Best Romance Movies – Methodology
I searched far and wide for lists of best romance or romantic movies of all time. Criteria included the movies being ranked, not just listed, and covering all time, not just a decade. The lists were generally created by groups, whether teams or committees or based on general public voting (like Ranker.com).
I was able to find 24 lists. I took the 24 lists and added all their content into a spreadsheet, noting the rank of every film. The total number was over 1,200 including all the repeats. I experimented with different formulas, trying to balance the value of being ranked high on any list and being included on the most lists. I ended up averaging the rankings each movie got (there were 225 that were on at least 2 lists) and dividing that average by 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 24) were:
- The Notebook (2004) – 19 lists
- Casablanca (1942) – 18 lists
- When Harry Met Sally (1989) – 17 lists
- Titanic (1997) – 17 lists
- Dirty Dancing (1987) – 13 lists
- Gone with the Wind (1939) – 12 lists
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) – 12 lists
- Pretty Woman (1990) – 12 lists
- Brokeback Mountain (2005) – 12 lists
- A Star Is Born (2018) – 12 lists
Here are links to the lists I used along with dates the lists were created:
- The Digital Fix – 15 Nov 2022
- Parade – 27 Sep 2022
- Timeout – 26 Jul 2022
- Looper – 23 May 2022
- PureWow – 28 Mar 2022
- Stacker.com – 4 Mar 2022
- Cosmopolitan – 18 Feb 2022
- Empire Online – 14 Feb 2022
- Gold Derby – 11 Feb 2022
- House Beautiful – 11 Feb 2022
- Harper’s Bazaar – 9 Feb 2022
- Elle UK – 21 Jan 2022
- SlashFilm – 22 Oct 2021
- Ranker.com – 23 Apr 2021
- Movavi Blog – 8 Feb 2021
- Trinikid – 20 Nov 2020
- Studio Binder – 12 Jul 2020
- Verdict UK – 9 Feb 2018
- Wisdom Times – 29 Aug 2017
- Entertainment Tonight – 13 Feb 2014
- US Weekly – 14 Feb 2012
- American Film Institute (AFI) – no date
- Metacritic – no date
- Top Tens – no date