stated, I’m not advocating for any of that.

I want to be able to go out and start my old car and still hear the engine rumble. For a second or more, I can pretend that my car is the star of its own ghost-hunting show.

No matter where the future leads, we will still have classic movie and television cars to guide us to the roads of yesterday.