How do i turn this string into 2 arrays in python?

First split the input string on comma to generate a list, then use comprehensions to get the title and year as separate lists.

films_list = re.split(r',\s*', films)
titles = [re.split(r'\s*(?=\(\d+\))', x)[0] for x in films_list]
years = [re.split(r'\s*(?=\(\d+\))', x)[1] for x in films_list]

Answer of Tim is well enough. I will try to write an alternative someone who would like to solve the problem without using regex.

a = films.split(",")
years = []
for i in a:
    years.append(i[i.find("(")+1:i.find(")")])

Same approach can be applied for titles.

You can do something like this (without any kind of import or extra module needed, or regex complexity):

delimeter = ", "
movies_with_year = pfilms.split(delimeter)
movies = []
years = []
for movie_with_year in movies_with_year:
    movie = movie_with_year[:-6]
    year = movie_with_year[-6:].replace("(","").replace(")","")
    movies.append(movie)
    years.append(year)

This script will result in something like this:

movies : ['Endless Love ', ...]

years : ['1981', ...]

You shuold clear all "new line" (|n) and use try/except to pass over the last elemet issue.

films = ("""Endless Love (1981), Top Gun (1986), The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988),
Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994),
Mission: Impossible (1996), Jerry Maguire (1996), The Matrix (1999), Mission: Impossible II (2000),
Vanilla Sky (2001), Cocktail (1988), A Few Good Men (1992), The Firm (1993), Eyes Wide Shut (1999),
Magnolia (1999), Minority Report (2002), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Days of Thunder (1990),
The Powers of Matthew Star (1982), Cold Mountain (2003), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999),
 War of the Worlds (2005), The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986), Far and Away (1992), Taps (1981),
 The Last Samurai (2003), Valkyrie (2008), Jack Reacher (2012), Edge of Tomorrow (2014),
 Enemy of the State (1998), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Crimson Tide (1995), Reign Over Me (2007),
 Batman Forever (1995), Batman Begins (2005), The Simpsons (1989), The Simpsons: Brother from the Same Planet (1993),
 The Simpsons: When You Dish Upon a Star (1998), End of Days (1999), House of D (2004), The Indian Runner (1991),
  Harry & Son (1984), Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011), Aladdin (1992), Pacific Rim (2013),
  Oblivion (2013), Knight and Day (2010),
""")

movies = []
years = []
for item in films.replace("\n", "").split("),"):
      try:
        movies.append(item.split(" (")[0])
        years.append(item.split(" (")[-1])
      except:
        ...