How we built our top 100 movie rankings

Yahoo

6 hours ago

With so many movies coming out each week on so many different platforms, picking one to watch is harder than ever. Should you listen to what the critics say or opt for audience favorites? Should you watch what everyone's talking about or check out the one with the A-list cast?
We devised a formula to assign a score to each movie that considers all these factors simultaneously. Every day, we update our top 100 ranking as new releases hit both big and small screens, so keep checking back for more recommendations here.
Which movies are included?
If you count every movie in the world, there were over 19,000 films released last year alone. That's too many for even the most devoted cinephile to watch — believe us, we've tried — so we set a few requirements for consideration.
First, a movie has to have been released widely in U.S. theaters or premiered on streaming services in 2025. That means films that were briefly screened at 2025 festivals or to exclusive audiences aren't included in our ranking. It also means that you might see something listed as a 2025 release, like Oscar winner I'm Still Here, that you remember as a 2024 movie. This is because it didn't reach U.S. theaters until 2025.
Second, a movie has to have a minimum number of critic and audience reviews to make the cut. If a movie has a perfect 100% rating from audiences based on two reviews, we're sorry, but we'll need a bit more convincing to know for sure that it's worth your while!
So how do we rank them?
You'll see films ranked according to their score. Let's break down how we calculate that, from our most important to our least important metric:
1. Audience score
What's most important to us is determining whether or not people actually like the film. Our ranking uses audience ratings provided by JustWatch, with a couple adjustments.
Movies get credit for having more reviews. You'd probably rather eat at a restaurant with 4.7 stars and 1,000 reviews than 4.9 stars and 50 reviews, right?
Films that aren't brand-new releases get a little extra weight from the more recent audience scores. If a movie sees a sudden surge in positive or negative reactions within the past week, you'll see that reflected in the store.
2. Interest score
One of the great joys of movie-watching is being able to check out something that you've heard a lot about, and then read and talk about it afterward. The tricky part is balancing what people are talking about with what they're actually watching.
In years past, box office performance would have been the best way to measure that, but the domination of streaming services makes it harder to track what has people tuning in.
Instead, we used data unique to Yahoo, combing through thousands of movie-related Yahoo News articles and analyzing how many page views those articles get. We do the same thing for Yahoo Search queries, but sometimes movie titles make this a bit tricky. For instance, if you name your movie Stream, it's not easy to tell if that's what people are looking for when they search 'stream movie.'
We also use a bit of JustWatch data here too. We're checking how many new audience reviews the movie got in the past week, as a signal of how many people are actually watching it.
3. Cast score
If you've ever taken a chance on a movie to see if an actor you like is any good in it, you'll get why we think star power is an important metric. We calculate that by taking the director and top three billed cast members for each movie, and then checking to see if they've won or been nominated for an Oscar. A win is worth twice as much as a nod.
Of course, you can be an acting powerhouse without ever winning an Oscar, so we also consider page views on Yahoo News articles about those individuals to get a sense of who our audience is most interested in.
Sorry, animated movies, but your voice actors don't count. Star power just hits differently when you can't see someone's face. The 2024 film starring Dustin Hoffman, Viola Davis and Bryan Cranston had an absolutely stacked cast, but it wasn't a prestige drama — it was Kung Fu Panda 4. The same goes for documentaries: There's no extra credit for being about or featuring famous people.
4. Recency
To help keep the ranking fresh, we add a little weight to new releases.
Which movies get badges?
Badges mean that a film is in the top 15% of all movies for one of our metrics. Right now, our three badges are 'Audience Choice' (audience score), 'Trending' (interest score), and 'Buzzy Cast' (cast score). The only metric we don't give a badge for is recency.
Don't forget to check out our ranking here.