Here are the No. 1 movies of every decade, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
They take us from the days of silent movies to the modern era, when moviemaking feels increasingly under threat.
Before we begin the list, a word on how we arrived at it.
How We Tracked the No. 1 Movies of Every Decade, According to Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes assigns a score to movies by aggregrating critics’ reviews. We assembled this list by choosing the top film from every decade on the site’s list of the 300 Best Movies of All Time. Rotten Tomatoes created that list by combining its Tomatometer rating — based on critics’ reviews — with audience votes on the Popcornmeter,
We’re starting with the 1920s because there were no films prior to that decade on the list of the 300 Best Movies of All Time.
Now, here are the No. 2 movies of every decade, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
1920s — The Kid (1921)
Charlie Chaplin’s first full-length film as a director stars Chaplin (who also wrote and produced) playing his beloved Little Tramp character.
He finds an abandoned baby, left behind by his poor, unwed mother. The Tramp takes on the boy (Jackie Coogan) as his adopted son and sidekick. But then the boy’s mother (Edna Purviance) re-enters the picture.
The film was a massive box office success, and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
It won zero Oscars — because the Oscars didn’t come along until 1929.
1930s — Modern Times (1936)
It’s a testament to what a massive contribution Charlie Chaplin made to film as an industry and an art form that he also had the No. 1 film of the 1930s — at least, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Modern Times features Chaplin’s last performance as the Little Tramp, and finds the beloved character struggling to survive in an increasibly mechanized world. It’s strikingly relevant today, 90 years later, in our age of robots taking human jobs. Such was the genius of Chaplin.
Again written, produced, directed by and starring Chaplin, it co-starred Paulette Goddard as Ellen Peterson, aka “The Gamin.”
It was one of the first 25 films elected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
1940s — Casablanca (1942)
Rotten Tomatoes considers Casablanca not just the best film of the 1930s, but the best film ever released by Warner Bros.
A fast-moving masterpiece,Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca combines epic sweep with tragic romance and some of the smartest, snappiest dialogue you’ll find anywhere. It was a very timely call to arms against fascism upon release, and it’s message remains strikingly relevant today.
When people say they love classic movies, this is often the one they’re thinking of.
1950s — The Seven Samurai (1954)
One of many masterful films by Akira Kurosawa, one of the greatest directors of all time, The Seven Samurai has been remade and copied many many times.
Western audiences may be most familiar with the classic Western The Magnificent Seven or its 2016 remake, but it’s influence is also strongly felt in films like the original Star Wars.
The Seven Samurai is rated No. 2 overall on Rotten Tomatoes‘ 300 Best Movies of All Time list, and is one of three movies from the 1950s on the list. The other two are Rear Window and On the Waterfront, both of which, like The Seven Samurai, were released in 1954.
1960s — The Battle of Algiers (1966)
The Battle of Algiers got a big shoutout in the latest film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another.
An Italian-Algerian production, the film co-written and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo was based on an action taken up by rebels against the French government in the Algerian War, and was shot on location with many non-professional actors who had lived through the real battle. The film’s stirring score was composed by Pontecorvo and Ennio Morricone.
The film was considered so lacertaing in France that it wasn’t screened in the country for five years, but it is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time.
1970s — The Godfather (1972)
The No. 1 film overall on Rotten Tomatoes‘ list of the 300 Best Films of All Time.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Diane Keaton, James Cahn and Robert Duvall, The Godfather is a constantly referenced, flawlessly made story of crime, family and the trickiness of the American dream.
It won Best Picture, Best Actor for Brando, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Puzo and Coppola. Those award wins, though, really can’t reflect its boundless cultural impact.
1980s — Stop Making Sense (1984)
The 1980s do not fare well on Rotten Tomatoes‘ list of the 300 Best Films of All Time. The decade doesn’t appear on the list until Jonathan Demme’s lovely Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense clocks in at No. 15.
Wavering between comic understatement and excess — who doesn’t love a really big suit? — it represents a high-water mark for concert films, and captures the giddy, cool experimentalism of the Talking Heads.
Even though our favorite song in the film is actually by the Tom Tom Club, a side project for married Talking Heads performers Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz.
Rotten Tomatoes‘ top non-concert film for the 1980s, by the way, is 1989’s The Decalogue, which also isn’t a traditional feature film. It was a ten-part miniseries, based on the 10 Commandments and created by Krzysztof Kieslowski for Polish television.
1990s — L.A. Confidential (1997)
Directed by Curtis Hanson, co-written by Hanson and Brian Helgeland, and based on the novel by James Ellroy, L.A. Confidential is a flat-out stunner inspired by the film noirs of the 1940s.
It’s a twisty, messy tale of a brutal but goodhearted cop (Russell Crowe), a whip-smart detective on the rise (Guy Pearce), and a tragic woman divided between them (Kim Basinger, who won an Oscar for the role.)
It was a critical and box office hit, despite being overshadowed by Titanic in grosses and the Oscars. Still, it’s No. 5 overall on Rotten Tomatoes‘ list of the 500 Best Movies of All Time, and Titanic isn’t on it. So there’s that.
2000s – Finding Nemo (2003)
Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t think much of the 2000s, apparently — no film from the decade appears on the list until Pixar’s Finding Nemo, which clocks in at No. 35. (The top animated film is another Pixar hit, 1995’s Toy Story, at No. 15).
The next highest-ranking film of the 2000s is yet another great Pixar film, 2009’s Up, at No. 39. Both Finding Nemo and Up are notable for some surprisingly mature scenes, at times.
The highest-ranked live-action film of the 2000s is 2008’s The Wrestler.
Sorry, The Aughts — we’re just the messenger.
2010s — Parasite (2019)
The No. 13 movie overall on Rotten Tomatoes‘ list, Parasite earned Best Picture against very strong competition at the Oscars, beating a field that included 1917, The Irishman, and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, among other films.
Bong Joon Ho’s very dark comedy looks at the lives of the haves and have nots in South Korea, but it’s very much a universal story of what people will do to survive.
People are still debating who the title refers to, and probably will be for decades.
2020s: Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
We know: You might expect a multi Oscar winner like recent Best Picture winners Anora, Oppenheimer or One Battle After Another to be the Rotten Tomatoes‘ top film of this decade. But nope! It’s Tom Cruise’s fantastic sequel to Top Gun, released nearly four decades after the original.
To understand how Maverick fared so well with critics, you have to understand two things: First, it earned tremendous goodwill because of Cruise’s decision to release it theatrically after Covid lockdowns nearly killed the theatrical experience. And two, it’s awesome.
Top Gun: Maverick also looks remarkably prescient now that the U.S. is at war with Iran — the unnamed “enemy” “of the film.
We also invite you to follow us for more stories like this.
Main image: Stop Making Sense. A24