An alternative 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 (1902)
Professor Barbenfouillis and five of his colleagues from the Academy of Astronomy travel to the Moon aboard a rocket propelled by a giant can...
2. Casablanca (1942)
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
3. Metropolis (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 w...
4. The Godfather (1972)
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, ...
5. The Kid (1921)
A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with...
6. Nosferatu (1922)
Vampire Count Orlok is interested in a new residence and in his real estate agent’s young wife. F. W. Murnau’s unauthorized adaptation of Bra...
7. Citizen Kane (1941)
Newspaper magnate, Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-m...
8. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Young Dorothy finds herself in a magical world where she makes friends with a lion, a scarecrow and a tin man as they make their way along th...
9. 12 Angry Men (1957)
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or inno...
10. Gone with the Wind (1939)
The spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner is forced to use every means at her disposal to claw her way out of poverty, following ...
11. The Gold Rush (1925)
A lone prospector ventures into Alaska looking for gold. He soon gets mixed up with some burly characters, falls in love with the beautiful G...
12. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
A holiday favourite for generations... George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents ric...
13. Star Wars (1977)
Princess Leia is captured and held hostage by the evil Imperial forces in their effort to take over the galactic Empire. Venturesome Luke Sky...
14. City Lights (1931)
In this sound-era silent film, a tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower seller.
15. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Co...
16. Rear Window (1954)
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
17. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Al...
18. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
While the Civil War rages between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hit man and a Mexican bandit – comb th...
19. The General (1926)
During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnnie Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an at...
20. M (1931)
In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. B...