'Empire Strikes Back' Voted The Greatest Movie Of All Time

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back has been voted the greatest movie of all time in a poll conducted by the British film publication Empire Magazine. More than 250,000 film fans voted in this latest poll, resulting in a list of the 301 greatest movies of all time. When the poll was last conducted six years ago in 2008 with 10,200 voters, The Godfather took the top honors. This year the Star Wars sequel displaced the Francis Ford Coppola adaptation for the top spot. Who else did Empire Strikes Back beat for the top slot? How has the list changed in the last six years? Find out after the jump.

Here is a look at the top 15 of both the 2014 Empire Readers Poll and the 2008 Empire Readers Poll:

2014 Reader Poll 2008 Reader Poll 1 Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back  The Godfather 2 The Godfather Raiders of the Lost Ark 3 The Dark Knight Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back 4 The Shawshank Redemption The Shawshank Redemption 5 Pulp Fiction Jaws 6 Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope Goodfellas 7 The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring Apocalypse Now 8 Jaws Singing In The Rain 9 Raiders Of The Lost Ark Pulp Fiction 10 Inception Fight Club 11 Blade Runner Raging Bull 12 The Lord Of The Rings : The Return Of The King The Apartment 13 Goodfellas Chinatown 14 Fight Club Once Upon A Time In The West 15 The Godfather Part II The Dark Knight

Empire Strikes Back wasn't the only Star Wars film on the rise this year: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope popped from #22 to #6. Interestingly, Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi dropped from #91 to #120 in this years poll.

While The Godfather was knocked off the throne, The Godfather Part II was on the rise — going from #19 to #15.

Any readers poll is just that, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. But I do think that readers polls, especially with large samples, can show the changing views of the masses over the years they are taken.

The biggest losers on the poll seem to be older classic films:

The 1952 musical Singing In The Rain, which was at #8 slot in 2008 but fell all the way to #96 this year

Billy Wilder's classic The Apartment went from #12 to #104.

Chinatown went from #13 to #118.

Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull also saw a big drop, going from #11 to #69.

On the rise is more modern films:

Pulp Fiction jumped from #9 to #5.

The Dark Knight popped to #3 from #15

The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring is #12 this year, up from #24.

Other moves in the top 15 include:

Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark fell from the #2 slot to #9.

Jaws took a shorter drop, falling from #5 to #8.

Goodfellas dropped from #6 to #13.

Apocalypse Now fell from #7 to #20.

Fight Club dropped from #10 to #14.

Only three new movies released in the last six years since the last readers poll made the top 50:

Inception at #10

Avengers at #16

Gravity at #35

While I'm not sure I agree with the order (this could be said of the whole poll), those are three great choices from the last half a decade.

You can see Empire's complete 301 greatest movies of all time readers poll on EmpireOnline.com.