To say that singling out the most influential and popular works of a medium that’s over a century old is a nightmare would be an understatement. But we’re going to attempt to do it anyway.
How does one even go about picking the most popular movies of all time? Is it a matter of consistent popularity over a long span of time? Is it a matter of ticket sales and box office gross? Would you adjust that for inflation if you were to pick the most-watched movies in history? And does high-grossing necessarily correlate to popularity?
You see, the very thought raises an impossible conundrum. But if we decide that we’re not going to be particularly nitpicky, and try to include franchises as well as single features, then the list can be narrowed down considerably. That being said, even a trimmed-down list of the most popular movies is still quite extensive, so let’s first get some honorable mentions out of the way.
Honorable mentions
There are plenty of extremely popular movies that may not necessarily make a top 10 list based on one preference or another (and that is more often than not completely subjective) so here are the flicks that would’ve otherwise been included here: Fight Club, The Lion King, The Matrix, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Knight trilogy, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Citizen Kane, Saving Private Ryan, Braveheart, Interstellar, the Fast & Furious franchise, Casablanca, the James Bond series, Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, Seven Samurai, and Ben-Hur.
Now, let’s get into the list proper. Note that these movies are ranked in no particular order, as that would’ve constituted an unfeasible dissection process.
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Gone With the Wind is undoubtedly among the most popular movies in history. Sure, a lot of people from younger generations may have missed out on it, but this 1939 Victor Fleming pic is not only one of the most influential works of art in history, but remains to this day the highest-grossing movie of all time when adjusted for inflation.
Pirates of the Caribbean (2003–2017)
The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) remains the best pirate movie I’ve seen to date. Having grossed more than $4.5 billion, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is definitely up there with some of the big blockbusters, but that’s not the only reason we’re including it in our list.
Toy Story (1995–2019)
There are a lot of successful animation franchises from Disney and even other competitors like Dreamworks, but let’s face it; Toy Story just hits differently, whether it’s because of the nostalgic factor or its host of incredibly iconic and memorable characters.
Harry Potter (2001–2011)
The Harry Potter series consists of eight movies that have grossed $7.7 billion at the box office. It also goes without saying that the Wizarding World is one of the most popular and prized IPs currently out there, so the story of the Boy Who Lived deserves a spot on this list.
The Godfather (1972–1990)
Few stories in history have managed to give us the perfect trilogy, and The Godfather is one of them. Words can’t quite capture what the three Godfather movies mean to cinema. In a lot of ways, they are cinema itself, bearing a legacy that had been decades in the making and pushing it forward by showing just how potent films can truly be.
Avatar (2009–)
Avatar and its sequel The Way of Water are currently the first and third highest-grossing movies of all time, respectively. There’s something incredibly magnetic about James Cameron’s cinema, even when he’s delivering one of the most tired, cliche action stories a writer could come up with. Avatar has been watched by hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people all around the globe, so it’s safe to say that it’s one of the most popular movies in history.
The Avengers (2012–)
The Avengers offshoot should be the only testament to the true power Disney holds over the box office. The MCU is not just a popular movie franchise, but one of the most trendy things in the entire world right now. At one brief point, Avengers: Endgame even surpassed Avatar to become the highest-grossing movie in history, and together, the four movies have grossed a whopping $7.7 billion in theaters.
The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003)
Going down as one of the most acclaimed movie trilogies in history, The Lord of the Rings has managed to retain its relevance to this day, constantly attracting new audiences and new generations of audiences to share in J.R.R. Tolkien’s timeless story, adapted in all of its intricate grandeur by director Peter Jackson. So far as adaptations go, I think most of us would agree that it simply doesn’t get any better than this.
Titanic (1997)
Can you even find someone who hasn’t watched Titanic? That might be the best compliment with which to describe the movie’s implacable popularity even after all these years. It also goes to prove that James Cameron is the absolute no. 1 powerhouse of cinema so far as popularity and reach are concerned. As a cinephile, my biggest fear is that there’ll never be a movie again that can quite capture the magic of Titanic.
Star Wars (1977)
There’s a case to be made that Star Wars essentially kickstarted the genre, blockbuster filmmaking craze of the ’80s, and then went beyond that to influence other artistic mediums as well. Some works are ground zeroes of explosions that ripple across time and define human history, and no film or franchise is more worthy of such an acknowledgment than the galaxy far, far away.
