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July 3, 2025 
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When we asked over 500 Hollywood insiders to help us rank “The 100 Best Films of the 21st Century,” I expected some lively debate. What I didn’t anticipate is just how eager readers would be to vote, too.
Alongside our list, which rolled out last week, we invited readers to submit their own top 10 films since 2000. That interactive feature went incredibly viral on social media, with more than 200,000 people submitting and sharing their own ballots. We’ve now tabulated those results for a new list of the readers’ top 100 movies of the 21st century.
I was surprised to find the same two films topped both the industry and reader lists, “Parasite” and “Mulholland Drive.” In fact, the overlap in the top ten was striking, as both lists included “No Country for Old Men,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Spirited Away,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “The Social Network.”
Still, the readers had a few notable substitutions. Two films directed by Christopher Nolan vaulted into their top ten — “Interstellar” and “The Dark Knight” — while “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which placed just outside the top ten on Hollywood’s list, was bumped up to #7 by the readers.
At #15, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” was the highest-ranked film on the readers’ list that didn’t appear on the industry version at all, followed by “La La Land” at #16. And though Hollywood voters mostly steered clear of sequels, remakes and franchise fare, readers weren’t so shy: Both “Dune” installments made the list, as well as “Blade Runner 2049,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” and “Avengers: Endgame.”
Still, this wasn’t simply a swap of prestige films for populist fare. Readers also recognized acclaimed films that the Hollywood insiders didn’t, including “The Handmaiden,” “Drive My Car,” “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Lighthouse.”
Hit comedies like “Borat” and “Anchorman” that made the Hollywood list failed to pass muster with the readers, who preferred the female-driven “Barbie” and “Mean Girls.” And while only nine films on the readers’ list had female filmmakers, three of those came from the writer-director Greta Gerwig alone: “Lady Bird,” “Little Women” and “Barbie.”
Coupled with the readers’ enthusiasm for Nolan, one thing is clear: Even two years later, it’s still Barbenheimer’s world — we’re just living in it.
Check out the full list below.
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THE BEST MOVIES OF THE 21ST CENTURY |
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