highest rated movies on IMDb
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Highest Rated Movies on IMDb of All Time: Top 10 Ranked (2026)

The highest rated movies on IMDb represent a genuine global consensus — not a critics’ committee, not an awards body, but over 250 million regular film fans who have each voted independently over decades to produce one of cinema’s most fascinating and debated rankings. The IMDb Top 250 is updated continuously as new votes are cast, and the top 10 positions have remained remarkably stable for years — a testament to just how definitively these films have connected with audiences worldwide.

This guide covers the complete top 10 highest rated movies on IMDb as of March 2026 — with verified current ratings, full plot summaries, director and cast details, Oscar and award records, why each film deserves its position, and exactly where to watch every one of them. Every rating is taken directly from IMDb’s official Top 250 chart. No inflated scores. No “rounded up” numbers.

For context on what the current generation of cinema looks like alongside these all-time greats, see our guide to the best Dwayne Johnson movies ranked and the Avatar: Fire and Ash complete review — two of the biggest films of recent years measured against the standards set by the films on this list.

📊 What Is IMDb and How Does the Rating System Work?

IMDb (Internet Movie Database) was founded in 1990 and acquired by Amazon in 1998. It is the world’s most visited film database, with over 250 million monthly unique visitors as of 2025. The IMDb rating system works as follows:

  • Any registered IMDb user can rate any film on a scale of 1 to 10
  • IMDb uses a weighted average rather than a simple mean — this is designed to prevent ballot stuffing by new accounts or coordinated voting campaigns
  • Only films with a minimum number of votes (typically 25,000+) are eligible for the Top 250
  • Ratings shift gradually over time as more voters weigh in, which is why older films with millions of votes tend to be more stable than newer releases
  • The Shawshank Redemption currently has over 3.1 million votes — the most-voted film on the entire platform

An important note: IMDb ratings above 9.0 are extraordinarily rare. Of the tens of thousands of feature films on the platform, only a handful have ever sustained a rating above 9.0 with significant vote counts. The films on this list are genuinely exceptional by any statistical measure.

📋 Top 10 Highest Rated Movies on IMDb — Quick Reference

Rank Film Year IMDb Rating Votes Director Where to Watch
#1 The Shawshank Redemption 1994 9.3 3.1M+ Frank Darabont Prime Video, Netflix
#2 The Godfather 1972 9.2 2.1M+ Francis Ford Coppola Prime Video
#3 The Dark Knight 2008 9.0 2.9M+ Christopher Nolan Max, Prime Video
#4 The Godfather Part II 1974 9.0 1.4M+ Francis Ford Coppola Prime Video
#5 12 Angry Men 1957 9.0 900K+ Sidney Lumet Prime Video, Tubi
#6 Schindler’s List 1993 9.0 1.5M+ Steven Spielberg Prime Video, Peacock
#7 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2003 9.0 1.9M+ Peter Jackson Max, Prime Video
#8 Pulp Fiction 1994 8.9 2.3M+ Quentin Tarantino Prime Video, Tubi
#9 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 1966 8.8 800K+ Sergio Leone Prime Video
#10 Fight Club 1999 8.8 2.3M+ David Fincher Disney+, Prime Video

All ratings sourced from IMDb’s official Top 250 chart and Digital Trends’ verified ranking as of March 2026. Ratings fluctuate slightly as new votes are cast.

1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) — IMDb 9.3 — #1 of All Time

  • Director: Frank Darabont
  • Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, Clancy Brown, James Whitmore
  • IMDb Rating: 9.3/10 — highest rated film on IMDb
  • Votes: 3.1 million+ (most voted film on the platform)
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 89% Critics / 98% Audience
  • Budget: $25 million | Box Office: $16 million (theatrical) — later a massive home video success
  • Oscar Nominations: 7 (including Best Picture, Best Actor for Freeman, Best Adapted Screenplay)
  • Awards Won: 0 Oscars (lost Best Picture to Forrest Gump) — considered one of the greatest Oscar losses in history
  • Based on: Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (1982)
  • Watch on: Prime Video, Netflix

Plot: In 1947, successful banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and sentenced to consecutive life terms at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine. Inside, he befriends Ellis “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman) — the prison’s veteran contraband smuggler and narrator — and gradually begins to leave his mark on the institution through intelligence, patience, and a quiet refusal to let the prison system break his spirit. Over nearly two decades, Andy engineers financial schemes that benefit the corrupt prison warden while secretly constructing the most audacious escape plan in the history of Shawshank.

Why it is #1: The Shawshank Redemption is the most counterintuitive success story in cinema. It was a box office disappointment on release — earning only $16 million against its $25 million budget — and was considered a failure. It was not until home video and cable television distribution that audiences discovered it in enormous numbers. The film’s themes of hope, patience, friendship and the possibility of freedom in the most oppressive circumstances struck a universal chord that transcended language, culture and generation. According to Digital Trends, it has held the #1 position on IMDb “for an incredibly long time” — largely because its emotional core is so universally accessible that almost every new IMDb user who watches it rates it highly.

Morgan Freeman’s voiceover narration as Red is widely considered one of the finest in cinema history. The film’s final scene — Red walking toward the blue Pacific — has been voted one of the most emotionally satisfying endings in Hollywood film. Stephen King himself considers it among his favourite adaptations of his work.

Best for: Everyone. The most universally recommended film on this entire list. If you have never seen it, stop reading and watch it tonight. Available on Prime Video and Netflix.

2. The Godfather (1972) — IMDb 9.2

  • Director: Francis Ford Coppola
  • Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Richard Castellano
  • IMDb Rating: 9.2/10
  • Votes: 2.1 million+
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 97% Critics / 98% Audience — Certified Fresh
  • Budget: $6 million | Box Office: $245–286 million worldwide
  • Oscars Won: 3 — Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), Best Adapted Screenplay
  • Based on: Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel of the same name
  • Watch on: Prime Video

Plot: Aging patriarch Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) — Don of New York’s most powerful crime family — is shot and nearly killed after refusing to support a rival drug empire. His youngest son Michael (Al Pacino) — a decorated WWII veteran who has deliberately kept himself separate from the family’s criminal world — is drawn into the conflict to protect his father. What begins as a reluctant act of loyalty slowly transforms Michael from an innocent outsider into something far colder and more capable than anyone, including Michael himself, imagined possible. The film chronicles the succession of power from father to son — and the moral cost of that inheritance.

Why it holds 9.2: The Godfather is frequently described as the finest American film ever made. Digital Trends notes that it “cemented the Godfather trilogy as the standard for the crime family trope, with its influence still seen in the industry today.” Marlon Brando’s performance as Vito Corleone — cotton-stuffed cheeks, deliberate menace, genuine paternal warmth — is one of cinema’s defining character creations. Al Pacino’s arc from idealistic civilian to ruthless don remains one of the most compelling character transformations in Hollywood history. Nino Rota’s score is immediately recognisable globally. The film essentially invented the modern crime drama as a genre.

Director Francis Ford Coppola was initially reluctant to make the film and fought with Paramount Pictures over almost every casting decision — Brando, Pacino and Diane Keaton were all considered wrong choices by the studio. Every single one of those choices proved to be correct.

Best for: Anyone who considers themselves a serious film watcher. Required viewing for students of cinema. Entirely suitable for mature teens and adults. One of the very few films that fully justifies its legendary reputation.

3. The Dark Knight (2008) — IMDb 9.0

  • Director: Christopher Nolan
  • Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman
  • IMDb Rating: 9.0/10
  • Votes: 2.9 million+ (second-most voted film overall)
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 94% Critics / 94% Audience
  • Budget: $185 million | Box Office: $1.006 billion worldwide
  • Oscars Won: 2 — Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger, posthumous), Best Film Editing
  • Watch on: Max, Prime Video

Plot: Batman (Christian Bale), working alongside District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and Lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman) to finally break Gotham City’s organised crime, faces a terrifying new threat: the Joker (Heath Ledger) — a criminal anarchist with no demands, no endgame and no fear of consequences whose only goal is to prove that Gotham’s moral order is an illusion. As the Joker systematically dismantles everything Batman and his allies have built — and corrupts Gotham’s greatest symbol of hope into something unrecognisable — Batman is forced to make the choice he has spent his entire career refusing to make.

Why it transcended its genre: The Dark Knight is the film that permanently elevated the superhero genre from entertainment to legitimate cinema. It is the only superhero film to appear in the top 10 of the IMDb all-time chart. Digital Trends describes it as “a genre-defining superhero film” with “flawless action choreography, impressive practical effects, and amazing performances.” Heath Ledger’s Joker is widely regarded as one of the greatest villain performances in cinema history — a role so psychologically demanding that it requires the actor to disappear completely. Ledger died at 28 before the film’s release; his posthumous Oscar was unanimous among the Academy. The film grossed over $1 billion worldwide, became a cultural phenomenon, and remains as powerful on re-watch as it was on first viewing.

Christopher Nolan shot significant portions of the film in 65mm IMAX — then a relatively rare format — giving many sequences a visual scale and clarity that still holds up against any modern blockbuster.

Best for: Everyone from superhero fans to cinema students. One of the most re-watchable films of the 21st century. The Joker interrogation scene alone is worth the full runtime.

4. The Godfather Part II (1974) — IMDb 9.0

  • Director: Francis Ford Coppola
  • Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Lee Strasberg, Michael V. Gazzo
  • IMDb Rating: 9.0/10
  • Votes: 1.4 million+
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 96% Critics / 97% Audience
  • Budget: $13 million | Box Office: $93 million
  • Oscars Won: 6 — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score
  • Watch on: Prime Video

Plot: Told in two interweaving timelines: in the 1950s, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) consolidates and expands the family empire from New York to Nevada and Cuba — but the moral rot of power has fully consumed him, and those closest to him pay the price. Simultaneously, set in the early 20th century, a young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) arrives as a Sicilian immigrant in New York City, navigates the poverty and violence of the Lower East Side, and begins his rise from labourer to neighbourhood protector to crime patriarch. The parallel narratives comment on each other — the origin story of the father underlining the tragic destination of the son.

Why it arguably surpasses the original: The Godfather Part II is one of the very few sequels in cinema history that is considered by many critics to equal or surpass its predecessor. It won 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director — making Coppola one of only two directors (along with Joseph L. Mankiewicz) to win consecutive Best Director Oscars. Robert De Niro’s young Vito Corleone — performed in Sicilian dialect — remains one of the most celebrated supporting performances in cinema history. The film’s final image of Michael alone, having destroyed everything and everyone he loved, is one of the most haunting endings in American cinema. According to Digital Trends, the film “set a benchmark for sequels, proving that they can surpass their predecessors by adding depth to the universe and complexity to its characters.”

5. 12 Angry Men (1957) — IMDb 9.0

  • Director: Sidney Lumet
  • Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, Martin Balsam, Robert Webber, Jack Warden, E.G. Marshall
  • IMDb Rating: 9.0/10
  • Votes: 900,000+
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 100% Critics / 97% Audience — one of only a handful of films with a perfect critics score
  • Budget: $340,000 | Box Office: ~$2 million (theatrical) — significant loss, later a classic
  • Oscar Nominations: 3 — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay (won none)
  • Based on: Reginald Rose’s 1954 teleplay of the same name
  • Watch on: Prime Video, Tubi

Plot: Twelve jurors are sent to deliberate on a murder case — a teenage boy from a slum accused of stabbing his father. Eleven vote guilty immediately. One juror, Juror #8 (Henry Fonda), votes not guilty — not because he is certain of the boy’s innocence, but because he believes the case deserves more than five minutes of deliberation before sending someone to the electric chair. Over the course of a sweltering afternoon in a Manhattan jury room, he methodically and patiently dismantles each piece of evidence the other jurors consider conclusive — and in doing so, exposes the assumptions, biases and emotional investments that each man has brought into the room alongside the facts.

Why 9.0 with nearly zero locations: 12 Angry Men is one of cinema’s most extraordinary achievements in pure dramatic economy. Virtually the entire film takes place in a single room — yet it is more suspenseful, emotionally compelling and psychologically rich than most action films with hundred-million-dollar budgets. Sidney Lumet’s direction — this was his feature debut — uses the confined space masterfully, deploying subtle shifts in camera angle and focal length to create mounting claustrophobia as the deliberation intensifies. The film holds a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics — one of the rarest achievements on the platform. It is a fundamental study in how storytelling, performance and direction can transcend physical limitation entirely. Despite being a 1957 black-and-white film about a jury room, it continues to find new audiences and new relevance with every generation.

Best for: Film students, legal drama fans, and anyone who wants to experience the upper limit of what pure dramatic storytelling can achieve with minimal resources. Free to watch on Tubi.

6. Schindler’s List (1993) — IMDb 9.0

  • Director: Steven Spielberg
  • Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall
  • IMDb Rating: 9.0/10
  • Votes: 1.5 million+
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 97% Critics / 97% Audience
  • Budget: $22 million | Box Office: $321.2 million worldwide
  • Oscars Won: 7 — Best Picture, Best Director (Spielberg), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Art Direction
  • Based on: Thomas Keneally’s 1982 Booker Prize-winning novel Schindler’s Ark
  • Watch on: Prime Video, Peacock

Plot: Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) is a German industrialist and Nazi party member who arrives in occupied Kraków, Poland during World War II intending to use Jewish labour to make a fortune producing kitchenware for the German military. He employs Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) to run the business. As the Holocaust escalates — embodied by the sadistic SS commander Amon Göth (Ralph Fiennes) — Schindler witnesses the systematic destruction of the Kraków ghetto and undergoes a profound moral transformation, ultimately spending his entire fortune to save over 1,100 Jewish workers from the death camps by insisting they are “essential war workers.” Filmed almost entirely in black and white in Kraków and at the Płaszów concentration camp.

Why 7 Oscars and 9.0: Schindler’s List is one of the most morally serious films ever made by a major Hollywood studio, and one of the most decorated. Spielberg deferred his directing fee and donated it to the USC Shoah Foundation — an organisation he subsequently created to preserve testimonies of Holocaust survivors. On IMDb, the film is described as “a haunting masterpiece that continues to move new generations.” Ralph Fiennes’s Amon Göth is one of cinema’s most terrifying villains precisely because of his casualness — a man who murders because it is convenient, not because it requires effort. John Williams’s score — a single violin above silence — remains one of the most emotionally devastating pieces of film music ever written. The film is widely included on educational curricula globally and remains required viewing for anyone trying to understand what cinema can do at its most serious.

Note: Contains extremely disturbing depictions of Holocaust violence. Not suitable for children. One of the most important films on this list but also one of the most emotionally demanding.

7. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) — IMDb 9.0

  • Director: Peter Jackson
  • Cast: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hill, Andy Serkis
  • IMDb Rating: 9.0/10
  • Votes: 1.9 million+
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 93% Critics / 95% Audience
  • Budget: $94 million | Box Office: $1.146 billion worldwide
  • Oscars Won: 11 — including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay — a clean sweep — one of only three films in history to win every Oscar it was nominated for
  • Watch on: Max, Prime Video

Plot: The climactic conclusion of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy — the greatest fantasy film series ever made. Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin), guided by the treacherous Gollum (Andy Serkis), make their final approach to Mount Doom in the heart of Mordor to destroy the One Ring. Meanwhile, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) must finally accept his destiny as rightful King of Gondor, rally an impossible alliance of the living and the dead, and launch the War of the Ring’s decisive battle against Sauron’s armies — not to win, but to draw Sauron’s eye long enough for Frodo to complete his mission. The film delivers the emotional payoff of a journey that began over three hours earlier in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Why 11 Oscars and 9.0: The Return of the King’s 11 Academy Award wins — including Best Picture — represent a historic clean sweep. The film tied the record for most Oscars won by a single film (previously shared by Ben-Hur and Titanic) and remains one of only three films ever to win all its nominated categories. According to Digital Trends, the film’s “eleven Oscars in 11 nominations” remains a record in competitive Oscar history. The emotional climax — “You bow to no one,” Aragorn kneeling before the four hobbits — is one of cinema’s most universally beloved scenes. The entire trilogy, shot simultaneously in New Zealand over 438 days, remains the greatest feat of sustained fantasy filmmaking in cinema history.

Best for: Fantasy fans, epic cinema lovers, and anyone who wants to experience the most ambitious trilogy ever made. Watch the Extended Editions for the definitive experience — available on Max.

8. Pulp Fiction (1994) — IMDb 8.9

  • Director: Quentin Tarantino
  • Cast: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames
  • IMDb Rating: 8.9/10
  • Votes: 2.3 million+
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 92% Critics / 95% Audience
  • Budget: $8 million | Box Office: $213 million worldwide
  • Oscars Won: 1 — Best Original Screenplay (Tarantino and Roger Avary)
  • Palme d’Or: 1994 Cannes Film Festival — highest prize in world cinema
  • Watch on: Prime Video, Tubi

Plot: Three interlocking crime stories told in non-linear order, all set in Los Angeles’s criminal underworld. Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) are hitmen who work for mob boss Marsellus Wallace. Vincent is tasked with taking Marsellus’s wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out for the evening — with dangerous results. Boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) double-crosses Marsellus on a fight fix and must escape the city. Small-time criminals Pumpkin and Honey Bunny (Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer) attempt a diner robbery. The stories intersect in unexpected ways, guided throughout by Tarantino’s distinctive dialogue — which oscillates between mundane pop culture conversation and sudden explosive violence with jarring, thrilling unpredictability.

Why it remains a cultural institution: Pulp Fiction is the most influential film of the 1990s. Made for $8 million, it grossed $213 million worldwide and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes — the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for cinema. It revitalised John Travolta’s career, established Samuel L. Jackson as a major star, and created a template for non-linear storytelling that every subsequent crime film has referenced. The “Royale with Cheese” conversation, the Mia Wallace overdose sequence, the briefcase, Jules’s Ezekiel 25:17 speech — these are embedded in global pop culture more than 30 years after release. The John Travolta “confused” reaction GIF remains one of the most used on the internet.

Note: Rated R — contains strong language, drug use and graphic violence. Not suitable for children.

9. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) — IMDb 8.8

  • Director: Sergio Leone
  • Cast: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach
  • IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
  • Votes: 800,000+
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 97% Critics / 96% Audience
  • Budget: $1.2 million | Box Office: $25 million worldwide (1966 figures)
  • Music: Ennio Morricone — one of the most iconic film scores in history
  • Watch on: Prime Video

Plot: Set during the American Civil War, three gunslingers — the cool and morally ambiguous “Blondie” (The Good) (Clint Eastwood), the sadistic professional killer Angel Eyes (The Bad) (Lee Van Cleef) and the chaotic Mexican bandit Tuco (The Ugly) (Eli Wallach) — converge in a three-way race across the war-torn American Southwest to find a Confederate gold cache worth $200,000 buried in a remote cemetery. Each man needs something the others possess. None of them can fully trust any of the others. The film builds toward a three-way standoff — the most famous showdown in Western cinema history.

Why it belongs at #9: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the pinnacle of the Spaghetti Western — a genre of Italian-produced Westerns that Sergio Leone essentially created. The film holds a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, making it one of the most universally acclaimed films on this list. According to Digital Trends, it is “widely recognized as the pinnacle of the once-popular genre.” Ennio Morricone’s score — the wah-wah electric guitar theme, the haunting vocal performances, the ticking clock music of the final standoff — is the most imitated film score in Western cinema history. Clint Eastwood’s “Man With No Name” character defines the archetype of laconic, self-sufficient screen masculinity that has been referenced in everything from Star Wars to No Country for Old Men.

10. Fight Club (1999) — IMDb 8.8

  • Director: David Fincher
  • Cast: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, Jared Leto
  • IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
  • Votes: 2.3 million+
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 79% Critics / 96% Audience — the largest critics/audience gap on this list
  • Budget: $63 million | Box Office: $101 million worldwide (initial run)
  • Based on: Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel of the same name
  • Watch on: Disney+, Prime Video

Plot: An unnamed insomniac office worker (Edward Norton) is trapped in the soul-crushing routine of corporate life, finding his only relief through attending support groups for terminal illnesses he does not have. When he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) — a charismatic, anarchic soap salesman — the two found Fight Club: a basement gathering where men fight to feel genuinely alive again. Fight Club grows into something far larger and more dangerous than either of them planned, and the narrator discovers that the liberation it promised has its own form of enslavement. The film’s final act contains one of cinema’s most discussed plot reveals.

Why the audience loves it more than critics: Fight Club’s 96% audience score vs 79% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes is one of the largest divides on the IMDb top 10 — reflecting the film’s status as a cult favourite that resonates intensely with its core audience rather than achieving universal critical consensus. The film was a box office disappointment on release but found its enormous audience through home video — exactly as Shawshank did five years earlier. David Fincher’s direction is relentlessly stylish and technically innovative. Brad Pitt’s Tyler Durden is one of cinema’s great charismatic antagonist-protagonists. The film’s interrogation of masculinity, consumer culture, and identity continues to generate intense discussion. The final twist — which we will not detail here — genuinely changes everything that came before it on second viewing.

Note: Contains graphic violence, strong language and adult themes. Rated R. Not suitable for children.

🏅 Honourable Mentions: Films Just Outside the Top 10

These films consistently appear in the IMDb Top 15 and deserve acknowledgement alongside the top 10:

Film Year IMDb Director Why It Almost Made the List
Inception 2010 8.8 Christopher Nolan Most re-debated ending in cinema; 2.9M votes
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2001 8.8 Peter Jackson Beginning of the greatest fantasy trilogy
Forrest Gump 1994 8.8 Robert Zemeckis Hanks’s defining performance; 6 Oscars
Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back 1980 8.7 Irvin Kershner Best sequel in franchise history
The Silence of the Lambs 1991 8.6 Jonathan Demme Only horror film to win Best Picture Oscar
Interstellar 2014 8.7 Christopher Nolan Most ambitious science fiction of its era

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

What is the highest rated movie on IMDb of all time?

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) with an IMDb rating of 9.3/10 is the highest rated movie on IMDb of all time. It has over 3.1 million votes — more than any other film on the platform — and has held the #1 position for many years. It was directed by Frank Darabont and stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.

How many films have an IMDb rating above 9.0?

As of March 2026, only 7 films have an IMDb rating of 9.0 or above with significant vote counts: The Shawshank Redemption (9.3), The Godfather (9.2), and five films at exactly 9.0 — The Dark Knight, The Godfather Part II, 12 Angry Men, Schindler’s List, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

What film has won the most Academy Awards?

Three films are tied for the most Oscar wins ever with 11 Academy Awards each: Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). Return of the King is the only one of the three to win all 11 categories it was nominated in — a perfect sweep.

What is the best rated film of 2025 on IMDb?

According to High on Films’ verified IMDb 2025 ranking, Dhurandhar — Ranveer Singh’s Bollywood spy thriller that broke 25 box office records — leads the highest-rated films of 2025 with an IMDb score of 8.6 and over 100,000 votes. See our full Dhurandhar review for the complete breakdown.

Is Pulp Fiction a 9.0 on IMDb?

No. Pulp Fiction (1994) currently holds an IMDb rating of 8.9 — not 9.0. It ranks #8 on the all-time chart. Some curated lists “round” it to 9, but the actual IMDb score is 8.9. This distinction matters — only 7 films in IMDb history have ever sustained a verified 9.0+ rating with significant vote counts.

Where can I watch the highest rated IMDb movies in India?

The Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Knight and Schindler’s List are on Prime Video India. The Godfather (I and II) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are on Prime Video India. Fight Club is on Disney+ Hotstar India. 12 Angry Men is available to stream free on Tubi (with VPN) and on Prime Video. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is on Max.

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📚 Sources & References

Last Updated: March 14, 2026. IMDb ratings fluctuate continuously as new votes are cast — all ratings in this article are accurate as of March 2026 but may shift slightly over time. All Oscar and award information sourced from Wikipedia and official Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences records.