To try something new with our top 10 lists this year, we opened up a readers poll where you could vote for your 10 favorite movies of 2012. The tallies are in: 3,760 of you from over 100 different countries racked up 28,375 total votes. Your top ten of the year are The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, Skyfall, Looper, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Django Unchained, Argo, The Cabin in the Woods, Moonrise Kingdom, and Prometheus.
The two superhero giants were always a lock for the top spots, but I was surprised to find that a true majority of our readers voted for The Dark Knight Rises (59.9%) and The Avengers (55.4%). It’s nice to see that not everything on the list is a blockbuster, as so many of you found room for the likes of The Cabin in the Woods (25.7%) and Moonrise Kingdom (21.9%). Hit the jump for the full breakdown of the votes, including a comparison of American votes and international votes.
The readers top 20 is a good mix of a typical critic’s year-end list (Argo, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty); the comic book movies (The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man); the big hits (Skyfall, The Hobbit, The Hunger Games); a couple genre flops (The Cabin in the Woods, Cloud Atlas); and a lot of science fiction (Looper, Prometheus, Chronicle). It’s pretty light on comedy—just Ted and 21 Jump Street make the cut—and we don’t see an animated film until Wreck-It Ralph at 25. But overall, I think you can be proud of this list, readers.
The biggest surprise for me is the placement of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2. Collider has a good relationship with the Twilight fanbase, but only 70 people voted for the Breaking Dawn—less than 2% of the voters. Maybe they’re done with the site now that The Twilight Saga is over?
It is impressive that Zero Dark Thirty, a frontrunner for Best Picture, made the top 20 even though it is still only in limited release. I imagine if we redid this poll in a month or two, Zero Dark Thirty could crack the top 10.
Overall Readers Top 20
|
Rank |
Movie |
Votes |
Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
The Dark Knight Rises |
2253 |
59.9% |
|
2 |
The Avengers |
2083 |
55.4% |
|
3 |
Skyfall |
1701 |
45.2% |
|
4 |
Looper |
1370 |
36.4% |
|
5 |
The Hobbit |
1177 |
31.3% |
|
6 |
Django Unchained |
1054 |
28.0% |
|
7 |
Argo |
1046 |
27.8% |
|
8 |
The Cabin in the Woods |
968 |
25.7% |
|
9 |
Moonrise Kingdom |
822 |
21.9% |
|
10 |
Prometheus |
811 |
21.6% |
|
11 |
21 Jump Street |
756 |
20.1% |
|
12 |
The Hunger Games |
660 |
17.6% |
|
13 |
Ted |
624 |
16.6% |
|
14 |
Lincoln |
613 |
16.3% |
|
15 |
Life of Pi |
545 |
14.5% |
|
16 |
Chronicle |
540 |
14.4% |
|
17 |
The Amazing Spider-Man |
522 |
13.9% |
|
18 |
Zero Dark Thirty |
487 |
13.0% |
|
19 |
Silver Linings Playbook |
471 |
12.5% |
|
20 |
Cloud Atlas |
452 |
12.0% |
The majority of voters (2,199) are from the U.S., but we had a healthy international turnout (1,561 voters), enough of a sample size to compare the voter preferences.
The top 10 lists are pretty similar. In fact, the top four are the exact same, but American voters were more enthusiastic about The Dark Knight Rises (61% vs. 58%), The Avengers (59% vs. 50%), and Skyfall (48% vs. 41%), partly because nternational readers voted less in general. American readers chose 8.0 movies on average, while the average international reader limited himself to 6.9 votes.
American voters opted for Moonrise Kingdom and 21 Jump Street to round out the top 10, while international voters preferred Prometheus and Life of Pi. International readers ranked Life of Pi 10 spots higher than American voters. The comparable movie for Americans is Lincoln: 11th on the U.S. list, 24th on the international list. Given the biopic’s focus one of America’s finest presidents, that sounds about right.
U.S. Readers Top 10
|
Rank |
Movie |
Votes |
Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
The Dark Knight Rises |
1350 |
61.4% |
|
2 |
The Avengers |
1296 |
58.9% |
|
3 |
Skyfall |
1056 |
48.0% |
|
4 |
Looper |
808 |
36.7% |
|
5 |
Django Unchained |
732 |
33.3% |
|
6 |
Argo |
690 |
31.4% |
|
7 |
The Hobbit |
677 |
30.8% |
|
8 |
The Cabin in the Woods |
657 |
29.9% |
|
9 |
Moonrise Kingdom |
567 |
25.8% |
|
10 |
21 Jump Street |
509 |
23.1% |
International Readers Top 10
|
Rank |
Movie |
Votes |
Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
The Dark Knight Rises |
902 |
57.8% |
|
2 |
The Avengers |
787 |
50.4% |
|
3 |
Skyfall |
645 |
41.3% |
|
4 |
Looper |
562 |
36.0% |
|
5 |
The Hobbit |
500 |
32.0% |
|
6 |
Argo |
356 |
22.8% |
|
7 |
Prometheus |
331 |
21.2% |
|
8 |
Django Unchained |
322 |
20.6% |
|
9 |
The Cabin in the Woods |
311 |
19.9% |
|
10 |
Life of Pi |
265 |
17.0% |
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Matt must be thrilled
Yep
Maybe not the results Matt needed right now, but the its results he deserves… or not, i dunno,,, he said himself that doesn’t write for the readers, instead he vies hard for the glow of his fellow peers…why does he choose to write for a website just so he can be read only by other critics?”… it’s just kinda weird, that’s all.
hahah
Err, what? What critic could possibly respect Goldberg?
Yes! Congrats to the Dark Knight Rises! Also, happy to see Prometheus made it onto at least one list. US viewers… you’ll catch on eventually to its greatness!
Wow, I am genuinely shocked that TDKR is No. 1 I was on this site almost every day when it came out defending it. Needless to say, a lot of people crapped on it. But a lot of people also loved it.
Myself, I love it despite it’s little flaws but there is a twinge of disappointment that it does have some flaws. But there is just too much not to like, Bane, Anne Hathaway, the intro, Bane’s voice, JGL, Alfred, the first fight between Bane and Batman, the Bat flying in between the buildings, the drama, the great sequence of the stadium blowing up, the way they pulled through Bruce’s original plan all the way through to the end, that great action scenes at the end with the Bat, that amazing ending. Plenty to love. So what if Bane and Talia waited 5 months to blow the city.
I think people were expecting something different. The trailers did project a different image of what the movie was and the feeling behind it. Now if the movie and trailers would have been more accurate in terms of what was to be expected, I think more people would have been satisfied. I myself thought it was just as good as Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
I always see people on formus beating the crap out of The Dark Knight Rises; I loved it, too. I’m glad to see it atop the lists of best films this year – the haters can piss off.
I like to watch movies from several different countries and languages (have gotten used to reading subtitles) and i have seen directors try to provoke emotion from their audiences in a variety of settings in several different genres (romances in particular love treading tearjerker territory). And maybe its because i’ve loved Batman my whole life, but i honestly can’t remember being moved to tears so many times in one movie as i was during TDKR. Everything from Bruce climbing out of the pit to John Blake being surrounded by Bats gave me so many lumps i honestly thought i was going to choke. I can’t understand a movie that made THAT much $$$ and is rated THAT high on RT still seems to illicit so much hate. I guess the negative feelings were as strong as the positive ones. But whenever lists like these come out, i’m glad to see that so many others felt the same as me.
Well, that’s… depressing.
Agreed… Only 4 of votes even cracked the top 20.
And my #1 (Holy Motors) was relegated to 51….
In 5 years time, I am confident that TDKR won’t be this fondly remembered.
No matter how you feel about TDKR, that whole trilogy is bound for immortality. Sorry
Yeah, your confidence is cute, but misplaced. It’s one of the very, very few great trilogies ever made. Maybe your film studies prof told you that Holy Motors is great because avant-garde films are automatically all better than anything from Hollywood?
Lack of Dredd love is depressing.
I feel you, bro.
In the top 20 for international readers!
That is good news…it’s just too bad that so many people I know who profess to be genre fans didn’t bother to see it in theatres. It was a well made film.
Overall, though, good films on the list. Thanks for the article.
congrats to TDKR! I sure as hell voted for it! Maybe not the BEST film, but damn sure the most entertaining. Definitely the best action film and MILES better than The Avengers. But that’s just a preference of taste. No hate to Whedon. Glad to see The Master at least made top 30.
And to the guys who run the site, if you even read the comments, thanks for this! Really cool, well done idea! Cheers, boys and may we have another great year of film!
We do read the comments, Keeg. Glad you enjoyed this. Thanks for voting.
Brendan, your articles like this (especially all the statistical ones) are really fantastic! I really love how they punctuate all the other ones on the site. So…thanks! Keep it up!
Well, it’s a fan-pleaser list, with TDKR, Avengers, and Skyfall taking the top three. While this doesn’t surprise or disappoint me, I do enjoy Looper taking the #4 spot. Nice to see that movie get the recognition it deserves.
TDKR is actually a good movie a crowd pleasure its a serious superhero flick flaw is actually cinematic excuse not seroius flaws. Nolan actually made movie as myth for the character called batman.
Where is The Grey? Now that is suspense for Matt.
Whoever voted for Battleship ought to feel ashamed.
I saw list sucks as soon as I saw Django on it. Over 1000 votes are given to a movie thats been in distribution for less then a week. We have a movie on the list just because its made by certain director not because of its quality.
This site is visited by tasteless fanboys. Django unchained is leagues better than that piss-poor Rises film.
However, if Tarantino directed DKR and didn’t change a thing you would think it was the greatest movie ever.
no we wouldn’t because we’d all say, who the fuck directed that? Damn sure it wasn’t QT… Just because batfans/nolonites support everything they see and hear like scripture doesn’t mean qt fans do. Batman peaked with the joker, we all know it.
Totally agree, but DU came out recently and not a lot of people got to see it. As much as I love TDKR and THE AVENGERS, DU should be at the top of that list.
That may be (I personally don’t know since I have not watched Django yet) but the fact is not a lot of people have watched it yet and for those who have, they didn’t have enough time to reflect on it yet.
I could not agree with you on the “piss-poor” comment though. TDKR was flawed but it was far from being beneath great. I do understand that its difficult to look past the comparison to its predecessor.
Piss-poor is my honest assessment of the Dark Knight Rises. It’s not due to comparing it to Dark Knight. It’s not because I’m bitter that it didn’t end the way I wanted it to. It’s not because I’m being contrarian. It’s not because it’s not what I expected. I genuinely found it to have a laughably bad script, poor acting, poor set pieces, poor costume design, poor editing and a poor overall story with not enough attention paid to rudimentary film mechanics (like the shot going from day to night in the motorbike chase — Mst3k level that is). I say this with no ulterior motives. I think it’s a bad film. Please accept that and stop creating strawmen. If you wish to counter-argue do so using by referencing the actual film being discussed and not your imaginary diagnosis of my psychological motivations.
That’s funny because “Bad (enter film element)” is not actually referencing the film per se. The only reference you made was the Motorbike Scene. Again, I wouldn’t call TDKR piss-poor. Saying so implies that its in the league of Dragon Wars: D-War, Troll 2 or Birdemic. I do not think it has a bad script. The plot might not be original but Nolan and Goyer wrote an involving story about a once powerful man struggling with the purpose of his existence and overall his principles, which I believe was a bold move since we’ve learned to respect Bruce’s conviction. I do not think it had poor acting. Christian Bale, as always had that subtle way of portraying a character that’s filled with mystery but this time, he’s visibly damaged. Tom Hardy was excellent in portraying a villain that’s equally mesmerizing and intimidating. It might have a lot to do with the mask but you know its tremendous acting when you no longer see Hardy as Bane but simply Bane. Anne Hathaway was truly impressive. Unlike other characters that’s opposite Batman in the trilogy, she didn’t have a lot of alteration done in terms make-up or costume but she still managed to create a unique, distinguishable character in the way that’s she so firm but graceful, sexy but slightly intimidating, wicked but undeniably kind-hearted. The only underutilized performance I saw was Marion Cotilard but I attribute that to her character not given time to develop for that transition in the end. We’ve all seen her as the treacherous bitch! Also, what justification do I need to tell anyone about the great Michael Caine? I do not think it had poor set pieces. The airplane prologue, motorcycle chase, stadium implosion, the Bat chase scenes are not only very original in execution (which is saying a lot for a Hollywood blockbuster) but also well executed. I do not think it had poor costume design. Bane’s mask, vest and coat, I believe, would be one of the most iconic costume ensemble in history without being too extravagant and impractical. Selyna Kyle’s goggles is clever as fuck as a way of giving the character cat-ears but still convincing me that its practical. I do not think it had poor editing. The pacing and arrangement of sequences was just right to get you involved with the story and not only gives you enough time to breathe but also know when exactly to give you that break so you can reflect on what just occurred in the film.
And no, I cannot accept YOUR verdict of The Dark Knight Rises as a bad film and please do not demand me to do so just like I am not demanding you to accept my verdict of it as a flawed masterpiece as I do. I do not ask you or anyone anything about anything in terms of your perception of the film except that you be honest with yourself. That bottom line is that this is my presentation of my perception of the film and NOT a counter-argument of your thoughts. I am also not waiting for nor desire to read your reply. I am comfortable with how I loved and enjoyed the film and I am sorry you didn’t get the same experience as I did.
Yep cut and run like a coward. Bane was poorly characterized with an inaudible voice and a ludicrous accent. The mask forced Tom Hardy to overact to an amazing degree (literally going cross eyed from over acting in his prison speech). Also, Bane’s motivation was unclear and any menace was undercut by having Talia be the ultimate mastermind. Hathaway had an underutilized character whose relationship with Batman was laughably under developed with no chemistry at all to indicate she was interested in running off with him until an out of nowhere kiss. Michael Cane’s scene were laughably terrible as he went from being stoice to crying inexplicably in his break up scene with Bruce. Gary Oldman’s performance was rote and involved mainly shouting.
You asking me to be honest with myself again shows that you have a delusional perception that anyone who finds a film you yourself confess has flaws to be poor is lying to themselves and secretly love it. You have serious issues.
“Bane’s motivation was unclear” You not understanding something doesn’t mean it’s unclear.
Okay, whoever’s been using my name is an ass. I’m sorry about that. I totally understand where you’re coming from and I totally respect that. I made a lot of good points and responding to me with such detail means you do know what you liked about the film. Maybe I will keep an open mind the next time I watch TDKR. Thanks!
Hey, I’m confused here! I’m going with the second “It’s Official” since he’s nicer and have the capital “O” like the original one.
Yes, thanks but like I said, I’m not imposing anything to you. I was just trying to prove a point that not all who defend TDKR simply like because of hype or status of its predecessors. It genuinely is a great standalone piece of art.
Just like Nolanites to try and steal someones name and make them conform their hive mind. The Dark Knight Rises sucks and you’re all idiots for liking it. [Busts the double middle finger to the nolanites].
no end of watch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The lack of love for the amazing acting in End of Watch continues to depress me. At least it made Eberts’ top ten. And I’ve seen it on many average Joe fav lists in comments sections. So there’s that. Well regardless, Gyllenhaal and Pena absolutely transcended. Can’t wait to own the DVD.
Where is the amazing spiderman??? It makes me so mad that just because suck raimi, I mean Sam, sorry, made a trilogy that wasn’t gonna do anything but make money off the most popular superhero on the planet, before Marc Webb – that negates and nullifies one of the best superhero movies of the last decade… Pls I want replies and not 11 ur old jabs but legitimate intelligent points on why this moie wasn’t great… Pls point out the flaws!!! Was it the score? The costumes? The casting? The script? The story? The cinematography? What was it? If suck raimi hadn’t made his trilogy first I truly wonder what ratings on this film would be.
Hahahaha! Yes i love it. All the haters saying constantly that nobody liked TDKR, what you got to say now?
Nobody didn’t say people liked it. People like the transformers movies. That don’t make it good.
But were any of the Transformers movies on the top 5 best voted lists??
I saw that it’s even MORE overrated now. Just because something is popular doesn’t make it good, and just because “the people” vote form something doesn’t make it great. Millions of people watch Honey Boo Boo, too, but does that make it the best show on TV? Maybe to you.
So… your tellin me that over 2,000 votes are all from people who really didnt like it but voted for it cuz its popular?….. right.
The Fanboys definitely rigged this one just to get the last laugh, but its fine when in a year or two TDKR will be Number 1, but as in one of the biggest disapointments of all time.
The list isn’t really surprising. The top three spots are held by films which had lots of anticipation and which lots of people saw. It’s simple math. If five times as many people saw your movie, the pool of people who might think your film is one of the best is five times larger. The remainder of the list is a mix of hit films lots of people saw and well received films with smaller viewership.
It’s nice to see John Carter make the top 50. I thought it was surprisingly awesome. However, Taken 2 and Clash 2? I don’t know if I met anyone who thought those were decent.
Just goes to show that most people don’t appreciate good cinema. DKR, unlike its predecessors, doesn’t deserve to be anywhere close to anybody’s top 10. Sigh!
The Dark Knight Rises AND Prometheus? Something tells me lots of fanboys were voting multiple times or telling their buddies to vote.
That may be (I personally don\’t know since I have not watched Django yet) but the fact is not a lot of people have watched it yet and for those who have, they didn\’t have enough time to reflect on it yet.
I could not agree with you on the \"piss-poor\" comment though. TDKR was flawed but it was far from being beneath great. I do understand that its difficult to look past the comparison to its predecessor.
Cloud Atlas!
The Hobbit:An Unexpected Journey should have rightfully taken the number one spot in both the charts. It’s leagues beyond any movie that have come out this year.
Collider is the new Teen Beat. Way to go, little boys!
~ p
Nice to see John Carter on the list at #28. It was a brilliant film!! My fav of 2012!