Across 130 countries, 7 decades: Drama movies dominate IMDB’s highest rated (‘3 Idiots’ in India): Amberscript

The film with the highest rating is The Shawshank Redemption (America) – a film based on the novella by Stephen King – with an IMDb rating of 9.2 stars. It beat other well-known movie titles, like The Dark Knight (9 stars) and The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King (8.9 stars), to the top spot.

Other highly rated films on the list include:

• Mirror Game (2016), Bangladesh – 9.1 stars
• Zana (2019), Kosovo – 9.1 stars
• Aloko Udapadi (2017), Sri Lanka – 9 stars

The lowest rated film on the list is Wrong Cops (Angola) – a 2013 French-American independent comedy film – which came in with just 6 stars out of a possible 10.

Other less popular films on the list include:

• Half of A Yellow Sun (2013), Nigeria – 6 stars
• Viva Riva! (2010), Democratic Republic of Congo – 6.2 stars
• Africa United (2010), Rwanda – 6.2 stars

Amberscript also sought to find out which genres seem to be the most highly rated by users on IMDb. Drama films make up the majority of the top-rated movies around the world — 49 to be exact, which works out to be almost 4 in 10 movies! Drama is followed closely by comedy (19) and biographies (15). Interestingly, no horror movies featured on the list.

The full breakdown:

• 49 drama films (average rating: 7.7 stars)
• 19 comedies (average rating: 7.5 stars)
• 15 biographies (average rating: 7.6 stars)
• 13 action films (average rating: 8 stars)
• 10 adventure films (average rating: 7.7 stars)
• 7 crime films (average rating: 7.8 stars)
• 5 animations (average rating: 7.8 stars)
• 4 documentaries (average rating: 8.2 stars)
• 3 war films (average rating: 8.2 stars)

The following only had one film representing each genre:

• Fantasy – Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Mexico, 8.2 stars
• History – The Soviet Story (2008), Latvia, 8.1 stars
• Romance – Paris Je T’aime (2006), Liechtenstein, 7.2 stars
• Thriller – A Seperation (2011), Iran, 8.3 stars
• Western – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) (1966), Italy, 8.8 stars

Which films are the highest rated per genre? Amberscript has the answers:

1. The Dark Knight (2008), United Kingdom – 9 stars
2. The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King (2003), New Zealand – 8.9 stars
3. Seven Samurai (1956), Japan – 8.6 star

The most popular adventure films:

1. Interstellar (2014), Canada – 8.6 stars
2. Mudras Calling (2018), Myanmar – 8.5 stars
3. Fitzcarraldo (1982), Peru – 8.1 stars

The most popular animation films:

1. The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (1975), Norway – 8.5 stars
2. Finding Nemo (2003), Australia – 8.1 stars
3. Bilal: A New Breed of Hero (2015), United Arab Emirates – 7.9 stars

The most popular biography films:

1. The Pianist (2002), Poland – 8.5 stars
2. Lion of the Desert (1980), Libya – 8.4 stars
3. Downfall (2004, Austria), Green Book (2018, China), The Message (1976, Egypt) – 8.2 stars

The most popular comedy films:

1. Parasite (2019), South Korea – 8.6 stars
2. 3 Idiots (2009, India), When I Grow Up, I’ll Be A Kangaroo (2004, Serbia) – 8.4 stars
3. Underground (1995, Czech Republic, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Hungrary), Black Cat, White Cat (1998, Greece) – 8.1 stars

The most popular crime films:

1. Mirror Game (2016), Bangladesh – 9.1 stars
2. City of God (2002), Brazil – 8.6 stars
3. The Bandit (1996), Bulgaria – 8.2 stars

The most popular documentary films:

1. Samsara (2011), Ghana – 8.5 stars
2. Inside Job (2010), Iceland – 8.2 stars
3. Waltz with Bashir (2008), Israel – 8 stars

The most popular drama films:

1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994), America – 9.2 stars
2. Zana (2019), Kosovo – 9.1 stars
3. Aloko Udapadi (2017), Sri Lanka – 9 stars

The most popular war films:

1. 1917 (2019, Spain), Come and See (1985, Russia) – 8.3 stars
2. Before the Rain (1994), Macedonia – 8 stars

Interested to find out whether the world prefers contemporary films or the classics, we found out which decade has the highest rated films, and which film is the “best”, per decade.

The oldest film on the list is Albania’s Skanderbeg, released in 1953, followed by Seven Sumarai (1956) from Japan, and The Seventh Seal (1957) from Sweden. The newest highest rated films from 2019 include Kosovo’s Zana, South Korea’s Parasite, and Spain’s 1917.

Film breakdown by decade:

• 1950s: 3 films

Highest rated film of the decade: Seven Sumarai (1956), Japan

• 1960s: 4 films

Highest rated film of the decade: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Italy

• 1970s: 4 films

Highest rated film of the decade: The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (1975), Norway

• 1980s: 5 films

Highest rated film of the decade: Lion of the Desert (1980), Libya

• 1990s: 17 films

Highest rated film of the decade: The Shawshank Redemption (1994), America

• 2000s: 34 films

Highest rated film of the decade: The Dark Knight (2008), United Kingdom

• 2010s: 63 films

Highest rated film of the decade: Mirror Game (2016, Bangladesh) and Zana (2019, Kosovo)

Using data from the IMDb website, Amberscript sought to find out the most popular film to come out of each country. The site’s search option enables you to filter film titles by country to see a list of all films produced, filmed or credited in that location. Only films with a minimum of 1,000 votes were considered, bringing the total number of locations considered to 130. The films were then sorted by the number of votes descending and the film with the highest rating was taken as each country’s highest rated movie.

Amberscript then sorted the movies by the number of public votes on IMDb. The film with the highest rating for each country was taken as their highest-rated movie. All data was collected between September 29th and October 1st, 2020.