The IMDb Top 250 on 1st January, 2013

Introduction

To help track the Change in the IMDb Top 250, I grab a static copy of that list each 1st January. Here's the list as it was on 1st January, 2013, with some data that ties it to previous years. Here are equivalent pages for 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2004.

Of course, the list changes all the time. Here's the current version of the IMDb Top 250 at the Internet Movie Database.

Key

This list is in order and lists the title, year and director of each film, with a link to its IMDb page, along with its position (if applicable) in the list I grabbed at some point in mid-2004. The last column highlights the change in position over the last twelve months. A film that wasn't in the list in 2015 is a new entry, even if it was in the list in a previous year.

The List

#	Title	Year	Director	IMDb	'13	'04	Ch
1	The Shawshank Redemption	1994	Frank Darabont	IMDb	1	2	↑1
2	The Godfather	1972	Francis Ford Coppola	IMDb	2	1	↓1
3	The Godfather: Part II	1974	Francis Ford Coppola	IMDb	3	4	↑1
4	Pulp Fiction	1994	Quentin Tarantino	IMDb	4	16	↑12
5	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly	1966	Sergio Leone	IMDb	5	20	↑15
6	12 Angry Men	1957	Sidney Lumet	IMDb	6	21	↑15
7	The Dark Knight	2008	Christopher Nolan	IMDb	7		→
8	Schindler's List	1993	Steven Spielberg	IMDb	8	6	↓2
9	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	Peter Jackson	IMDb	9	3	↓6
10	Fight Club	1999	David Fincher	IMDb	10	41	↑31
11	The Empire Strikes Back	1980	Irvin Kershner	IMDb	11	13	↑2
12	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	1975	Milos Forman	IMDb	12	12	=
13	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	2001	Peter Jackson	IMDb	13	9	↓4
14	Inception	2010	Christopher Nolan	IMDb	14		→
15	Goodfellas	1990	Martin Scorsese	IMDb	15	29	↑14
16	Star Wars	1977	George Lucas	IMDb	16	10	↓6
17	The Seven Samurai	1954	Akira Kurosawa	IMDb	17	5	↓12
18	The Matrix	1999	Andy Wachowski Larry Wachowski	IMDb	18	34	↑16
19	Forrest Gump	1994	Robert Zemeckis	IMDb	19	115	↑96
20	City of God	2002	Fernando Meirelles Kátia Lund	IMDb	20	23	↑3
21	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	2002	Peter Jackson	IMDb	21	8	↓13
22	Once Upon a Time in the West	1968	Sergio Leone	IMDb	22	32	↑10
23	Se7en	1995	David Fincher	IMDb	23	55	↑32
24	The Silence of the Lambs	1991	Jonathan Demme	IMDb	24	28	↑4
25	Casablanca	1942	Michael Curtiz	IMDb	25	7	↓18
26	The Usual Suspects	1995	Bryan Singer	IMDb	26	18	↓8
27	Raiders of the Lost Ark	1981	Steven Spielberg	IMDb	27	17	↓10
28	Rear Window	1954	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDb	28	14	↓14
29	Psycho	1960	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDb	29	25	↓4
30	It's a Wonderful Life	1946	Frank Capra	IMDb	30	27	↓3
31	Leon	1994	Luc Besson	IMDb	31	64	↑33
32	Sunset Boulevard	1950	Billy Wilder	IMDb	32	31	↓1
33	Memento	2000	Christopher Nolan	IMDb	33	19	↓14
34	American History X	1998	Tony Kaye	IMDb	34	61	↑27
35	Apocalypse Now	1979	Francis Ford Coppola	IMDb	35	36	↑1
36	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	1991	James Cameron	IMDb	36	110	↑74
37	Dr Strangelove	1964	Stanley Kubrick	IMDb	37	15	↓22
38	The Dark Knight Rises	2012	Christopher Nolan	IMDb	38		→
39	Saving Private Ryan	1998	Steven Spielberg	IMDb	39	58	↑19
40	Alien	1979	Ridley Scott	IMDb	40	60	↑20
41	City Lights	1931	Charles Chaplin	IMDb	41	91	↑50
42	North by Northwest	1959	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDb	42	22	↓20
43	Spirited Away	2001	Hayao Miyazaki	IMDb	43	43	=
44	Citizen Kane	1941	Orson Welles	IMDb	44	11	↓33
45	Modern Times	1936	Charles Chaplin	IMDb	45	69	↑24
46	The Shining	1980	Stanley Kubrick	IMDb	46	89	↑43
47	Back to the Future	1985	Robert Zemeckis	IMDb	47	143	↑96
48	Vertigo	1958	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDb	48	33	↓15
49	The Pianist	2002	Roman Polanski	IMDb	49	37	↓12
50	The Departed	2006	Martin Scorsese	IMDb	50		→
51	American Beauty	1999	Sam Mendes	IMDb	51	30	↓21
52	M	1931	Fritz Lang	IMDb	52	50	↓2
53	Taxi Driver	1976	Martin Scorsese	IMDb	53	42	↓11
54	Paths of Glory	1957	Stanley Kubrick	IMDb	54	40	↓14
55	Life is Beautiful	1997	Roberto Benigni	IMDb	55	72	↑17
56	Toy Story 3	2010	Lee Unkrich	IMDb	56		→
57	Double Indemnity	1944	Billy Wilder	IMDb	57	45	↓12
58	Aliens	1986	James Cameron	IMDb	58	87	↑29
59	WALL-E	2008	Andrew Stanton	IMDb	59		→
60	The Lives of Others	2006	Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck	IMDb	60		→
61	A Clockwork Orange	1971	Stanley Kubrick	IMDb	61	74	↑13
62	Amelie	2001	Jean-Pierre Jeunet	IMDb	62	26	↓36
63	Gladiator	2000	Ridley Scott	IMDb	63	168	↑105
64	The Intouchables	2011	Olivier Nakache Eric Toledano	IMDb	64		→
65	The Green Mile	1999	Frank Darabont	IMDb	65	132	↑67
66	Lawrence of Arabia	1962	David Lean	IMDb	66	24	↓42
67	To Kill a Mockingbird	1962	Robert Mulligan	IMDb	67	35	↓32
68	The Prestige	2006	Christopher Nolan	IMDb	68		→
69	The Great Dictator	1940	Charles Chaplin	IMDb	69	97	↑28
70	Reservoir Dogs	1992	Quentin Tarantino	IMDb	70	71	↑1
71	Das Boot	1981	Wolfgang Peterson	IMDb	71	46	↓25
72	The Third Man	1949	Carol Reed	IMDb	72	39	↓33
73	Requiem for a Dream	2000	Darren Aronofsky	IMDb	73	51	↓22
74	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	1948	John Huston	IMDb	74	68	↓6
75	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	2004	Michel Gondry	IMDb	75	38	↓37
76	Cinema Paradiso	1988	Giuseppe Tornatore	IMDb	76	99	↑23
77	Once Upon a Time in America	1984	Sergio Leone	IMDb	77	124	↑47
78	Chinatown	1974	Roman Polanski	IMDb	78	48	↓30
79	The Lion King	1994	Roger Allers Rob Minkoff	IMDb	79		→
80	LA Confidential	1997	Curtis Hanson	IMDb	80	49	↓31
81	Return of the Jedi	1983	Richard Marquand	IMDb	81	131	↑50
82	Full Metal Jacket	1987	Stanley Kubrick	IMDb	82	102	↑20
83	Braveheart	1995	Mel Gibson	IMDb	83	85	↑2
84	Monty Python and the Holy Grail	1975	Terry Gilliam Terry Jones	IMDb	84	56	↓28
85	Oldboy	2003	Chan-wook Park	IMDb	85		→
86	Singin' in the Rain	1952	Gene Kelly Stanley Donen	IMDb	86	47	↓39
87	Some Like It Hot	1959	Billy Wilder	IMDb	87	44	↓43
88	Amadeus	1984	Milos Forman	IMDb	88	79	↓9
89	Metropolis	1927	Fritz Lang	IMDb	89	86	↓3
90	Rashomon	1950	Akira Kurosawa	IMDb	90	57	↓33
91	The Bicycle Thief	1948	Vittorio De Sica	IMDb	91	104	↑13
92	2001: A Space Odyssey	1968	Stanley Kubrick	IMDb	92	73	↓19
93	Princess Mononoke	1997	Hayao Miyazaki	IMDb	93	100	↑7
94	Unforgiven	1992	Clint Eastwood	IMDb	94	127	↑33
95	All About Eve	1950	Joseph L Mankiewicz	IMDb	95	54	↓41
96	The Apartment	1960	Billy Wilder	IMDb	96	81	↓15
97	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	1989	Steven Spielberg	IMDb	97	141	↑44
98	The Sting	1973	George Roy Hill	IMDb	98	67	↓31
99	Raging Bull	1957	Martin Scorsese	IMDb	99	59	↓40
100	The Bridge on the River Kwai	1957	David Lean	IMDb	100	52	↓48
101	Die Hard	1988	John McTiernan	IMDb	101	156	↑55
102	Witness for the Prosecution	1957	Billy Wilder	IMDb	102	164	↑62
103	Batman Begins	2005	Christopher Nolan	IMDb	103		→
104	Grave of the Fireflies	1988	Isao Takahata	IMDb	104	171	↑67
105	A Separation	2011	Asghar Farhadi	IMDb	105		→
106	Pan's Labyrinth	2006	Guillermo Del Toro	IMDb	106		→
107	Downfall	2004	Oliver Hirschbiegel	IMDb	107		→
108	Mr Smith Goes to Washington	1939	Frank Capra	IMDb	108	66	↓42
109	Yojimbo	1961	Akira Kurosawa	IMDb	109	107	↓2
110	The Great Escape	1963	John Sturges	IMDb	110	77	↓33
111	For a Few Dollars More	1965	Sergio Leone	IMDb	111		→
112	Snatch	2000	Guy Ritchie	IMDb	112	221	↑109
113	Inglourious Basterds	2009	Quentin Tarantino	IMDb	113		→
114	Up	2009	Pete Docter	IMDb	114		→
115	On the Waterfront	1954	Elia Kazan	IMDb	115	78	↓37
116	The Elephant Man	1980	David Lynch	IMDb	116	130	↑14
117	The Seventh Seal	1957	Ingmar Bergman	IMDb	117	95	↓22
118	Toy Story	1995	John Lasseter	IMDb	118	177	↑59
119	Heat	1995	Michael Mann	IMDb	119	245	↑126
120	The General	1926	Buster Keaton Clyde Bruckman	IMDb	120	93	↓27
121	The Maltese Falcon	1941	John Huston	IMDb	121	53	↓68
122	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	2012	Peter Jackson	IMDb	122		→
123	Rebecca	1940	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDb	123	105	↓18
124	Blade Runner	1982	Ridley Scott	IMDb	124	94	↓30
125	Gran Torino	2008	Clint Eastwood	IMDb	125		→
126	Wild Strawberries	1957	Ingmar Bergman	IMDb	126	138	↑12
127	Fargo	1996	Joel Coen	IMDb	127	88	↓39
128	The Kid	1921	Charles Chaplin	IMDb	128		→
129	Scarface	1983	Brian De Palma	IMDb	129		→
130	The Avengers	2012	Joss Whedon	IMDb	130		→
131	The Big Lebowski	1998	Joel Coen	IMDb	131	222	↑91
132	Touch of Evil	1958	Orson Welles	IMDb	132	70	↓62
133	Ran	1985	Akira Kurosawa	IMDb	133	76	↓57
134	The Deer Hunter	1978	Michael Cimino	IMDb	134	117	↓17
135	Cool Hand Luke	1967	Stuart Rosenberg	IMDb	135	121	↓14
136	Sin City	2005	Robert Rodriguez Quentin Tarantino Frank Miller	IMDb	136		→
137	The Gold Rush	1925	Charles Chaplin	IMDb	137	151	↑14
138	Strangers on a Train	1951	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDb	138	90	↓48
139	No Country for Old Men	2007	Joel Coen Ethan Coen	IMDb	139		→
140	It Happened One Night	1934	Frank Capra	IMDb	140	113	↓27
141	Jaws	1975	Steven Spielberg	IMDb	141	82	↓59
142	Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels	1998	Guy Ritchie	IMDb	142	224	↑82
143	The Sixth Sense	1999	M Night Shyamalan	IMDb	143	96	↓47
144	Platoon	1986	Oliver Stone	IMDb	144	147	↑3
145	High Noon	1952	Fred Zinnemann	IMDb	145	84	↓61
146	Hotel Rwanda	2004	Terry George	IMDb	146		→
147	The Thing	1982	John Carpenter	IMDb	147		→
148	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	1969	George Roy Hill	IMDb	148	112	↓36
149	The Wizard of Oz	1939	Victor Fleming	IMDb	149	62	↓87
150	Casino	1995	Martin Scorsese	IMDb	150		→
151	Trainspotting	1996	Danny Boyle	IMDb	151	203	↑52
152	Kill Bill: Vol 1	2003	Quentin Tarantino	IMDb	152	63	↓89
153	Warrior	2011	Gavin O'Connor	IMDb	153		→
154	Annie Hall	1977	Woody Allen	IMDb	154	80	↓74
155	The Secret in Their Eyes	2009	Juan José Campanella	IMDb	155		→
156	Notorious	1946	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDb	156	103	↓53
157	Good Will Hunting	1997	Gus Van Sant	IMDb	157	248	↑91
158	Gone with the Wind	1939	Victor Fleming	IMDb	158	148	↓10
159	The Grapes of Wrath	1940	John Ford	IMDb	159	136	↓23
160	The King's Speech	2010	Tom Hooper	IMDb	160		→
161	Into the Wild	2007	Sean Penn	IMDb	161		→
162	Life of Brian	1979	Terry Jones	IMDb	162	159	↓3
163	Finding Nemo	2003	Andrew Stanton	IMDb	163	75	↓88
164	V for Vendetta	2005	James McTeigue	IMDb	164		→
165	My Neighbor Totoro	1988	Hayao Miyazaki	IMDb	165		→
166	How to Train Your Dragon	2010	Dean DeBlois Chris Sanders	IMDb	166		→
167	Dial M for Murder	1954	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDb	167		→
168	The Big Sleep	1946	Howard Hawks	IMDb	168	108	↓60
169	Ben-Hur	1959	William Wyler	IMDb	169	129	↓40
170	Network	1976	Sidney Lumet	IMDb	170	217	↑47
171	The Terminator	1984	James Cameron	IMDb	171	202	↑31
172	Million Dollar Baby	2004	Clint Eastwood	IMDb	172		→
173	There Will Be Blood	2007	Paul Thomas Anderson	IMDb	173		→
174	The Night of the Hunter	1955	Charles Laughton	IMDb	174	142	↓32
175	Stand by Me	1986	Rob Reiner	IMDb	175	196	↑21
176	Donnie Darko	2001	Richard Kelly	IMDb	176	92	↓84
177	Black Swan	2010	Darren Aronofsky	IMDb	177		→
178	Groundhog Day	1993	Harold Ramis	IMDb	178	204	↑26
179	Dog Day Afternoon	1975	Sidney Lumet	IMDb	179	198	↑19
180	Twelve Monkeys	1995	Terry Gilliam	IMDb	180	199	↑19
181	Amores Perros	2000	Alejandro González Iñárritu	IMDb	181	139	↓42
182	The Bourne Ultimatum	2007	Paul Greengrass	IMDb	182		→
183	Mary and Max	2009	Adam Elliot	IMDb	183		→
184	The 400 Blows	1959	François Truffaut	IMDb	184	160	↓24
185	Persona	1966	Ingmar Bergman	IMDb	185	235	↑50
186	The Graduate	1967	Mike Nichols	IMDb	186	116	↓70
187	Gandhi	1982	Richard Attenborough	IMDb	187	192	↑5
188	The Killing	1956	Stanley Kubrick	IMDb	188	178	↓10
189	Howl's Moving Castle	2004	Hayao Miyazaki	IMDb	189		→
190	Life of Pi	2012	Ang Lee	IMDb	190		→
191	The Princess Bride	1987	Rob Reiner	IMDb	191	101	↓90
192	8½	1963	Federico Fellini	IMDb	192	212	↑20
193	The Artist	2011	Michel Hazanavicius	IMDb	193		→
194	Slumdog Millionaire	2008	Danny Boyle	IMDb	194		→
195	Argo	2012	Ben Affleck	IMDb	195		→
196	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	1966	Mike Nichols	IMDb	196	190	↓6
197	The Hustler	1961	Robert Rossen	IMDb	197	150	↓47
198	La strada	1954	Federico Fellini	IMDb	198	209	↑11
199	A Beautiful Mind	2001	Ron Howard	IMDb	199		→
200	The Manchurian Candidate	1962	John Frankenheimer	IMDb	200	65	↓135
201	Rocky	1976	John G Avildsen	IMDb	201		→
202	The Wild Bunch	1969	Sam Peckinpah	IMDb	202	149	↓53
203	Anatomy of a Murder	1959	Otto Preminger	IMDb	203		→
204	Stalag 17	1953	Billy Wilder	IMDb	204	134	↓70
205	The Exorcist	1973	William Friedkin	IMDb	205	197	↓8
206	Sleuth	1972	Joseph L Mankiewicz	IMDb	206	249	↑43
207	Rope	1948	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDb	207		→
208	The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance	1962	John Ford	IMDb	208	165	↓43
209	Barry Lyndon	1975	Stanley Kubrick	IMDb	209		→
210	District 9	2009	Neill Blomkamp	IMDb	210		→
211	The Perks of Being a Wallflower	2012	Stephen Chbosky	IMDb	211		→
212	Infernal Affairs	2002	Wai-keung Lau Alan Mak	IMDb	212		→
213	Stalker	1979	Andrey Tarkovskiy	IMDb	213		→
214	Roman Holiday	1953	William Wyler	IMDb	214	169	↓45
215	The Truman Show	1998	Peter Weir	IMDb	215		→
216	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl	2003	Gore Verbinski	IMDb	216	188	↓28
217	Ip Man	2008	Wilson Yip	IMDb	217		→
218	Ratatouille	2007	Brad Bird	IMDb	218		→
219	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	2007	Julian Schnabel	IMDb	219		→
220	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2	2011	David Yates	IMDb	220		→
221	In the Name of the Father	1993	Jim Sheridan	IMDb	221		→
222	Monsters, Inc	2001	Pete Docter David Silverman	IMDb	222	161	↓61
223	A Fistful of Dollars	1964	Sergio Leone	IMDb	223		→
224	A Streetcar Named Desire	1951	Elia Kazan	IMDb	224	176	↓48
225	Star Trek	2009	J J Abrams	IMDb	225		→
226	Incendies	2010	Denis Villeneuve	IMDb	226		→
227	Beauty and the Beast	1991	Gary Trousdale Kirk Wise	IMDb	227	243	↑16
228	Rosemary's Baby	1968	Roman Polanski	IMDb	228		→
229	Harvey	1950	Henry Koster	IMDb	229	194	↓35
230	La haine	1995	Mathieu Kassovitz	IMDb	230		→
231	All Quiet on the Western Front	1930	Lewis Milestone	IMDb	231	152	↓79
232	The Wrestler	2008	Darren Aronofsky	IMDb	232		→
233	Rain Man	1988	Barry Levinson	IMDb	233	214	↓19
234	Shutter Island	2010	Martin Scorsese	IMDb	234		→
235	Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring	2003	Ki-duk Kim	IMDb	235		→
236	Nosferatu	1922	F W Murnau	IMDb	236	191	↓45
237	Manhattan	1979	Woody Allen	IMDb	237	120	↓117
238	Mystic River	2003	Clint Eastwood	IMDb	238	125	↓113
239	Battleship Potemkin	1925	Sergei Eisenstein	IMDb	239	157	↓82
240	3 Idiots	2009	Rajkumar Hirani	IMDb	240		→
241	Big Fish	2003	Tim Burton	IMDb	241	186	↓55
242	Papillon	1973	Franklin J Schaffner	IMDb	242		→
243	Shadow of a Doubt	1943	Alfred Hitchcock	IMDb	243	189	↓54
244	Castle in the Sky	1986	Hayao Miyazaki	IMDb	244		→
245	Jurassic Park	1993	Steven Spielberg	IMDb	245		→
246	Bringing Up Baby	1938	Howard Hawks	IMDb	246	133	↓113
247	The Untouchables	1987	Brian De Palma	IMDb	247	230	↓17
248	In the Heat of the Night	1967	Norman Jewison	IMDb	248	229	↓19
249	Let the Right One In	2008	Tomas Alfredson	IMDb	249		→
250	Arsenic and Old Lace	1944	Frank Capra	IMDb	250	144	↓106

Basic Data

The mean is 1980, the median 1986 and the mode 2003.

66 films moved up the list, while 108 moved down and 2 remained in the same spot.

Breakdown by Decade

Here's how the films break down by decade, with comparative data to 2004:

Decade	2013	2004
1920s	6	7
1930s	9	18
1940s	16	24
1950s	31	33
1960s	24	28
1970s	24	25
1980s	28	32
1990s	39	44
2000s	55	39
2010s	18	0