Movies

IMDb's Top 25 Movies Of The Decade

The Dark Knight mourns
By Peter Sciretta

A couple weeks ago we ran a listing of the best reviewed films of the decade as compiled by Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. We followed that up by the top 20 films of the decade, as voted on by the users of FlickChart.

Today I decided to compile the top 25 films of the decade, as voted by the users of the Internet Movie Database. While it is very easy to discount any of these lists (or any best of list in general), and while it might be easy for many of you to just write off the user ratings on IMDb as fanboy voting, it's definitely the largest sampling of movie-going opinion that exists today.

# American Film Title (year)      IMDb rating       # of Votes      # on Top 250 of all Time List

1. The Dark Knight (2008)    8.8    410,450    9

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)    8.8    329,852    11

3. City of God (2002)    8.7    148,073    16

4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)    8.7    355,929    20

5. Avatar (2009)    8.6    69,101    24

6. Memento (2000)    8.6     245,089    27

7. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)    8.6    298,750    30

8. WALL·E (2008)    8.5    155,314    43

9. Amélie (2001)    8.5    163,472    44

10. The Departed (2006)    8.4    234,372    50

11. The Pianist (2002)    8.4    118,831    53

12. Spirited Away (2001)    8.4    89,403    55

13. The Lives of Others (2006)    8.4    64,311    56

14. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)    8.4    198,424    59

15. Requiem for a Dream (2000)    8.4    166,343    62

16. Inglourious Basterds (2009)    8.4    111,441    68

17. Up (2009)    8.4    68,206    69

18. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)    8.4    135,834    70

19. The Prestige (2006)    8.3    178,413    74

20. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)    8.3    149,605    77

21. Downfall (2004)    8.3    73,214    81

22. Gran Torino (2008)    8.3    101,124    83

23. Sin City (2005)    8.3    233,043    93

24. District 9 (2009)    8.3    101,868    97

25. Batman Begins (2005)    8.3    246,001

Notable tidbits:

  • Christopher Nolan is the only director to have four films on the above list, making him the director of the decade according to IMDb voters.
  • Peter Jackson has three films in the top 25, the Lord of the Rings trilogy
  • Only the two most recent Pixar releases of the seven released in the decade place in the top 25 films of the decade.
  • Only Three sequels made the list: The Return of the King, The Two Towers and The Dark Knight.
  • Avatar is riding high on the list at #5, #24 of all time with only 69,101 votes. As what often happens on IMDb, this film will float down the list as more votes come in, and probably won't become stable until the home video release.
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