While general moviematric ratings ignore individual preferences, they do include movies that everybody must watch as they combine truly outstanding acting, screenplay, and camera work.
Movie grossing reflects more on popularity than quality, still it is interesting to know the top ten movie bestsellers: Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (US Box Office $936M), Avatar ($761M), Titanic ($659M), The Avengers ($623M), The Dark Knight ($533M), Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace ($475M), Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope ($461M), The Dark Knight Rises ($448M), Shrek 2 ($436M), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ($425M).
The most prestigious American award in the film industry is Oscar – the famous Academy Award statuette. The most important Academy Awards, out of twenty-five technical and creative categories, are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing. In its history, only three films have swept all five of them: It Happened One Night (1934), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The record for most awards belongs to the following three films (each won 11 Oscars): Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King(2003). Ten latest Best Picture awards were: Parasite (2019), Green Book (2018), The Shape of Water (2017), Moonlight (2016), Spotlight (2015), Birdman (2014), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Argo (2012), The Artist (2011), The King’s Speech (2010).
Palme d’Or (“Golden Palm”) is the most prestigious award given out at Cannes Film Festival for the best film. Recent Palme d’Or awards: Parasite (2019), Shoplifters (2018), The Square (2017), I, Daniel Blake (2016), Dheepan (2015), Winter Sleep (2014), Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013), Amour (2012), The Tree of Life (2011), Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010).
Golden Globe Awards are given annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Motion picture awards include 14 categories such as Best Motion Picture – Drama (the 2015 winner is Boyhood), Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical (the 2015 winner is The Grand Budapest Hotel), Best Foreign Language Film (the 2015 winner is Leviathan) and Best Animated Feature Film (the 2015 winner is How to Train Your Dragon 2). Only One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) won the Golden Globes in all five major categories (Best Motion Picture – Drama, Actor, Actress, Director, Screenplay). Also, record five Globes, but in other categories were awarded to Doctor Zhivago (1965), Love Story (1970), The Godfather (1972), and A Star Is Born (1976). Golden Globe Awards Ceremony is one of the most-watched movie awards shows behind only the Oscars.
Metacritic summarizes reviews from the world’s most respected movie critics and provides a single number capturing the essence of critical opinion called Metascore. Metascore ranges from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating a better movie. From the Best Movies of All Time Metacritic list, the following movies have the perfect Metascore of 100: The Wizard of Oz (1939), Journey to Italy (1954), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Leopard (1963), Balthazar (1966), The Conformist (1970), The Godfather (1972), Fanny and Alexander (1982), Best Kept Secret (2013), Boyhood (2014).
The Tomatometer rating from Rotten Tomatoes is also based on the reviews of hundreds of movie critics and represents the percentage of positive opinions for a given film. The Top 100 Movies Of All Time list based on the Tomatometer ratings starts with the following ten movies: The Wizard of Oz (1939), Citizen Kane (1941), The Godfather (1972), The Third Man (1949), A Hard Day’s Night (1964), Modern Times (1936), All About Eve (1950), Metropolis (1927), Selma (2014), Singin’ in the Rain (1952).
IMDb is the most popular movie site with user polls and reviews. Its Top 250 movies list considers votes only from regular IMDb voters, making ratings even more balanced. Good Movies List utilizes IMDb users’ score as the most important ranking factor.
