Hello and thank you for your question. As you probably know, many
various movie companies be they sellers or renters, often compile
lists of films that are most requested or rented -some even ask the
people who are members of websites devoted to film to vote so that the
list is more complete and well rounded rather than the standard Top 40
current box office smashes etc. One such site that does this and has a
high level of consumer participation is the Internet Movie Database or
IMDb website:
http://www.imdb.com/
They offer a comprehensive and indepth list of the top 250 films as
voted by their users -while many of these are newer films, there is a
good mix of classics, foreign and genre. You might find this list
interesting to peruse as many of these are family, cult, arthouse and
general audience favorites and it is the most current list of films as
well:
http://www.imdb.com/top_250_films
Sometimes independent users can compile top sites -this user in
particular compiled a Top 1000 movies site and while I can't argue
that many of those movies are popular favorites as well as underground
favorites it is only a personal website and not charted demographics
-still I thought I would include it as I am trying to give you the
best overview of market demands and these are, for the most part, some
of the top requested movies of all time.
http://movies.yahoo.com/mvc/dls?iid=255-1439203&lid=255-74339
Also something you might want to check out is the Zagat Survey Movie
Guide: Top 1000 Films of All Time compiled by Curt Gathje in 2002.
Considered by many to be one of the best and most comprehensive movie
survey books, this guide's statistics are based on the opinions of the
average moviegoer and not simply industry appeal. You can get copies
pretty much anywhere although you can find very inexpensive used ones
from Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1570064083/greatestfilmsweb/104-3940942-3567930
There is also the Guinness Book of Film compiled in 1999.
http://www.filmsite.org/guinness.html
"An essential hard-cover movie guide published in 1999, The Guinness
Book of Film, subtitled The Ultimate Guide to the Best Films Ever,
reviewed the top 1000 movies of the 20th century. The ultimate
selection of films was based upon a few criteria:
-sound films that were easily available in video format (with a few exceptions)
-"the movies that have given the most pleasure to the most people."
There is also a Top 100 by genre category that you can browse to get
an idea of what the book contains. Again, it is something you would
have to purchase but it meets your requirements and is also a really
comprehensive resource to have at your fingertips.
You can also find used copies of this at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0851120733/greatestfilmsweb/104-3940942-3567930
Now, the New York Times put out a book of Top 1000 films but a luckily
a member of a livejournal community happened to post the list in its
entirety so I am including the link to that -I urge you to keep in
mind though that while The New York Times did indeed put a
comprehensive list together some of these movies are near impossible
to find -as I well know! -and some are currently unavailable -but a
lot of them can still be located and are definitely still popular.
Here is the list on her page -ignore the crossed out links -its a way
of marking off the ones they have seen:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/inkdot/145527.html
The American Film Institute is also known for its compilations of the
best of the best -I am including the list of the 400 nominated films
in 2002 and below it the list of 100 that won that distinction. Much
more information on films and the Instititute can be found on the main
page of their website at: http://afi.com/about/
http://afi.com/Docs/tvevents/pdf/movies400.pdf
http://afi.com/Docs/tvevents/pdf/movies100.pdf
This page lists other top nominations as well, some of which are in
more specialized categories:
http://afi.com/tvevents/100years/100yearslist.aspx
Another source of some lists comes from the Box Office Mojo website at
www.boxofficemojo.com
www.boxofficemojo.com/dvd/2002...
<http://tm.wc.ask.com/r?t=c&s=a&id=30780&sv=za5cb0dc1&uid=0D00E0612F5DDA804&sid=1D0761612F5DDA804&p=%2flinks&o=0&u=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/dvd/2002/32.htm>
I realize that you wanted a top 1000 list but most industries do not
release lists of that size unless you are willing to pay for the book
itself -which granted, if you really want the data and can find it
used like some of the ones I mentioned above, than it might not be a
bad thing. I am glad I was able to at least get you the one list in
full so that you have an idea and these supplementary lists should
also help to give you a better perspective on what moviegoers are
looking for. I hope this helps you -I wish there were larger movie
lists available but sadly, they seem to only go as high as a hundred
before converting it to book form. If you need any clarification or
have any questions I'd be happy to help.
Thanks,
Anthony (adiloren-ga) |
