Top 25 Highest-Rated Movies on IMDb
Ranked by IMDb's weighted rating from the official Top 250 chart, this list covers the 25 highest-rated films worldwide, with release year, director, country of production, and IMDb score, reflecting tens of millions of audience votes.
Interesting Facts & Summary
The Shawshank Redemption flopped on release in 1994 and took only about $28 million in North America even counting its 1995 re-release, then was rescued by video rentals and TV reruns — and has long sat at No. 1 on IMDb. Only three films in the top 25 come from outside the English-speaking world: Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Brazil's City of God, and the Italian-Spanish The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Christopher Nolan holds three slots (The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar), while Peter Jackson's entire Lord of the Rings trilogy is the only complete franchise inside the top 25. Below rank 10 the margins are razor thin: scores fall only from 8.8 to 8.6 across ranks 10 to 25.
| Rank | Film | Year | Director | Country | IMDb rating | Data date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Shawshank Redemption | 1994 | Frank Darabont | United States | 9.3 | 2026-05-31 | |
The Godfather | 1972 | Francis Ford Coppola | United States | 9.2 | 2026-05-31 | |
The Dark Knight | 2008 | Christopher Nolan | United States / United Kingdom | 9 | 2026-05-31 | |
| 4 | The Godfather Part II | 1974 | Francis Ford Coppola | United States | 9 | 2026-05-31 |
| 5 | 12 Angry Men | 1957 | Sidney Lumet | United States | 9 | 2026-05-31 |
| 6 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 2003 | Peter Jackson | New Zealand / United States | 9 | 2026-05-31 |
| 7 | Schindler's List | 1993 | Steven Spielberg | United States | 9 | 2026-05-31 |
| 8 | Pulp Fiction | 1994 | Quentin Tarantino | United States | 8.9 | 2026-05-31 |
| 9 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | 2001 | Peter Jackson | New Zealand / United States | 8.9 | 2026-05-31 |
| 10 | The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | 1966 | Sergio Leone | Italy / Spain | 8.8 | 2026-05-31 |
| 11 | Forrest Gump | 1994 | Robert Zemeckis | United States | 8.8 | 2026-05-31 |
| 12 | Fight Club | 1999 | David Fincher | United States / Germany | 8.8 | 2026-05-31 |
| 13 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | 2002 | Peter Jackson | New Zealand / United States | 8.8 | 2026-05-31 |
| 14 | Inception | 2010 | Christopher Nolan | United States / United Kingdom | 8.8 | 2026-05-31 |
| 15 | Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back | 1980 | Irvin Kershner | United States | 8.7 | 2026-05-31 |
| 16 | The Matrix | 1999 | The Wachowskis | United States / Australia | 8.7 | 2026-05-31 |
| 17 | Goodfellas | 1990 | Martin Scorsese | United States | 8.7 | 2026-05-31 |
| 18 | Interstellar | 2014 | Christopher Nolan | United States / United Kingdom | 8.7 | 2026-05-31 |
| 19 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | 1975 | Miloš Forman | United States | 8.7 | 2026-05-31 |
| 20 | Se7en | 1995 | David Fincher | United States | 8.6 | 2026-05-31 |
| 21 | It's a Wonderful Life | 1946 | Frank Capra | United States | 8.6 | 2026-05-31 |
| 22 | The Silence of the Lambs | 1991 | Jonathan Demme | United States | 8.6 | 2026-05-31 |
| 23 | Seven Samurai | 1954 | Akira Kurosawa | Japan | 8.6 | 2026-05-31 |
| 24 | Saving Private Ryan | 1998 | Steven Spielberg | United States | 8.6 | 2026-05-31 |
| 25 | City of God | 2002 | Fernando Meirelles / Kátia Lund | Brazil | 8.6 | 2026-05-31 |
Sources
- Accessed: 2026-08-04
- S2 · WikipediaIMDb Top 250
Wikipedia, IMDb Top 250, retrieved 2026-08-04（说明 IMDb 加权评分与 Top 250 入选门槛的计算方式）.
Accessed: 2026-08-04 - S3 · WikipediaThe Shawshank Redemption
Wikipedia, The Shawshank Redemption, retrieved 2026-08-04（首轮票房与后期口碑逆转的背景）.
Accessed: 2026-08-04