Films that have been considered the greatest ever

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While it is impossible to objectively determine the greatest film of all time, it is possible to discuss the films that have been regarded as the greatest ever. The important criterion for inclusion in this article is that the film is the "greatest" by some specific criterion or indicator — be it a critics' poll, popular poll, box office receipts or awards.

Contents

Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers

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Films acclaimed in audience polls

Biggest box office successes

Worldwide highest grossing films (Not adjusted for inflation)

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  1. Titanic (1997) $1,845,034,188
  2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $1,118,888,979
  3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) $976,475,550
  4. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) $926,287,400
  5. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) $924,317,558
  6. Shrek 2 (2004) $920,665,658
  7. Jurassic Park (1993) $914,691,118
  8. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) $891,249,794
  9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) $876,688,482
  10. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $871,368,364

Template:Note Not adjusted for inflation. See the inflation-adjusted list for a more accurate gauge of commercial success.

Prior highest-grossing films

  • The Birth of a Nation (1915): Highest-grossing film until 1925. Director D.W. Griffith said in 1929 that the film had taken $10m worldwide. This has been reported as both an under-estimate and an over-estimate, and its true takings may never be known. In the 1920s the New York Mail described the movie as "the supreme picture of all time".
  • The Big Parade (1925). The highest grossing silent film of all time, taking $22m world wide.
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937): Highest grossing until 1939. Total gross $185m.
  • Gone with the Wind (1939): Highest grossing until 1966, when it was overtaken by The Sound of Music. Following a re-release in 1971, Gone with the Wind retook the lead for a further year. Current total gross $198m.
  • The Sound of Music (1965): Highest gross from August 1966 until the re-issue of Gone with the Wind in 1971. Current total gross $163m.
  • The Godfather (1972): Highest grossing until 1975. Current total gross $134m.
  • Jaws (1975): Highest grossing until 1977. Current total gross $470m.
  • Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977): Highest grossing until January 1983. Current total gross $798m
  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982): Highest grossing until 1993. Current total gross $757m. (Star Wars did not re-overtake E.T. until its re-release in 1997, by which time Jurassic Park had landed the top slot.)
  • Jurassic Park (1993): Highest grossing until 1997. Current total gross $920m.

Highest USA grossing film adjusted for inflation

Image:Gwtw-original-poster.jpg By adjusting for inflated ticket prices, the popularity of films released at different times can be compared. This list estimates the number of admissions for each film by using the average ticket price at the time of each release [4]. Gone with the Wind, when adjusted for inflation is still the highest grossing film ever. The film has had at least four substantial releases worldwide (in 1939, 1954, 1961 and 1971). The adjusted for inflation value of these releases is $3.8bn worldwide, $1.3bn in the United States (2004 dollars).

  1. Gone with the Wind (1939) $1,293,085,600
  2. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) $1,139,965,400
  3. The Sound of Music (1965) $911,458,400
  4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $907,867,700
  5. The Ten Commandments (1956) $838,400,000
  6. Titanic (1997) $821,413,700
  7. Jaws (1975) $819,704,400
  8. Doctor Zhivago (1965) $794,466,900
  9. The Exorcist (1973) $707,639,500
  10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) $697,600,000

Films that have received the most Academy Awards

Ever since their inception in 1928, the Academy Awards (the "Oscars") have been seen as the most significant of the film award ceremonies. The first film to dominate an Oscars ceremony was Frank Capra's It Happened One Night in 1935. It was the first film to win five awards. Moreover it won the "Oscar grand slam" by winning Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay—a feat that has been repeated only twice more, by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1976 and by Silence of the Lambs in 1992.

In 1939, Gone with the Wind was nominated for thirteen awards and two special citations. It won eight of the Awards to beat It Happened One Night's record. All About Eve (1950) broke the nominations record with 14, and won in six categories.

Gigi was the film to break Gone with the Wind's record - winning in all nine of its nominated categories at the ceremony for films made in 1958. However its moment at the top was short-lived as the epic Ben-Hur went on to win 11 Oscars from 12 nominations the following year. Eleven Oscars remains the record. However this achievement has been equalled twice—by Titanic in 1997 with eleven awards from fourteen nominations, and by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which won in all eleven of its nominated categories in 2003.

Films that are considered the greatest in their particular genre

Animation

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  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is the highest-grossing animated film of all time when adjusted for inflation. Snow White also appeared at #49 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American movies (compiled in 1998), higher than any other animated film.
  • Fantasia (1940) is the only animated film besides Snow White to appear on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American movies, at #58.
  • Tale of Tales (Сказка сказок) (1979) - Yuriy Norshteyn's short film was voted by a large international jury to be the greatest animated film of all time at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympiad of Animation and the 2002 Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films. [5] [6]
  • Akira (アキラ) (1988) was chosen as the top anime ever by Anime Insider in fall 2001.
  • Beauty and the Beast (1991), is the only fully-animated movie (computerized or not) to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It has also been nominated for a total of six Oscars, more than any other animated film. It was also the first animated movie to win the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical.
  • The Lion King (1994) is the highest-grossing "traditional" (hand drawn) animated film of all time when not adjusted for inflation. It also won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical, only the second animated movie to do so.
  • Toy Story (1995) was voted #1 on the Top 100 Animated Features of All Time by the Online Film Critics Society (list published March 2003). Toy Story was also the first animated movie to be nominated for a Best Screenplay award at the Oscars.
  • Toy Story 2 (1999) won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical, the third and most recent animated movie to do so.
  • Shrek (2001) became the first movie to win the Best Animated Feature award at the Oscars. It also became the second animated film to be nominated for a Best Screenplay award, after Toy Story.
  • Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) (2001) was voted best animated movie by IMDb users. It was the first anime (Japanese animation) film to win an Academy Award. It is the only movie to earn $250M before its US release.
  • Finding Nemo (2003) was the first computer-generated motion picture to outgross The Lion King as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, until it was surpassed the next year by Shrek 2. Finding Nemo, which won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, also became only the third animated film ever to be nominated for a Best Screenplay trophy at the Academy Awards.
  • Shrek 2 (2004) is the highest-grossing animated film of all time without correcting for inflation.
  • The Incredibles (2004), which won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, also became one of only four animated movies ever to be nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar. The Incredibles has also been nominated for 16 Annie Awards (the top award ceremony honoring animation), more than any other film. It also has won 10 of its nominations, another record.
  • Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), which won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, was nominated for 16 Annie Awards, and won ten of them, an exact record shared with The Incredibles.

Comedy

Concert

Disaster

Documentary

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Epic

Fantasy

Film noir

Gay-themed

  • Brokeback Mountain - A groundbreaking look at love between two men, Brokeback Mountain became a unique force in the 2005 awards season, appearing on over 200 critic's top-ten lists and sweeping an unprecedented number of awards. Voted the greatest gay-themed film ever by The Advocate magazine. Template:See also

Horror/thriller

Martial Arts

  • Enter the Dragon is popularly regarded as the definitive Kung Fu movie, as it was the first produced by Hollywood and established certain conventions. By 1977, it was recognized as one of the most profitable twenty films in the history of cinema.

Musical

  • Singin' in the Rain The highest rated movie musical at the IMDb.
  • The Wizard of Oz The highest ranked musical on AFI's list of the 100 best American films and the Village Voice list of the 100 best films of the 20th century .
  • Grease was voted the greatest musical by viewers of Channel 4 in 2003.
  • The Sound of Music is the highest grossing musical when adjusted for inflation.
  • West Side Story is the winner of the most Academy Awards of any movie musical (10).
  • Gigi won all nine of its Academy Award nominations.
  • My Fair Lady was described by Roger Ebert as being "the best and most unlikely of musicals". [14]. It was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, though it only won eight.

Propaganda

Romance

  • Casablanca - Voted best American-based film in which there is "a romantic bond between two or more characters, whose actions and/or intentions provide the heart of the film’s narrative" by the AFI.
  • Gone With The Wind, considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. After adjusting for inflation, it is still the highest grossing film ever. The AFI voted it as the fourth greatest film of all time.


Science fiction

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Silent

  • Battleship Potemkin (see Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers above.)
  • Modern Times, the last major American film to make use of silent film conventions such as title cards for dialogue, is the highest-rated silent film on the IMDb. There is a recorded soundtrack; one scene has dialogue spoken over an intercom, and Charlie Chaplin sings nonsense lyrics to a song at the end. City Lights, another of Chaplin's films, is the highest-rated movie without any dialogue, spoken or sung. It too has a recorded soundtrack. Metropolis is the highest-rated movie that was totally silent when released. However, IMDb viewers most likely watched the restored version which has a recorded soundtrack.
  • The Big Parade is the highest-grossing silent film of all time, taking $22m world wide.

War

Western

In particular countries

Australia

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Brazil

  • City of God (Cidade de Deus in Portuguese), is the highest ranking Brazilian film featured in TIME magazine´s 100 best movies of all-time list [20]. It is also the highest ranked (#16) in IMDB´s top 250 list.

Canada

China

Finland

  • The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas in Finnish), holds the record for the highest grossing domestic film in Finland, and received seven "Jussi" statuettes (Finnish Oscars) [21].

France

Germany

India

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  • Pather Panchali the first film of director Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy is the only Indian film to appear on Sight and Sound Critics's Top Ten Poll (ranked #9 in 1992). It was ranked the top Indian film in a 2002 popularity poll by the British Film Institute (BFI) conducted on the web, and number two in the BFI critics' poll in which critics were asked to compile a list of 50 best Indian as well as South Asian films [27]. It is also a favorite of many directors, including Martin Scorsese.
  • Sholay is the highest grossing movie of all time in India. It was also the top film selected in the 2002 BFI critics' poll.
  • Pushpak from 1988 is the highest rated Indian film on IMDb.
  • Nayakan, Pyaasa and the Apu trilogy are the only Indian films in the TOP 100 best movies in the world, as rated by TIME magazine. [28]

Japan

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Sweden

  • Cries and Whispers: one of two Scandinavian features to receive a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards, this was voted Best Film of the Year by the New York Film Critics Circle and rapidly became a massive critical success.
  • The Emigrants: Jan Troell's naturalist masterwork was the first Scandinavian film to receive Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, and it is often cited in Sweden as the greatest Swedish film of all-time.
  • Persona: voted "Best Picture" by US National Society of Film Critics. This film by acclaimed director Ingmar Bergman also reached the highest postion (#5) of any Swedish film on Sight & Sound's 1972 list of greatest films of all time.
  • The Seventh Seal: also directed by Ingmar Bergman, is the highest rated Swedish film on the IMDB.

United Kingdom

United States

See also

References