An alternative IMDb Top 250: the "favoritest" movies relative to era

This is an alternative to the standard IMDb Top 250 list, using the same IMDb rating data (via the weekly FTP data files) in a different way.

I've taken the number of high IMDb votes (ratings 8–10) for each film, and multiplied by a factor based on the number of "typical" votes for movies from the half-decade of that film's release. This tends to weight older films more based on the fewer votes being cast for their movie peers, and serves to highlight movies that are disproportionately watched and loved from their era.

The result is a list of 250 populist greats (the era-adjusted most favorite films according to IMDb voters, or what I'm calling the "favoritest") that stand out in viewership and esteem among titles from the same time period.

  1. A Trip to the Moon
  2. Casablanca
  3. Metropolis
  4. The Godfather
  5. The Kid
  6. Nosferatu
  7. Citizen Kane
  8. The Wizard of Oz
  9. 12 Angry Men
  10. Gone with the Wind

...plus 240 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.