Top 100 Movies of All Time by Rotten Tomatoes
"Movies with 40 or more critic reviews vie for their place in history at Rotten Tomatoes. Eligible movies are ranked based on their Adjusted Scores."
Last updated: January 30th, 2016
Weight: 100
Films (100)
1. The Wizard of Oz
Directed by Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, King Vidor | 102 min | 1939
Dorothy Gale is swept away to a magical land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to see the Wizard who can help her return home.
2. The Third Man
Directed by Carol Reed | 93 min | 1949
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
3. Citizen Kane
Directed by Orson Welles | 119 min | 1941
Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance.
4. All About Eve
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 138 min | 1950
An ingenue insinuates herself into the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends.
5. Modern Times
Directed by Charles Chaplin | Rated G | 87 min | 1936
The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
6. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Directed by Robert Wiene | 67 min | 1920
Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
7. The Godfather
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | Rated R | 175 min | 1972
The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
8. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Directed by Steven Spielberg | Rated PG | 115 min | 1982
A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape Earth and return to his home-world.
9. A Hard Day's Night
Directed by Richard Lester | 87 min | 1964
A 'typical' day in the life of the Beatles, including many of their famous songs.
10. Metropolis
Directed by Fritz Lang | 153 min | 1927
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
11. It Happened One Night
Directed by Frank Capra | 105 min | 1934
A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, is helped by a man who is actually a reporter in need of a story.
12. Singin' in the Rain
Directed by Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly | 103 min | 1952
A silent film production company and cast make a difficult transition to sound.
13. Laura
Directed by Otto Preminger | 88 min | 1944
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.
14. Inside Out
Directed by Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen | Rated PG | 95 min | 2015
After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness - conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.
15. The Adventures of Robin Hood
Directed by Michael Curtiz, William Keighley | Rated PG | 102 min | 1938
When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla army.
16. Repulsion
Directed by Roman Polanski | 105 min | 1965
A sex-repulsed woman who disapproves of her sister's boyfriend sinks into depression and has horrific visions of rape and violence.
17. Boyhood
Directed by Richard Linklater | Rated R | 165 min | 2014
The life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.
18. North by Northwest
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | 136 min | 1959
A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.
19. King Kong
Directed by Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack | 100 min | 1933
A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla who takes a shine to their female blonde star. Then he's captured and brought back to New York City for public exhibition.
20. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Directed by William Cottrell, David Hand, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen | 83 min | 1937
Snow White, pursued by a jealous queen, hides with the Dwarfs; the queen soon learns of this and prepares to feed her a poison apple.
21. The Maltese Falcon
Directed by John Huston | 100 min | 1941
A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.
22. The Battle of Algiers
Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo | 121 min | 1966
In the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.
23. Rear Window
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | 112 min | 1954
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
24. The Philadelphia Story
Directed by George Cukor | 112 min | 1940
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
25. Toy Story 2
Directed by John Lasseter, Ash Brannon, Lee Unkrich | Rated G | 92 min | 1999
When Woody is stolen by a toy collector, Buzz and his friends vow to rescue him, but Woody finds the idea of immortality in a museum tempting.
26. Sunset Boulevard
Directed by Billy Wilder | 110 min | 1950
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
27. Rashomon
Directed by Akira Kurosawa | 88 min | 1950
A heinous crime and its aftermath are recalled from differing points of view.
28. The Bride of Frankenstein
Directed by James Whale | 75 min | 1935
Mary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Dr. Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.
29. Toy Story 3
Directed by Lee Unkrich | Rated G | 103 min | 2010
The toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college, and it's up to Woody to convince the other toys that they weren't abandoned and to return home.
30. Bicycle Thieves
Directed by Vittorio De Sica | 89 min | 1948
Set in Post-WWII Italy, a working class man's bicycle is stolen. He and his son set out to find it.
31. The 400 Blows
Directed by François Truffaut | 99 min | 1959
Moving story of a young boy who, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
32. M
Directed by Fritz Lang | 99 min | 1931
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
33. Lawrence of Arabia
Directed by David Lean | Rated PG | 216 min | 1962
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
34. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Directed by John Huston | 126 min | 1948
Fred Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two Americans searching for work in Mexico, convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
35. Up
Directed by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson | Rated PG | 96 min | 2009
Seventy-eight year old Carl Fredricksen travels to Paradise Falls in his home equipped with balloons, inadvertently taking a young stowaway.
36. Seven Samurai
Directed by Akira Kurosawa | 207 min | 1954
A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.
37. Selma
Directed by Ava DuVernay | Rated PG-13 | 128 min | 2014
A chronicle of Martin Luther King's campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965.
38. 12 Angry Men
Directed by Sidney Lumet | 96 min | 1957
A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence.
39. The Night of the Hunter
Directed by Charles Laughton, Robert Mitchum, Terry Sanders | 92 min | 1955
A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
40. Rebecca
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | 130 min | 1940
A self-conscious bride is tormented by the memory of her husband's dead first wife.
41. Finding Nemo
Directed by Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich | Rated G | 100 min | 2003
After his son is captured in the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney, a timid clownfish sets out on a journey to bring him home.
42. The Conformist
Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci | Rated R | 111 min | 1970
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
43. Frankenstein
Directed by James Whale | 70 min | 1931
An obsessed scientist assembles a living being from parts of exhumed corpses.
44. A Streetcar Named Desire
Directed by Elia Kazan | Rated PG | 122 min | 1951
Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.
45. Rosemary's Baby
Directed by Roman Polanski | Rated R | 136 min | 1968
A young couple move into an apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins to control her life.
46. L.A. Confidential
Directed by Curtis Hanson | Rated R | 138 min | 1997
As corruption grows in 1950s LA, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.
47. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Directed by Stanley Kubrick | Rated PG | 95 min | 1964
An insane general triggers a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically try to stop.
48. The Wrestler
Directed by Darren Aronofsky | Rated R | 109 min | 2008
A faded professional wrestler must retire, but finds his quest for a new life outside the ring a dispiriting struggle.
49. The 39 Steps
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | 86 min | 1935
A man in London tries to help a counterespionage agent. But when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to both save himself and also stop a spy ring which is trying to steal top secret information.
50. The Grapes of Wrath
Directed by John Ford | 129 min | 1940
A poor Midwest family is forced off of their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
51. The Hurt Locker
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow | Rated R | 131 min | 2008
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
52. The Last Picture Show
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich | Rated R | 118 min | 1971
A group of 1950s high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied West Texas town that is slowly dying, both economically and culturally.
53. Tokyo Story
Directed by Yasujirô Ozu | 136 min | 1953
An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city; but the children have little time for them.
54. Pinocchio
Directed by Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Ben Sharpsteen | 88 min | 1940
A living puppet, with the help of a cricket as his conscience, must prove himself worthy to become a real boy.
55. The Wages of Fear
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot | 131 min | 1953
In a decrepit South American village, men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe.
56. Toy Story
Directed by John Lasseter | Rated G | 81 min | 1995
A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman figure supplants him as top toy in a boy's room.
57. Man on Wire
Directed by James Marsh | Rated PG-13 | 94 min | 2008
A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century."
58. Taxi Driver
Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated R | 113 min | 1976
A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute in the process.
59. Anatomy of a Murder
Directed by Otto Preminger | 160 min | 1959
In a murder trial, the defendant says he suffered temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
60. Roman Holiday
Directed by William Wyler | 118 min | 1953
A bored and sheltered princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome.
61. The Leopard
Directed by Luchino Visconti | 187 min | 1963
The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860's Sicily.
62. Annie Hall
Directed by Woody Allen | Rated PG | 93 min | 1977
Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditzy Annie Hall.
63. Chinatown
Directed by Roman Polanski | Rated R | 130 min | 1974
A private detective hired to expose an adulterer finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption and murder.
64. The Best Years of Our Lives
Directed by William Wyler | 172 min | 1946
Three World War II veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
65. Battleship Potemkin
Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein | 66 min | 1925
A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resulting street demonstration which brought on a police massacre.
66. Cool Hand Luke
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg | Rated PG | 126 min | 1967
A man refuses to conform to life in a rural prison.
67. The Searchers
Directed by John Ford | 119 min | 1956
A Civil War veteran embarks on a journey to rescue his niece from an Indian tribe.
68. On the Waterfront
Directed by Elia Kazan | 108 min | 1954
An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.
69. The Rules of the Game
Directed by Jean Renoir | 110 min | 1939
A bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.
70. Battleship Potemkin
Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein | 66 min | 1925
A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resulting street demonstration which brought on a police massacre.
71. The Gold Rush
Directed by Charles Chaplin | 95 min | 1925
A prospector goes to the Klondike in search of gold and finds it and more.
72. Before Midnight
Directed by Richard Linklater | Rated R | 109 min | 2013
We meet Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.
73. Sweet Smell of Success
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick | 96 min | 1957
Powerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician.
74. The Babadook
Directed by Jennifer Kent | 93 min | 2014
A single mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son's fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.
75. The Terminator
Directed by James Cameron | Rated R | 107 min | 1984
A human-looking indestructible cyborg is sent from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate a waitress, whose unborn son will lead humanity in a war against the machines, while a soldier from that war is sent to protect her at all costs.
76. Brooklyn
Directed by John Crowley | Rated PG-13 | 111 min | 2015
An Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a romance with a local. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within.
77. Short Term 12
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton | Rated R | 96 min | 2013
A 20-something supervising staff member of a residential treatment facility navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend.
78. Let the Right One In
Directed by Tomas Alfredson | Rated R | 115 min | 2008
Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.
79. Playtime
Directed by Jacques Tati | 115 min | 1967
Monsieur Hulot curiously wanders around a high-tech Paris, paralleling a trip with a group of American tourists. Meanwhile, a nightclub/restaurant prepares its opening night, but it's still under construction.
80. Mary Poppins
Directed by Robert Stevenson | 139 min | 1964
A magic nanny comes to work for a cold banker's unhappy family.
81. The Wild Bunch
Directed by Sam Peckinpah | Rated R | 145 min | 1969
An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.
82. City Lights
Directed by Charles Chaplin | 87 min | 1931
With the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.
83. Mud
Directed by Jeff Nichols | Rated PG-13 | 130 min | 2012
Two young boys encounter a fugitive and form a pact to help him evade the vigilantes that are on his trail and to reunite him with his true love.
84. The French Connection
Directed by William Friedkin | Rated R | 104 min | 1971
A pair of NYC cops in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection.
85. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Directed by Don Siegel | 80 min | 1956
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
86. Shaun the Sheep Movie
Directed by Mark Burton, Richard Starzak | Rated PG | 85 min | 2015
When Shaun decides to take the day off and have some fun, he gets a little more action than he bargained for. A mix up with the Farmer, a caravan and a very steep hill lead them all to the Big City and it's up to Shaun and the flock to return everyone safely to the green grass of home.
87. Badlands
Directed by Terrence Malick | Rated PG | 94 min | 1973
An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.
88. Aliens
Directed by James Cameron | Rated R | 137 min | 1986
The planet from Alien (1979) has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough?
89. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Directed by Luis Buñuel | Rated PG | 102 min | 1972
A surreal, virtually plotless series of dreams centered around six middle-class people and their consistently interrupted attempts to have a meal together.
90. Eyes Without a Face
Directed by Georges Franju | 90 min | 1960
A surgeon causes an accident which leaves his daughter disfigured, and goes to extremes to give her a new face.
91. How to Train Your Dragon
Directed by Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders | Rated PG | 98 min | 2010
A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.
92. Once Upon a Time in the West
Directed by Sergio Leone | Rated PG-13 | 175 min | 1968
Epic story of a mysterious stranger with a harmonica who joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
93. The Manchurian Candidate
Directed by John Frankenheimer | 126 min | 1962
A former prisoner of war is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.
94. Mean Streets
Directed by Martin Scorsese | Rated R | 112 min | 1973
Following the life of a small-time hood who struggles with a moral crisis regarding his friends, family, business, and his conflicting religious beliefs.
95. Gloria
Directed by Sebastián Lelio | Rated R | 110 min | 2013
A story set in Santiago and centered on Gloria, a free-spirited older woman, and the realities of her whirlwind relationship with a former naval officer whom she meets out in the clubs.
96. Leviathan
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev | Rated R | 140 min | 2014
In a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man's arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.
97. Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Directed by Werner Herzog | 93 min | 1972
In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.
98. The Sweet Hereafter
Directed by Atom Egoyan | Rated R | 112 min | 1997
A bus crash in a small town brings a lawyer to the town to defend the families, but he discovers that everything is not what it seems.
99. The Conversation
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | Rated PG | 113 min | 1974
A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a couple he is spying on will be murdered.
100. 8½
Directed by Federico Fellini | 138 min | 1963
A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.