|
At the turn of the century, I was enamored with all the best-of lists floating around. Being particularly interested in music, I created a database to accumulate as many music-focused lists as I could find. I ended up aggregating hundreds of lists to make “definitive” lists of the best songs, albums, and acts of all time – and more. I created a website – DavesMusicDatabase.com – to gather and publish those lists.
This endeavor is based on the same concept. Gather and aggregate multiple lists focused on the best movies of all time. The anchor list is this one – The Top 100 Movies of All Time. It was created by aggregating more than 50 lists (see those lists here) along with box office figures (sources here), ratings (sources here), and awards (sources here).
Note to Members of the Film Fanatics Movie Club: This is a revised version of the 2019 list we use for our group. You can check out the original list on which our group is based here.
Here’s the list:
1. The Godfather (1972)
2. Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
3. Citizen Kane (1941)
4. Gone with the Wind (1939)
5. Casablanca (1942)
6. Schindler’s List (1993)
7. Psycho (1960)
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
9. Pulp Fiction (1994)
10. Jaws (1975)
11. Vertigo (1958)
12. The Godfather Part II (1974)
13. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
14. Apocalypse Now (1979)
15. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
16. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
17. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
18. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
19. Titanic (1997)
20. Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
21. Taxi Driver (1976)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
23. Goodfellas (1990)
24. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
25. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
26. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
27. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
28. Chinatown (1974)
29. The Dark Knight (2008)
30. Rear Window (1954)
31. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
32. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
33. Raging Bull (1980)
34. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
35. The Seven Samurai (Schichinin no Samurai) (1954)
36. Forrest Gump (1994)
37. All About Eve (1950)
38. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
39. Double Indemnity (1944)
40. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
41. The Third Man (1949)
42. On the Waterfront (1954)
43. The Sound of Music (1965)
44. North by Northwest (1959)
45. Alien (1979)
46. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
47. 12 Angry Men (1957)
48. The Graduate (1967)
49. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
50. Annie Hall (1977)
51. City Lights (1931)
52. Back to the Future (1985)
53. Toy Story (1995)
54. Avatar (2009)
55. The Searchers (1956)
56. Blade Runner (1982)
57. Jurassic Park (1993)
58. The Apartment (1960)
59. Fargo (1996)
60. The Exorcist (1973)
61. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
62. Rocky (1976)
63. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
64. The Matrix (1999)
65. The Shining (1980)
66. Ben-Hur (1959)
67. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
68. King Kong (1933)
69. Metropolis (1927)
70. Modern Times (1936)
71. Touch of Evil (1958)
72. No Country for Old Men (2007)
73. Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) (2001)
74. West Side Story (1961)
75. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
76. Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di Biciclette) (1948)
77. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
78. Gladiator (2000)
79. 8 ½ (Otto e Mezzo) (1963)
80. The Lion King (1994)
81. Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) (2006)
82. Tokyo Story (Tôkyô Monogatari) (1953)
83. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
84. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
85. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
86. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
87. Inception (2010)
88. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
89. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
90. It Happened One Night (1934)
91. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
92. The Deer Hunter (1978)
93. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
94. Parasite (Gisaengchung) (2019)
95. American Beauty (1999)
96. Do the Right Thing (1989)
97. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
98. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
99. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
100. The Wild Bunch (1969)
Resources:
Originally posted 7/18/2019; last updated 3/4/2025. | 
