As the subjective coronation that is the Academy Award for Best Picture approaches, its interesting to compare a few gauges of public and critical enjoyment: AFI's top 100 (critics), Box Office revenue adjusted for inflation (public), and IMDB's top 250 (a certain segment of the public). If nothing else, a comparison might give us some clue as to what kind of sample of the public IMDB users are. Also, it might give us some indication of differences between public and critical perception of films.
What the lists have in common
Amazingly, Star Wars is on all three lists (#2 B.O., 15 AFI, and 11 IMDB). My personal opinion on this film is that the acting and dialog are awful and the special effects haven't aged well. Still, the themes resonate across time and cultures, the story is well constructed, and its a good mix of humor, romance, action, and philosophy. The Godfather just misses being in the top 20 on all lists (21 B.O., 2 AFI, 1 IMDB). Just as I'm surprised that so many critics like Star Wars, I'm shocked that The Godfather, with its European art cinema tendencies, is as popular as it is. I wonder if this film is a lot more popular with men than with women. Might that also be true of Star Wars? If that's so, then the male bias in movies isn't just coming from the critics or IMDB users. Its coming from paying customers. And yet, there are plenty of women who consume media. Historically, were they (and are they still) not making the decision as to what films to go see? Might this change in the future? Are TV and books more women's media than film and video games?
What they don't have in common
Gone with the Wind is #1 in Box Office, #6 with the critics, but its nowhere to be found on the IMDB site. IMDB definately has a bias towards newer films while AFI skews much older. The average age of a film in the IMDB top 20 is 30 years, while the average age of AFI's top 20 is 50(!). The average age of the top 20 box office hits is 38.
Casablanca is 3 on the AFI, 9 on IMDB, and nowhere to be seen on box office. Could it be that the general public didn't or wouldn't really like this movie as much as the critics or the semi-elite users of IMDB? Possibly, or maybe Casablanca was never promoted properly in the theater or re-released widely. Perhaps its stature grew over time. Perhaps all of these things account for the discrepancy.
E.T. is the 4th highest grossing film of all time, and rates a reasonable 24 on the AFI list, but is nowhere to be found on IMDB's 250. The critic/public hybrid represented by IMDB seems to be more testosterone heavy than either the general public or the critics. IMDB's top 20 is packed with men and violence. E.T. is a bit schmaltzy and certainly isn't very high in testosterone. This male (presumably young male) skew is a big reason why IMDB should not be confused with public or critical praise, but more likely represents, on average, the desires of young male Americans.
The Empire Strikes Back is 12 on all-time BO, 8 on IMDB, and its left off of the AFI list. I've always felt that Empire is vastly superior to Star Wars in every way: acting, cinematography, character development, pacing. The Joseph Campbell mythic themes that made the first one great are still there, too. The only reason I can think that AFI found Star Wars so superior to Empire is the former's cultural and economic significance, which is weird b/c they have no problem putting films that didn't exactly change cinema or the public consciousness (The Searchers, for example).
Critical godhead Citizen Kane (the Stairway to Heaven of movies, as it were) sits atop the AFI list. Only 3 films stayed in the same spot from the 1998 top 100 AFI list to the 2007 list, and this was one of them. IMDB rates it a respectable 24, and of course, its not on the box office list. I wonder if this were re-released and promoted heavily, would the public show up? Would they like it? Would they get what the big deal was about this movie? I kinda doubt it. Again, maybe critics are rating this movie highly for being innovative, in terms of style (depth of field), story, and themes. Sure, its still a good story, and the look of the film, the acting, and the dialog still hold up reasonably well, but I think the critics are mostly rating it so highly for its influence on subsequent movies (and the IMDB folks are probably acting like critics on this one). Ditto to Wizard of Oz (10 on AFI, 110 on IMDB, nothing on BO).
The Searchers, considered by many to be the apotheosis of a critics movie, is number 12 on the AFI list, 241 on IMDB, and nowhere on box office. What's most interesting is that on the 1998 edition of AFI's top 100 list, this film was 96(!!!). What the hell happened in those 10 years? Other big jumpers include Vertigo (52 spots) and City Lights (65 spots to 11).
Many films (Psycho, Schindler's List, Vertigo, Dr. Strangelove, Lawrence of Arabia to name a few) are higher on AFI's list than IMDB by 20-50 spots, but that's not really that much of a discrepancy. They both think the film is great. But none of these films grosses all that much $. Unsurprisingly, epics do better on the box office list, probably b/c they play well on big screens and are heavily promoted to recoup high costs of production (both of which critics and IMDB users don't seem to care about). Sequels and films based on existing properties do better on the box office list, too, for obvious reasons.
So, what lesson can we draw from this brief comparison? I think we should pay more attention to IMDB and AFI for a few reasons: big screens won't really account for that much huge revenue in the future. Only 3 out of the top 20 films of all time were released during the home video (VHS/DVD) era. Back when theatrical release was the only revenue stream for film, they made them so that they would play well on the big screen. AFI and IMDB lists are made by people watching films that were made during that era and the era of home video, so I don't think they'd have this big screen historical bias that the box office list has. Presumably, home video, with its smaller screens, isn't going away. It would help to have a list of top 100 grossing films in all formats (theatrical, VHS, DVD, online, TV, etc). The same is true for repeated viewings: critics and IMDB users have time to pour over films again and again, so that might be a better indication of what people would really like, instead of what they've been told to like by marketers.
On a similar note, I think that in the future, promotion won't influence film revenue the way it has in the past. The long tail economy of the internet will allow good films to rise to the top over time. For these reasons, the top box office list might look more and more antiquated as the years go by. I think that the critics list are just as prone to cultural elitism bias as ever, but there also needs to be a way to track audience desire that can factor out the effects of marketing. Maybe that's what truly "good" criticism can do.
Box Office adjusted for inflation:
AFI:
| 1 | Citizen Kane | 1941 |
| 2 | Casablanca | 1942 |
| 3 | The Godfather | 1972 |
| 4 | Gone with the Wind | 1939 |
| 5 | Lawrence of Arabia | 1962 |
| 6 | The Wizard of Oz | 1939 |
| 7 | The Graduate | 1967 |
| 8 | On the Waterfront | 1954 |
| 9 | Schindler's List | 1993 |
| 10 | Singin' in the Rain | 1952 |
| 11 | It's a Wonderful Life | 1946 |
| 12 | Sunset Boulevard | 1950 |
| 13 | The Bridge on the River Kwai | 1957 |
| 14 | Some Like It Hot | 1959 |
| 15 | Star Wars | 1977 |
| 16 | All About Eve | 1950 |
| 17 | The African Queen | 1951 |
| 18 | Psycho | 1960 |
| 19 | Chinatown | 1974 |
| 20 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | 1975 |
IMDB
| 1. | 9.1 | The Godfather (1972) | 263,716 |
| 2. | 9.1 | The Shawshank Redemption (1994) | 311,972 |
| 3. | 9.0 | The Godfather: Part II (1974) | 151,051 |
| 4. | 8.9 | Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) | 85,867 |
| 5. | 8.8 | Pulp Fiction (1994) | 267,773 |
| 6. | 8.8 | Schindler's List (1993) | 179,754 |
| 7. | 8.8 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) | 134,305 |
| 8. | 8.8 | Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) | 189,692 |
| 9. | 8.8 | Casablanca (1942) | 117,857 |
| 10. | 8.8 | Shichinin no samurai (1954) | 65,877 |
| 11. | 8.8 | Star Wars (1977) | 229,423 |
| 12. | 8.8 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) | 239,837 |
| 13. | 8.7 | 12 Angry Men (1957) | 63,122 |
| 14. | 8.7 | Rear Window (1954) | 77,927 |
| 15. | 8.7 | Goodfellas (1990) | 145,925 |
| 16. | 8.7 | Cidade de Deus (2002) | 90,867 |
| 17. | 8.7 | Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) | 162,612 |
| 18. | 8.7 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) | 273,337 |
| 19. | 8.7 | C'era una volta il West (1968) | 43,490 |
| 20. | 8.7 | The Usual Suspects (1995) | 184,812 |
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