Explanations
Here's what these data elements mean.
Averages
The mean, median and mode are ways of calculating averages.
The mean is what most people would call the average. It's calculated by adding up all 250 values and dividing by 250. Right now that's 1989.
When all 250 values are sorted in order, the median is the value in the middle. In other words, there as many films in the list from 1995 moving forward in time as there are from 1995 moving backwards.
The mode is the most frequently represented value. In other words, according to this list, 1995 is also currently cinema's golden year.
Our Ratings
The Hal and Dee numbers represent how many of the 250 films my better half and I have rated (which means that we've seen them since 2004; we've both seen more of these than we've rated, though the difference is gradually closing) and the mean of our ratings. My rating system ranges from 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest) with 4 an OK pivot between them.
Change
The rest of the elements reflect change since the previous year:
Same is the number of films which stayed in the same spot as the previous year. Up is the number that moved up. Down is the number that moved down. New are the number of films in this year's list that weren't in the previous year's—however, some of them may have been in the list prior to that.
Variation marks how much the list has changed overall over the previous year. It counts how many places in the list each film moved (either up or down) and calculates the mean of that.
Basic Analysis
Basic Analysis for 2026
More detailed analysis can be found on the page for the IMDb Top 250 for 1st January, 2026.
Averages
The change in mean usually tells us that the films represented in the IMDb Top 250 get newer each year. That's not surprising as new movies are released all the time. COVID-19 put a dent into that trend but it's back to progressing as expected, moving forward one year, for the third year running, to 1989.
The median ought to get newer too, and it is doing that over time, but it seems to get stuck a lot more. It spent three years at 1988 and three more at 1993, before rising to 1995 and, again probably due to COVID-19, it dropped to 1994 and then rose to 1995 again. It's at the same level now as 2021. Usually, the reason behind this is that a bunch of the new entries are classic films that have just reached the ratings threshold and the films they replaced are generally much more recent, but that hasn't been happening much over the past few years.
The mode is interesting. Cinema's golden year, according to this list, is 1995 as it's been since at least 2013 (and possibly earlier). As with last year, it's represented by eight films, one more than 2003 and 2004 and, behind them with six films each are 1957, 1999, 2009 and 2019. That's only subtly changed from last year, with 2003 gaining 1.
Ratings
Our ratings suggest that my wife and I both prefer the oldest list that I grabbed in 2004 and so the Top 250 has gradually slightly little less valuable to us since then. We tend to rate IMDb Top 250 films highly, but a little less so with each year that passes.
It's perhaps also worth mentioning that my better half generally rates films higher than I do, especially recent ones, but my ratings of IMDb Top 250 films have always been higher than hers. I've wondered about that, but, looking wider, it seems that I rate both higher and lower than her, praising or panning, while her ratings clump a little more consistently in the middle.
Ups and Downs
Unsurprisingly, the up and down numbers always suggest that a lot more films drop every year than rise. This is surely because, while some films do move up the list, it's much more common for them to be moved down by new entries. One film moving up a place moves one film down a place. However, one film entering at, say, 50, moves two hundred films down a place.
Large changes are traditionally more represented by drops than climbs but there have been fewer large changes of late. In the 2023 list, 53 films moved more than 15 places, whether up or down, and the largest changes were large, moving 91, 93, 100 and 132 places respectively, all down. In the 2024 list, a record low of only 3 films moved more than 15 places, the largest change only 42 places. In 2025, that number dropped to only 1, Oppenheimer, which dropped 44 places. This year, 4 films moved more than 15 places but the largest change was only 24 places.
That was the highest climber, A Silent Voice: The Movie, moving from 249 to 225, ironically the only place it's held in a previous year, that being 2022. The highest drop was 23, for The Wild Robot, an animated co-production of the U.S. and Japan. Usually the largest drop is a mainstream Hollywood film that was a new entry the previous year. Therefore, this year is unusual in two regards: the largest change went up not down and the largest drop wasn't a mainstream Hollywood film. However, it was a new entry in 2025.
Another historical anomaly that matches the last two years is that very few films actually left the Top 250 and most of them were close to the bottom of the list last year. The only film to leave the list from a high position was Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Tsuzumi Mansion Arc, entering at 181 last year. That's ironic given that two other Demon Slayer movies are new entries since last year's list. The other seven were within the bottom ten of last year's list.
The variation is down to another new low. Last year's average change was a low of 3.86 places, but this year dropped even further to 3.72. The general trend has been for each year to see less violent change and with 2017 and 2023 being exceptions to that rule, it's held true otherwise since 2014. It seems to be settling down, possibly because of a general lack of strong new candidates for the list. There were more new entries in each of 2014, 2017 and 2020 than in 2024, 2025 and 2026 combined. Also, this year's batch of new entries includes no American films for the first time; the eight titles include 3 each from India and Japan and 1 each from Italy and Turkey.
Decades
Given that each new year brings new great films, we might expect previous decades to be represented less and less over time and that's generally true. This year, most decades were changed. The 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1990s and 2000s dropped one each; the 1920s and 1930s remained unchanged; while the 2010s and 2020s gained two each and, more unexpectedly, the 1970s gained one.
That's not a lot of recent representation. There are only two films released in 2025 in the list, both Japanese anime. There are also three from each of 2020, 2023 and 2024, two from 2021 and just one from 2022, Top Gun: Maverick.
Directors
This year's top directors changed very little from last year. Christopher Nolan remains in top spot with eight titles, ahead of Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg on seven each. Akira Kurosawa remains on six but, with the loss of Rebecca, Alfred Hitchcock drops to five, alongside Charlie Chaplin, Quentin Tarantino and Billy Wilder.
The Top Ten
The Top Ten has remained relatively unchanged for a long while, the only change to the line-up since 2014 happening in 2021, when The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring kicked out Fight Club. The order has changed slightly over the years and there was one subtle change last year, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King moving ahead of Schindler's List. This year, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring moved ahead of Pulp Fiction.
Just below it, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers moved ahead of Forrest Gump to sit just one place outside the Top Ten at 11. One more move upward and the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy will be in the Top Ten.
Basic Analysis for 2025
More detailed analysis can be found on the page for the IMDb Top 250 for 1st January, 2025.
Averages
The change in mean usually tells us that the films represented in the IMDb Top 250 get newer each year. That's not surprising as new movies are released all the time. COVID-19 put a dent into that trend but it's progressing as expected, moving forward a year to 1988.
The median ought to get newer too, and it is doing that over time, but it seems to get stuck a lot more. It spent three years at 1988 and three more at 1993, before rising to 1995 and, again probably due to COVID-19, it dropped to 1994 and then rose to 1995 again. It's at the same level now as 2021. Usually, the reason behind this is that a bunch of the new entries are classic films that have just reached the ratings threshold and the films they replaced are generally much more recent, but that hasn't been happening over the past couple of years.
The mode is interesting. Cinema's golden year, according to this list, is 1995 as it's been since at least 2013 (and possibly earlier). As with last year, it's represented by eight films, one more than 2004 and behind them with six films each are 1957, 1999, 2003, 2009 and 2019.
Ratings
Our ratings suggest that my wife and I both prefer the oldest list that I grabbed in 2004 and so the Top 250 has gradually slightly little less valuable to us since then. We tend to rate IMDb Top 250 films highly, but a little less so with each year that passes.
It's perhaps also worth mentioning that my better half generally rates films higher than I do, especially recent ones, but my ratings of IMDb Top 250 films have always been higher than hers. I've wondered about that, but, looking wider, it seems that I rate both higher and lower than her, praising or panning, while her ratings clump a little more consistently in the middle.
Ups and Downs
Unsurprisingly, the up and down numbers always suggest that a lot more films drop every year than rise. This is surely because, while some films do move up the list, it's much more common for them to be moved down by new entries. One film moving up a place moves one film down a place. However, one film entering at, say, 50, moves 200 films down a place.
Large changes are traditionally more represented by drops than climbs but there have been fewer large changes of late. In the 2023 list, 53 films moved more than 15 places, whether up or down, and the largest changes were large, moving 91, 93, 100 and 132 places respectively, all down. In the 2024 list, a record low of only 3 films moved more than 15 places, the largest change only 42 places. This year, that number dropped to only 1, Oppenheimer.
The highest climber was Mad Max: Fury Road, moving up 15 places from 198 to 183. As always, the biggest drop was a mainstream Hollywood film that was a new entry the previous year. This year, that dubious honour goes to Oppenheimer, which entered at 68 last year but dropped 44 places to 112 this year. That's not a large drop historically, similar only to last year's biggest faller, Top Gun: Maverick falling 42 places. That number is usually in the three digits.
Another historical anomaly that matches last year is that very few films actually left the Top 250 and most of them were close to the bottom of the list last year. The only film to leave the list from a high position was Godzilla Minus One, entering at 172 last year. The other six were literally the lowest placed six in last year's list.
The variation is down to another new low. Last year's average change was a low of 4.08 places, but this year dropped even further to 3.86. The general trend has been for each year to see less violent change and with 2017 and 2023 being exceptions to that rule, it's held true otherwise since 2014. It seems to be settling down, possibly because of a general lack of strong new candidates for the list.
Decades
Given that each new year brings new great films, we might expect previous decades to be represented less and less over time and that's generally true. This year, most decades were unchanged, going back to the 1920s. The 1930s and 1950s dropped one each and the 1990s dropped two, leaving four new spots for 2020s films.
That's not a lot of recent representation. There are only three films released in each of 2021, 2023 and 2024 in the list, plus two from 2020 and just one from 2022, Top Gun: Maverick.
Directors
This year's top directors are unchanged from last year. Christopher Nolan remains in top spot with eight titles, ahead of Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg on seven each. Akira Kurosawa and Alfred Hitchcock remain on six and Charlie Chaplin, Quentin Tarantino and Billy Wilder remain on five.
The Top Ten
The Top Ten has remained relatively unchanged for a long while, the only change to the line-up since 2014 happening in 2021, when The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring kicked out Fight Club. The order has changed slightly over the years and there was one subtle change this year, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King moving ahead of Schindler's List.
Basic Analysis for 2024
More detailed analysis can be found on the page for the IMDb Top 250 for 1st January, 2024.
Averages
The change in mean usually tells us that the films represented in the IMDb Top 250 get newer each year. That's not surprising as new movies are released all the time. That trend was bucked for the first time last year, with the mean year dropping from 1987 to 1986. That was probably due to COVID-19 preventing a lot of movies from being released and that translating into only one new entry from the previous year, an all time low. It's back to 1987 this year.
The median ought to get newer too, and it is doing that over time, but it seems to get stuck a lot more. It spent three years at 1988 and three more at 1993, before rising to 1995. It dropped from 1995 to 1994 a couple of years ago, stayed there last year and went back up to 1995 this year. However, the exact median is 1994.5 so that's a very subtle change due to rounding up or down. Usually, the reason behind this is that a bunch of the new entries are classic films that have just reached the ratings threshold and the films they replaced are generally much more recent. With only five films entering and leaving the list this year, trends are notably off.
The mode is interesting. Cinema's golden year, according to this list, is 1995 as it's been since at least 2013 (and possibly earlier). As with last year, it's represented by eight films, one more than 2004 and behind them with six films each are 1957, 1999, 2003, 2009 and 2019.
Ratings
Our ratings suggest that my wife and I both prefer the oldest list that I grabbed in 2004 and so the Top 250 has gradually slightly little less valuable to us since then. We tend to rate IMDb Top 250 films highly, but a little less so with each year that passes.
It's perhaps also worth mentioning that my better half generally rates films higher than I do, but my ratings of IMDb Top 250 films have always been higher than hers. I've wondered about that, but, looking wider, it seems that I rate both higher and lower than her, praising or panning, while her ratings clump a little more consistently in the middle.
Ups and Downs
Unsurprisingly, the up and down numbers always suggest that a lot more films drop every year than rise. This is surely because, while some films do move up the list, it's much more common for them to be moved down by new entries, which also often move down too, even faster. That changed last year, likely because of COVID-19's impact on release schedules, but they returned to expected levels this year: 58 rising and 150 dropping.
Large changes are traditionally more represented by drops than climbs and this year's list returns to norms. Last year, seventeen films leapt at least 20 places and eighteen films dropped at least 20 places. Equivalent numbers this year are zero and three respectively, much more in line with previous years, where only seven films rose by at least 20 places from 2016 to 2022 combined. The highest climbers this year were Prisoners (10 places), Dead Poets Society (10 places) and Jai Bhim (12 places).
As always, the biggest drop was a mainstream Hollywood film that was a new entry the previous year. This year, that dubious honour goes to Top Gun: Maverick, which entered at 88 last year but dropped 42 places to 130 this year. That's not a large drop historically; last year's biggest drop, Spider-Man: No Way Home dropped 132 places. What changed this year is that very few films actually left the Top 250 and all of them were very close to the bottom of the list last year. Only five films dropped out this year and the highest placed last year, Persona, only had to drop eight places to do so. As always, the majority are foreign (but only 3 of those 5).
The variation is up to a new high, meaning a lot of volatility in the Top 250, even if only one new entry made it into the top two hundred places. The general trend has been for each year to see less violent change and with 2017 and 2020 being exceptions to that rule, it's held true otherwise since 2014. Until now, when it's more volatile than ever, for reasons I don't see.
Decades
Given that each new year brings new great films, we might expect previous decades to be represented less and less over time and that's generally true. While the 1920s to 1940s were unchanged this year, the 1950s, 1960s and 1980s lost one film each and the 1970s two. The beneficiaries were the 1990s and 2010s, each rising one, and the 2020s rising only because of three new entries from 2023.
That's not a lot of 2023 representation, those three films being Godzilla Minus One, Oppenheimer and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It's worth mentioning here that, while I haven't seen any of these yet, many of my friends have and Godzilla Minus One is the only modern film I can name about which I have literally not heard anything negative.
Directors
This year's top directors are again balanced well between the modern and classic eras, but Oppenheimer nudges Christopher Nolan into top spot with eight titles, ahead of Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg on seven each. With Dersu Uzala dropping out of the list, Akira Kurosawa falls to six, joining Alfred Hitchcock there. Behind then on five remain Charlie Chaplin, Quentin Tarantino and Billy Wilder.
The Top Ten
The Top Ten has remained relatively unchanged for a long while, being the same ten films, if in slightly different orders, since 2013. However, it does shuffle a little over time and it didn't do that this year. In fact, the only change in the top twenty was It's a Wonderful Life moving up from 21 to 20 and nudging Seven Samurai down one.
Basic Analysis for 2023
More detailed analysis can be found on the page for the IMDb Top 250 for 1st January, 2023.
Averages
The change in mean usually tells us that the films represented in the IMDb Top 250 get newer each year. That's not surprising as new movies are released all the time. Except that that trend was bucked for the first time this year, with the mean year dropping from 1987 to 1986. That's probably due to COVID-19 preventing a lot of movies from being released and that translating into only one new entry from the previous year, an all time low.
The median ought to get newer too, and it is doing that over time, but it seems to get stuck a lot more. It spent three years at 1988 and three more at 1993, before rising to 1995. However, last year it dropped for the first time, from 1995 to 1994, and it stayed there this year. Usually, that's because a bunch of the new entries are classic films that have just reached the ratings threshold and the films they replaced are generally much more recent. Again, not the case this year, where replacement was closer to like for like.
The mode is interesting. Cinema's golden year, according to this list, is 1995 and is for the tenth year in a row. It's represented by eight films, one more than 2004. Behind them with six films each are 1957, 1999, 2003, 2009 and 2019.
Ratings
Our ratings suggest that my wife and I both prefer the oldest list that I grabbed in 2004 and so the Top 250 has gradually slightly little less valuable to us since then. However, after a 6.67 in 2004, my average ratings dropped about a tenth of a point and stayed there from 2013 to 2018, varying just a little, but they dropped another tenth of a point in the two years to 2020, robbing it of the crown of most valuable list (to me) that it's held ever since I started tracking it. However, my average ratings went up again in 2021, to 6.52, and after two years there, dropped slightly to 6.50 this year. A reminder: that's out of a maximum of 7.
It's perhaps also worth mentioning that my better half generally rates film higher than I do, but my ratings of IMDb Top 250 films have always been higher than hers. I've wondered about that, but, looking wider, it seems that I rate both higher and lower than her, praising or panning, while her ratings clump a little more consistently in the middle. Hers were slightly up this year at an average of 6.30 from a low of 6.28 over the past two years.
Ups and Downs
Unsurprisingly, the up and down numbers always suggest that a lot more films drop every year than rise. This is surely because, while some films do move up the list, it's much more common for them to be moved down by new entries, which also often move down too, even faster. Except this year, the reverse happened, probably because of COVID-19's impact on release schedules. For the first time in the decade I've been tracking, more films went up than down and by a large number: 126 up and 90 down, beating a previous high of 84 up and a previous low of 102 down, both in 2018.
Large changes are traditionally more represented by drops than climbs, but this year challenged that as well. Seventeen films leapt at least 20 places within the Top 250 and eighteen films plummeted by at least 20. To give some perspective on that, only seven films rose by 20 places over the past seven years combined, but seventeen did in the past year. The highest climber was Million Dollar Baby, moving up 42 places.
As always, the biggest drop was a mainstream Hollywood film that was a new entry the previous year. This year, that dubious honour goes to Spider-Man: No Way Home, which entered at 16 last year but freefalled 132 places downward to 148 this year. As with last year, the majority of films that dropped out of the list entirely are foreign (14 out of 17).
The variation is up to a new high, meaning a lot of volatility in the Top 250, even if only one new entry made it into the top two hundred places. The general trend has been for each year to see less violent change and with 2017 and 2020 being exceptions to that rule, it's held true otherwise since 2014. Until now, when it's more volatile than ever, for reasons I don't see.
Decades
Given that each new year brings new great films, we might expect previous decades to be represented less and less over time and that's generally true. However, the 2020s were not more represented this year, remaining at a mere 5. However, the 1930s and 1940s both increased their representation, as did the 1990s and 2000s. Notably, the 2010s decreased in representation for the second year running, after increasing consistently each eligible year before that.
This year's new entries are notable in that only one is from recent years, 2022's Top-Gun: Maverick being the only one from the past decade.
Directors
This year's top directors are again balanced well between the modern and classic eras, with Steven Spielberg up one to join Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan on seven titles each. Behind them on six is Alfred Hitchcock, with Charlie Chaplin, Quentin Tarantino and Billy Wilder on five each.
The Top Ten
The Top Ten has remained relatively unchanged for a long while, being the same ten films, if in slightly different orders, since 2013. However, the order did shift a lot this year, with two films moving up within the top ten and eight in the top twenty. Nothing moved more than one place, except Se7en leapfrogging Seven Samurai to take Spider-Man: No Way Home's vacated spot in the top twenty.
Basic Analysis for 2022
More detailed analysis can be found on the page for the IMDb Top 250 for 1st January, 2022.
Averages
The change in mean tells us that the films represented in the IMDb Top 250 get newer each year. That's not surprising as new movies are released all the time. The mean is now 1987 for a third year running.
The median ought to get newer too, and it is doing that over time, but it seems to get stuck a lot more. It spent three years at 1988 and three more at 1993, before rising to 1995. However, this year it dropped for the first time, from 1995 to 1994. That's because a bunch of the new entries are classic films that have just reached the ratings threshold and the films they replaced are generally much more recent.
The mode is interesting. Cinema's golden year, according to this list, is 1995 and is for the ninth year in a row. It's represented by eight films, one more than 1957 and 2019. Behind them with six films each are 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2009.
Ratings
Our ratings suggest that my wife and I both prefer the oldest list that I grabbed in 2004 and it's gradually become a little less valuable to us since then. However, after a 6.67 in 2004, my average ratings dropped about a tenth of a point and stayed there from 2013 to 2018, varying just a little, but they dropped another tenth of a point in the two years to 2020, robbing it of the crown of most valuable list (to me) that it's held ever since I started tracking it. However, my average ratings went up again in 2021, to 6.52, and they've stayed there this year.
It's perhaps also worth mentioning that my better half generally rates film higher than I do, but my ratings of IMDb Top 250 films have always been higher than hers. I've wondered about that, but, looking wider, it seems that I rate both higher and lower than her, praising or panning, while her ratings clump a little more consistently in the middle.
Ups and Downs
Unsurprisingly, the up and down numbers suggest that a lot more films drop every year than rise. This is surely because, while some films do move up the list, it's much more common for them to be moved down by new entries, which also often move down too, even faster.
Large changes are more represented by drops than climbs, with six films dropping at least 20 places within the Top 250, with five more dropping at least 20 places out of it entirely. Only five films climbed the list by a double digit number, one fewer than last year. However, Come and See, last year's highest climber, moving up 30 places, moved up another 19 this year, while The Passion of Joan of Arc recovered an unexpected 22 places after declining steadily over the past few years.
As always, the biggest drop was a mainstream Hollywood film that was a new entry the previous year. This year, that dubious honour goes to Soul, which entered at 163 last year but is now gone, meaning a drop of at least 87 places. However, all the other films that dropped out of the list entirely (except one) are foreign for a change. The films that fell furthest but still remain in the Top 250 follow in similar vein: the largest dropper was Hamilton, falling 34 places from 52 to 86, but followed by foreign films The Bandit, My Father and My Son and Autumn Sonata, which fell 33, 29 and 28 places respectively.
The variation is down even further than last year. A few more films moved up and down films but they generally didn't move far, while fewer films dropped out of the list entirely. The general trend has been for each year to see less violent change and with 2017 and 2020 being exceptions to that rule, it's held true otherwise since 2014.
Decades
Given that each new year brings new great films, we might expect previous decades to be represented less and less over time and that's generally true. There were only 12 new entries this year, the lowest number since I've been tracking, possibly due to problems within the industry caused by COVID-19, and only 3 of these were 2021 movies.
This year's new entries are notable in that only half of them are from recent years (2016-2021), the other half dating back to the previous century. Nights of Cabiria and Fanny and Alexander both return after a couple of years away, having spent multiple years in the list but dropping out after 2019.
It's rare for decades prior to the nostalgia point (currently the 1980s) to increase their representation in the list, but the 1950s and 1960s did this year. There are 24 films from the 1950s, which puts it back at 2019 levels, while the 19 from the 1960s puts it at the highest point it's been since 2016.
Directors
This year's top directors are again balanced well between the modern and classic eras, with Akira Kurosawa up one to join Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan on seven titles each. Behind them on six are Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg, as last year.
The Top Ten
The Top Ten has remained relatively unchanged for a long while, being the same ten films, if in slightly different orders, since 2013. This year remains static for the second year running and, in fact, the only change in the top twenty is the addition of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
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