It’s a tight box, but with a fantastic average rating of 4,721 out of 5 stars, this film makes it to the top of the ranking of the best fantasy films – according to the community of FILMSTARTS, the largest German film website…
Let’s not kid ourselves: When asked about the best fantasy film of all time, there will only be one possible answer for most film fans – or actually: three possible answers. Because It should come as no surprise that Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy is at the top of the rankings. The only question is: which of the three films is at the top? The spectacular finale “The Return of the King”? The often underestimated middle piece “The Two Towers”? Or the wonderful trilogy opener “The Fellowship of the Ring”? For the FILMSTARTS community, one film has the Hobbit edge by a whisker:
These are the 10 best fantasy films of all time:
- “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” – 4,717 out of 5 stars
- “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” – 4.712 out of 5 stars
- “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” - 4,682 out of 5 stars
- “Princess Mononoke” – 4,512 out of 5 stars
- “The Green Mile” – 4,499 out of 5 stars
- “Spirited Away” – 4,392 out of 5 stars
- “Castle in the Sky” – 4.346 out of 5 stars
- “Ghostbusters” – 4.318 out of 5 stars
- “Spider-Man: No Way Home” – 4.307 out of 5 stars
- “… and Groundhog Day” – 4.294 out of 5 stars
For the FILMSTARTS community, “The Return of the King” is just ahead of “The Fellowship of the Ring”. For the author of this article, it is the other way round and in the ranking of the best fantasy films compiled by the FILMSTARTS editorial team, the trilogy opener comes before the trilogy finale. You can see our list here:
The best fantasy films of all time
But it is also very nice that With “Princess Mononoke”, “Spirited Away” and “Castle in the Sky” three of the great anime films by director Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli made it into the user ranking (there are even more for the best anime) – a nice sign that at least in this genre, not only Hollywood productions and live-action films inspire the audience, but also animated stories from other countries. Although Miyazaki would probably be anything but happy about the company he finds himself in, as you can read here:
“Anyone who doesn’t know that is an idiot”: This is why anime legend Hayao Miyazaki hates the “Lord of the Rings” films with all his heart
Places 9 and 10 are also interesting, as they go to two fantasy comedies, “Ghostbusters” and “Groundhog Day”. An interesting contrast to the best science fiction films, where only “more serious” films dominated the top 10 – from “Star Wars” to “Terminator” and “The Matrix” to “Alien” and “Jurassic Park”.
4.67 out of 5 stars! This is the best science fiction film of all time – according to German viewers
Incidentally, titles such as “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” (another Ghibli film) just missed the top 10. Classics such as “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Highlander” are a little further back. And with “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2”, a part of the popular film series about the sorcerer’s apprentice with the lightning scar also made it into the top 30.
Finally, a few comments on the list: According to the official figures from IVW for 2024, FILMSTARTS is the German-language website with the largest reach on films and series. The list above is based on the ratings of our community, which includes numerous die-hard film fans and occasional moviegoers, and can therefore be considered representative of the German audience.
All users can give ratings between 0.5 (bad) and 5 stars (masterpiece), as the FILMSTARTS editorial team does in their reviews. The resulting average ratings are rounded up to three decimal places.
The two Peter Jackson trilogies and the Amazon series “The Rings of Power” are by far not the only Middle Earth adaptations, as you can read in the following article:
Before “The Rings of Power” and the cinema trilogy: You’ve definitely never heard of these 5 “The Lord of the Rings” films & series!
This is an updated re-publication of an article that previously appeared on FILMSTARTS.
