IMDb has a Top 250 list which is constantly evolving. You can rate every movie listed on IMDb from one to 10, and the Top 250 is a collection of the highest-rated movies on the entire website. This differs from Rotten Tomatoes, which has both critics and audience scores; The IMDb list is purely based on regular audience ratings. The more people watch and enjoy a movie, and the higher they rate it, the higher it ranks on the Top 250.

The lowest-rated movie on the list, Cool Hand Luke, has an 8.0 rating, while the highest-rated movie, The Shawshank Redemption, has a 9.3. In the good old days when IMDb was more of a community and had message boards, the Top 250 was a hotly debated topic. There were constant arguments about what deserved to be on the list, what didn't and what should have the coveted number one spot.

There are many movie franchises, but it is difficult for a franchise to maintain its high quality and viewership, much less for everyone to unanimously agree that any sequel, spin-off, or other spin-off deserves a high rating as well. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films may be magical masterpieces, but his Hobbit trilogy is a colossal mess and Kenji Kamiyama's animated Lord of the Rings prequel War of Rohirrim earns mild critical response before flopping at the box office. Elsewhere, "Alien" and "Aliens" are both in IMDb's Top 250, though the franchise has suffered since the release of Ridley Scott's polarizing, brooding spin-offs "Prometheus" and "Alien: Covenant." However, the recent Alien: Romulus brought some life back into the property financially, though many critics felt that the sequel to Fede Alvarez's Alien relied too much on nostalgia.

So which franchise has the most entries in the IMDB Top 250? The answer is a collection of superhero movies and comic book adaptations, which isn't surprising given that both have dominated cinema for the past two decades.

Although multiple Spider-Man movies ("Into the Spider-Verse," "Across the Spider-Verse," "No Way Home") and "Avengers" movies ("Infinity War" and "Endgame") reached the Top 250 on IMDb at the time of writing, this particular round of Marvel vs. DC goes to the latter. Specifically, DC's Batman franchise currently has the most films on the Top 250. Christopher Nolan's enthralling The Dark Knight, in particular, sits at number three on the Top 250 list. For anyone who was on the IMDb message boards when that movie came out in 2008, you might remember that there was even a campaign to make it number one on the Top 250. The thing about user-generated ratings is that they're easily manipulated . Many IMDb users would give the film a 10 or a one in an attempt to include or exclude the Top 250.

It seemed almost impossible to live up to The Dark Knight, but 2012's The Dark Knight Rises was an ambitious finale to Nolan's Batman trilogy, and now sits at #73 on the IMDb Top 250. Nolan's 2005 trilogy starter Batman Begins is also listed at #130, but probably deserves to be ranked lower because it doesn't have the same action-packed grandeur as its sequels (that and his antagonist, Ra's al Ghul, is perhaps a less interesting villain than those who came after him). As the title suggests, Batman Begins focuses more on Bruce Wayne's backstory and slowly builds up to his ascension as the Caped Crusader.

Christopher Nolan's Batman films are joined by Todd Phillips' 2019 Joker, which is currently #85 on the IMDb Top 250. a clear picture of Phillips' dark, brooding and disturbing Joker film. is the performance of Joaquin Phoenix. After Heath Ledger's iconic Oscar-winning turn as the Joker in The Dark Knight, it was hard to imagine anyone else stepping into the role. However, Phoenix ultimately earned himself an Oscar for crafting a portrayal of a desperate, whining and mentally ill man that is uncomfortable but fascinating to watch. Phillips' 2024 sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, took a bold swing with its musical sequences after that, but it alienated many audience members and the film's actual story was painfully boring.

Other "Batman" film adaptations, such as Joel Schumacher's emotional wailing in Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, Tim Burton's gothic fantasy "Batman" and "Batman Returns," and Zack Snyder's brash take on the character with "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" are not in IMDb's top 250. The Batman universe by Nolan and Phillips resonates the most with audiences. Although Matt Reeves' Batman has a similar aesthetic and was a critical and box office hit, it failed to surpass a 7.9 rating on IMDb. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Batman franchise in the future, as Nolan, in particular, left a huge mark that is hard to top.