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Elfman cited his first time noticing film music being when he heard Bernard Hermann's score to The Day the Earth Stood Still as an eleven-year-old and being a fan of film music since then.

Nino Rota also served as a significant influence and was the main inspiration for Elfman's score to Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.

Other notable influences based in film music include Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Max Steiner, David Tamkin and Franz Waxman.

Elfman's classical influences include Béla Bartók, Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Carl Orff, Harry Partch, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.