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The IMDb Top 250 is a list of movies (shock horror: 250, all up) that are there because people who’ve voted for them (on a scale of 1 to 10) on IMDb have largely favored them. It’s a popularity contest, and not the be-all-and-end-all if you want to find the best movies of all time, because that’s a silly thing to try and find, in like an absolute or objective sense.
But as one of the tools you can use to find good movies (and good movies that are likely to be approachable), the IMDb Top 250 has value. While movies like The Shawshank Redemption (#1 for 18 years and counting) and The Godfather have always been staples of the list, others have come and gone since 1996, when the list was first created. These are some of the best movies that used to be on the IMDb Top 250, as they can be found on IMDb Top 250 Informer, which is a database keeping track of all the movies that are – and have been – on the ever-changing IMDb list in question.
10
‘The Crow’ (1994)
Image via Miramax Films
It was only during the first two years of the IMDb Top 250 that The Crow found itself there. This is a trailblazing comic book movie, not really compromising the darkness of its source material and very much earning its R-rating, and it’s endured as a cult classic for sure. But as for that time in the Top 250, it was really just in 1996, and some of 1997.
It’s always had a rating of more than 7/10, but less than 8/10, and while movies in that range could be in the Top 250 back in the day, ratings over 8/10 are needed now. Also, The Crow was on the list at a time when it had only received a little over 1000 votes, which demonstrates how much more power users had over the list and its rankings back then, compared to now, because nowadays, The Crow has more than 233,000 ratings from IMDb users.
9
‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ (1988)
Image via Orion Pictures
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) has a little to do with the novel of the same name, but not a ton. It makes the highly philosophical and abstract book a little more digestible, and maybe conventional, though it retains the feeling of being “art” (or at least arthouse) through some of its stylistic choices and the general way it’s presented.
It’s also kind of an epic, at nearly three hours in length, and plenty of it’s visually striking and emotional in an odd sort of way. Like a few other films here, The Unbearable Lightness of Being probably isn’t for everyone, but it was for the people on IMDb during the first year or so of the Top 250’s existence, as it was #200 in April 1996, but then gradually fell to #245 by October 1997, and then fell off the list entirely after that (and has since never returned).
8
‘Once Were Warriors’ (1994)
Image via Footprint Films
In New Zealand, Once Were Warriors is beyond treasured, and it’s honestly great enough that it should be treasured outside New Zealand, too, even if it is a very New Zealand movie (so it will obviously resonate there the most). It had a good run throughout the first few years of the Top 250’s existence, getting as high as #33 in 1996, and then falling (occasionally steadying or rising a few places) as the rest of the decade went on.
1999 was the last time it was in the Top 250, at #214. Of all the Top 250 movies that are or have been, this is probably one of the heaviest-going on an emotional front, but Once Were Warriors does need to be, and it goes to some dark places for good reason and in a generally respectful/empathetic manner. It’s a very impactful film, and it should be noted that it does remain highly-rated on IMDb, with a rating of 7.9/10, at the time of writing.
7
‘West Side Story’ (1961)
The 2021 version of West Side Story has never been in the IMDb Top 250, while the 1961 version was for a few years, but never particularly high up there. It hovered between the 200th and the 250th spot between 1997 and 2001, before being absent from the list in the last quarter of a century… despite still holding up amazingly, and being one of the best musicals ever.
Okay, there are a couple of things that date the film, but so much about it still resonates emotionally and in terms of sheer spectacle. It’s one of the most expressive and theatrical musical movies ever made, and even if a rating of 7.6/10 is quite good (this is around what it had back in the day, when it was in the Top 250), it does feel a little low for something as monumental as 1961’s West Side Story.
6
‘The Irishman’ (2019)
There will always be people throwing the term “overrated” at The Irishman, and oh well. What can you do about it? Time will probably be kind to this one, anyway. It’s the kind of film where the critics seemed a bit more switched on and aware of what it was going for, though the people who saw it earlier were enthusiastic enough to have it temporarily find a spot on the IMDb Top 250.
It had a rating of 8.4/10 two days after it debuted on Netflix, so it wasn’t like it fell out of the Top 250 just because it went to Netflix and became more widely available. That was in late November 2019, being in the top 100, but then it fell steadily throughout December 2019. It was last spotted in the Top 250 in January 2020, with a score of 8.0/10. It’s since dropped to a 7.8/10, so the consensus isn’t really that it’s absolutely top of the line, as far as Martin Scorsese films go… but 7.8 is still a pretty good score for this particular site.
5
‘The Right Stuff’ (1983)
Image via Warner Bros.
The last time The Right Stuff was in the Top 250 was back in 2005. It had hovered around the 180 to 250 spot for the first half of that decade, and then same for the first few years of the Top 250’s existence, too (the late 1990s). So, it’s not fair to call it always underappreciated on IMDb, but it’s a bit underrated on there at the moment, and remains underappreciated more generally.
It’s one of the best movies of all time. It is. Just flat out. Though if you think that’s too hyperbolic, maybe you’ll be okay with the statement that: “It’s just about the best non-sci-fi space-related movie of all time.” It’s about the lead-up to – and then the early years of – the Space Race, and it does a lot within its epic runtime, balancing all sorts of things tonally while having a good many interesting characters (well, characters based on real-life people). It’s great. The runtime might look daunting, but you’re missing out if you let it put you off watching this.
4
‘The Blues Brothers’ (1980)
The people of IMDb used to be cool enough to have The Blues Brothers in the Top 250, but no longer. It’s still got a score of 7.9/10, which is pretty high for a cult classic, as if something’s a true cult classic, it’s probably not going to be for literally everyone… yet The Blues Brothers does have a bit of everything.
If you’re after action, there are some amazing car chases. If you want music, you’ve got an abundance of that. If you want something faith-based, it is about two men on a mission from God.
If you want comedy, it’s funny. If you’re after action, there are some amazing car chases. If you want music, you’ve got an abundance of that. If you want something faith-based, it is about two men on a mission from God. If you want something that celebrates blues, R&B, and soul music, few films celebrate those things more sincerely. If you want romance, horror, science fiction, or fantasy… okay, The Blues Brothers doesn’t really fit into those genres. But just about everything else…
3
‘Spider-Man 2’ (2004)
The Spider-Verse movies have stayed strong in the IMDb Top 250 since they both came out (in 2018 and 2023, respectively), Spider-Man: No Way Home has remained in there (albeit fallen quite a bit, from cracking the top 10 to now hovering around #200), and then the more recent Spider-Man: Brand New Day had a short stay in the Top 250… like, very short. About a week. It should be fine, though. It can dry its tears with all the money it has.
As for Spider-Man 2, it never broke the top 150, but since its 2004 release and for most of 2005, it did hover between the #150 and #250 spots. Seeing it leave is a bummer, because it could well be the best of the live-action Spider-Man movies, and it’s also just a phenomenal comic book/superhero movie generally. A comeback to the extent that it returns to the Top 250, after being absent from there for more than two decades, seems unlikely, but one can dream…
2
‘Titanic’ (1997)
Since it currently has a rating of 8.0/10, and some movies that have snuck onto the IMDb Top 250 have a rating of 8.1/10, it feels more likely that Titanic will get back onto the list one day than the other movies mentioned here. This does feel due to the resurgence the movie has had popularity-wise. That sounds wild. But, like, Titanic was obviously a hit when it came out, to put it mildly. The box office success and Oscar wins did lead to some backlash, as happens with wildly hyped movies.
For some, it also probably felt kind of uncool to like for a while, because Titanic is unabashedly sentimental and melodramatic. But there’s a backlash to being cynical now, to some extent, and that’s led to a re-evaluation of Titanic on the part of some people (there are, of course, those who’ve always loved it, and good for them, because they’ve always been right). Titanic was once at #4 on the IMDb Top 250, in 1998, but it fell out of the Top 250 at the end of that same year. It probably won’t bounce back quite that high again, but getting back onto the list in some capacity could well happen, eventually.
1
‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’ (1982)
Like Titanic, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial doesn’t really need a spot on the IMDb Top 250, because its reputation is already sufficiently strong, and the idea that it’s a classic is well and truly out there… and has been out there for decades now. Its iconic status means summarizing the plot feels a bit silly, but if you need to know, it’s about an alien getting lost, a boy befriending that alien, and then the two working together to get the alien in contact with his own family.
Its history with the Top 250 is a little strange. It currently has a 7.9/10 rating, and never had a rating that high when it was in the Top 250. A rating of around 7.6/10 or 7.7/10 was enough to get into the Top 250 back then, which is about what E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial had at the time. It’s fallen out of the Top 250 as of 2004, and has remained out ever since, and it’s hard to know why, beyond guessing that maybe some people just find E.T. creepy, or they find Steven Spielberg in full sentimental mode to be a bit much.
