Arrival was not just a great first contact story, but just a great movie period. I consider it Denis Villeneuve’s best movie, although I also like Blade Runner 2049 and Dune a lot.
I don’t think it did that bad in the box office, grossing a bit over 200$M with a budget of 47$M. It apparently did better than the studio expected. I don’t think anyone was anticipating it to be a blockbuster hit.
Well, crapola! Close but no cigar. Thanks for setting the record straight.
I have nothing to add to the fictional stories list, and in fact learned of a bunch I didn’t yet know about. Thanks all. As a public service in return …
From this thread’s OP:
For reference, that’s this thread:
Which was started 3 years ago, but has been sputtering ever since as new news comes out. Which latest new news from a couple of days ago is here courtesy of that thread’s OP:
Asimov commented that Campbell was quite fond of stories where humans win in the end, because we’re Special. Just how we were Special didn’t matter: It could be because we were the strongest or smartest or whatever, or because we’re more determined, or we’re the only species in the Universe with a sense of humor. Asimov was very uncomfortable with this, because he saw it as an proxy for “White men are Special”. The desire for avoiding this trope, while still not annoying his primary editor by subverting it, was part of the reason why he wrote his Foundation books in a galaxy where humans are the only sophonts.
(though he did give in to the trope a few times, such as in the short story “Homo Sol”, where Earth-humans are unique among sophonts for our ability to panic)
My current favorite SHORT.
2001
Just wanted to see if Discourse would allow. It wouldn’t. Maybe if I’d added a period?
“The Road Not Taken” by Harry Turtledove
I absolutely see the perils in the “Humans are special” trope. As I said, but again feel that Star Trek especially goes so far in the other direction it comes out the same way. After all, humans are less intelligent, less physically and psychically powerful, less technologically advanced, and yet they are the driving force of the Federation. So, they suck but still win? 
For the record, the novel (it has two sequels but they’re not the best IMHO) shows us as special, but it’s NOT something we’re respected for. More spoilers:
Stop now, I’m serious. You’re sure? Fine. Humans are too uncivilized to work with as equals, and are equally uninterested in being part of a galactic civilization, especially one on a war footing. But both sides are 100% okay with humans being mercenaries and being used as attack dogs. The later novels show human society has becoming almost nothing but soldiers, tolerated at best, feared with plans to contain at the worst.
Enh, I only looked it up because I thought it was Robert Silverberg.
My favourite first contact story is the novel “A Deepness In The Sky” by Vernor Vinge.
Two groups of humans arrive at a planet and battle each other to take advantage of the burgeoning civilisation of alien creatures (which resemble spiders) on a planet with an unusual star. The aliens are climbing into a technological age and the humans want to exploit whatever arises but also need resources from the planet to repair their ships after their battle so they try to covertly aid the aliens development whilst trying to stay hidden (whilst the humans engage in subversion against each other in quite cool ways). As the aliens hibernate a human expedition visits the planet and I liked the fact that their holy grail would be a children’s encylopedia.
When it comes to miscommunication movies, has no-one mentioned Mars Attacks?
You know, I’d wanted to mention his The Gods Themselves for this: it starts off with a self-important celebrity scientist doing all he can to keep taking credit for the story’s huge breakthrough, even as it becomes increasingly obvious to us that, no, the strange creatures of that other world are the ones who — acting on their own initiative — sent us instructions along with stuff that defied our known laws of physics, and when I say “us” I mean “well, it happened to be him.”
So the increasing drumbeat, early on, is that he’s just one more petty schemer on this here planet of people who likewise couldn’t have innovated what he’s passed along. And, once you figure that he had every incentive to portray first contact as making him look like something special, tearing down his pedestal means concluding: dang, those para-men are something special, huh?
The twist: uh, no; they, too, have their share of petty schemers, on a planet chock full of people who (a) are just raising families or whatever, and who (b) also couldn’t have worked out how to send us stuff in general or useful instructions in particular. Oh, sure, they’re alien in their customs and their relationships and their psychology; but, in the ways that matter, they’re pretty much no more or less special than us.
Random Sample - T. P. Caravan
Sitnam - sorry I hit the wrong button.
Two first contact novels I admire; The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, about a not-very-humanoid species that contacts humanity, and they turn out to have some very debilitating biological shortcomings despite their obvious high intelligence and competence.
I also like The Forge of God by Greg Bear, which is about first contact that goes very badly for humanity.
Mention one more that I read fairly recently, that spawned nearly 15 short story books to date: The Warriors by Larry Niven, where a very peaceful and pacific human race encounters in space a purely carnivorous species who…are not.
And one with a rather funny (yet horrifying ending), No Morning After by Arthur C. Clarke, where Aliens contact a drunk scientist…
Was fun re-reading this thread, may have to pull some books out again.
I like Existence by David Brin, which acknowledges the difficulties (impossibility?) of FTL travel, and establishes rather a unique partial solution. It also includes the possibility of one of the threats that is one possible answer to “where is everyone?”
This may violate the parameters of the OP because contact, such as it is, is only one way.
Also worth a mention, although flawed, is Infinity Beach by Jack McDevitt. This early book takes place in his universe where FTL travel is possible, but humans have not (yet?) encountered any evidence of alien life of any kind, let alone intelligent life. Optimistic explorers still set out and try, and one time there is an unusual result. This one spends a lot of time on the communications issue, and what can happen when you can’t explain yourself.
Since this thread has awoken from hibernation as it traveled on its sleep ship to another solar system…
I think Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time series counts as first contact novels. I’ve only read the first two, which are each self contained stories, though should be read in order. In both humans are the outsiders who come to visit aliens where they live.
They’re a bit more complex, though. Not a spoiler, because this information is in the blurb about the books, the aliens are descendants of Earth, but are not human, and were not sentient the last time they were in contact with humans.
I like these books compared to some other first contact novels, because Tchaikovsky does a good job at having the other sentients be properly alien in how they think and behave, not just the literary equivalent of humans with pointy ears.