You need the best movie lists to make the best movie marathons. But you need more than just the opinion of some jerk on the internet. You need the sum total of opinions of many jerks on the internet, ideally with many of them possessing some sort of credential related to movie making. You have come to the right place. The best movie lists to achieve true movie marathon greatness are below.
Best Movie Lists on the Internet
Sight and Sound Magazine’s top 50 films
The British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound Magazine produces a list of the greatest 50 films of all time every ten years. The list includes American, British, Italian, Japanese, and other films. The top spots are determined by the votes of 846 film critics. Get ready for a heavy dose of classic film, this list is nearly free of any movie made in the last 30 years!
American Film Institute’s Top 100 American Films
The American Film Institute produced a list of the top 100 American films on its 100th anniversary, and updated it on the 10th anniversary of its 100th anniversary (got that?). Don’t expect your favorite Kung Fu flick to be on this list – it only includes movies made in the United States. The list is picked by “a jury of 1,500 film artists, critics, and historians”.
Need your top 100 movies list in checklist form? The AFI has a PDF for that!
Internet Movie Database’s Top 250 Movies
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) maintains an always-up-to-date list of the top 250 movies, as judged by by nerds with IMDb accounts. This list is a bit more democratic than the opinions of snooty film critics. Thought Citizen Kane was the best movie of all time? No way. Citizen Kane doesn’t even crack the top 50 according to the IMDb. Batman: The Dark Knight, on the other hand, is in the top five.
The Movie Database’s Top Rated Movies
For a community-based alternative to imdb.com, try themoviedb.org. IMDB is might be slick and commercial, but TMDB makes their movie data freely available to poor movie app writers like myself! They also pride themselves on their selection of data for international movies and excellent selection of high resolution images. Give TMDB’s top rated movies list a try!
Rotten Tomatoes’ Top 100 Film Ratings
Rotten Tomatoes, the leading online aggregator of movie and TV show reviews from professional critics, has a top 100 film ratings chart of its own. Being a “professional critic” gets you a ticket to vote in this aggregator. You’ll find its ratings are somewhere between the stodgy film institutes and the anarchy of IMDb.
Oscar for Best Picture
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards their famous “Oscar” for Best Picture every year. The complete list of Best Picture winners is at Wikipedia. The result is a list of the best 88 movies ever made, as determined by the secret society of approximately 6,000 anonymous members.
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo, the leading online box-office reporting service has a list of the Top Grossing Films of All Time. This list represents the best 200 movies ever made… as determined by the almighty dollar! (adjusted for inflation).
Roger Ebert
I loved reading Roger Ebert’s movie reviews in high school and college. Sadly, he isn’t making any more, but his career spanned almost fifty years. He collected his favorites in the Roger Eberts’ Great Movies list. Why not take a recommendation from the #1 film critic in history? You have a list of 300 to choose from.
Best Movie List Books
Roger Ebert’s Great Movies Books
Roger Ebert published three books cataloging the great movies. Don’t expect flashy photos, these are Roger Ebert’s essays on the great movies, and no more.
Other Books
I own a copy of 1001 movies you must see before you die. This book wins with sheer volume, and includes a lot of posters and photos from the movies. It is a fun coffee table book for sure.
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