Last Updated on 25 March 2024
I searched the Internet for lists of the best or greatest fantasy movies of all time. Criteria included the movies being ranked, not just listed, and generally created by groups, whether teams or committees or based on general public voting (like Ranker.com).
I was able to find 30 lists. I took the 30 lists and added all their content into a spreadsheet, noting the rank of every film. I ended up averaging the rankings each movie got (there were 237 that were on at least 2 lists) and dividing that average by a factor of the number of lists that movie was on. The lowest score meant a high ranking average on many lists. The complete spreadsheet is attached at the bottom.
The movies that were on the most lists (out of 30) were:
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) – 28 lists
- The Wizard of Oz (1939) – 24 lists
- Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) – 24 lists
- The Princess Bride (1987) – 23 lists
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) – 22 lists
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) – 22 lists
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) – 20 lists
- The Dark Crystal (1982) – 17 lists
- Labyrinth (1986) – 17 lists
- Edward Scissorhands (1990) – 17 lists
- The NeverEnding Story (1984) – 16 lists
- Spirited Away (2001) – 14 lists
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) – 14 lists
Here are links to the lists I used along with dates the lists were created:
- LoudFact – 15 Oct 2022
- Looper – 13 Oct 2022
- TimeOut – 13 Oct 2022
- Far Out Magazine – 3 Sep 2022
- Bored Panda – 29 May 2022
- Tribalist – 16 May 2022
- Ranker.com – 12 May 2022
- CBR.com – 3 Mar 2022
- Thebiem – 9 Jan 2022
- Daily Hawker – 31 Jul 2021
- NextLuxury – 31 May 2021
- Andy Art TV – 27 May 2021
- Rotten Tomatoes – 12 Feb 2021
- FilmsRanked – 1 Oct 2020
- IndieWire – 2 Jul 2020
- WTOP News – 1 Jul 2020
- Stacker – 18 Jun 2020
- The Portalist – 29 Dec 2019
- Filmibeat – 10 Jun 2019
- Taste of Cinema – 12 Feb 2018
- Total Film – 6 Sep 2016
- Wired – 30 Dec 2012
- IGN – 16 Jun 2012
- American Film Institute (AFI) – no date
- FilmSchool WTF – no date
- FilmZone – no date
- Flickchart – no date
- Metacritic – no date
- Music Gateway – no date
- The Top Tens – no date