First of all, the obviously correct answer is “Star Trek” (2009). I spent the summer of 2009 in Colonial Williamsburg rewatching “Star Trek” (2009) like 15 times — it briefly replaced alcohol as my great college romance. It has an expertly crafted narrative. It’s hilarious. And the cast commits. I can think of absolutely no more rewatchable movie, given that all other films woefully compare to the Chris Pine- and Zachary Quinto-helmed epic space adventure.
But apparently some people disagree. Because we’re a news site concerned with data, and because my editor refused to let me end the conversation at “ ‘Star Trek’ is great and all other movies are terrible,” I ran a SurveyMonkey Audience poll and asked people to list the five films they consider the most rewatchable.
I got 4,362 entries from 1,169 respondents to my fill-in-the-blank question. Some entries covered several films — “The Godfather movies,” for instance — and I combined these into a single entry referring to the series as a whole, rather than give these respondents a disproportionate number of votes. Some responses were a little unclear: For example, if someone simply entered “Star Wars” — as about 9 percent of respondents did — I’m not sure if that meant 1977’s Episode IV or the whole series, but I counted it separately from the people who did specify the whole series. I’m not a mindreader, so that’ll just have to do.
Here are the top 25 most rewatchable films or series according to our survey, along with the number of times each was submitted:
| FILM | NUMBER OF SUBMISSIONS | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Star Wars | 98 |
| 2 | The Wizard of Oz | 76 |
| 3 | The Sound of Music | 58 |
| 4 | The Lord of the Rings (series) | 56 |
| 5 | Gone With the Wind | 52 |
| 6 | The Godfather | 45 |
| 6 | The Princess Bride | 45 |
| 8 | The Shawshank Redemption | 42 |
| 9 | Harry Potter (series) | 36 |
| 10 | It’s A Wonderful Life | 35 |
| 11 | Forrest Gump | 33 |
| 11 | Grease | 33 |
| 13 | Dirty Dancing | 32 |
| 14 | Pulp Fiction | 29 |
| 14 | Titanic | 29 |
| 16 | The Lion King | 28 |
| 16 | Pretty Woman | 28 |
| 18 | Casablanca | 27 |
| 19 | The Matrix | 25 |
| 19 | The Notebook | 25 |
| 21 | Star Trek | 24 |
| 21 | Finding Nemo | 24 |
| 23 | Goodfellas | 22 |
| 24 | Pride & Prejudice | 19 |
| 25 | Caddyshack | 18 |
| 25 | The Avengers | 18 |
People like to rewatch epics: Space operas, fantasy series and iconic films of historical significance make up the vast majority of the top 25. Also, “Grease.” Who knew so many people were into “Grease”? Who knew more people liked “Grease” than “Star Trek” (2009)?
Here are the top 25 movies by the respondent’s gender:
| MEN | NUMBER OF SUBMISSIONS | WOMEN | NUMBER OF SUBMISSIONS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Star Wars | 66 | 1 | The Wizard of Oz | 51 | |
| 2 | The Godfather | 29 | 2 | The Sound of Music | 42 | |
| 3 | The Lord of the Rings (series) | 26 | 3 | Gone With the Wind | 37 | |
| 4 | The Wizard of Oz | 25 | 4 | Star Wars | 32 | |
| 5 | Pulp Fiction | 21 | 5 | The Lord of the Rings (series) | 30 | |
| 6 | The Princess Bride | 19 | 6 | Dirty Dancing | 29 | |
| 6 | The Shawshank Redemption | 19 | 7 | The Princess Bride | 26 | |
| 6 | The Matrix | 19 | 7 | Harry Potter (series) | 26 | |
| 6 | Star Trek | 19 | 7 | Pretty Woman | 26 | |
| 7 | The Sound of Music | 16 | 8 | Grease | 24 | |
| 7 | Goodfellas | 16 | 9 | The Shawshank Redemption | 23 | |
| 8 | It’s A Wonderful Life | 15 | 9 | Titanic | 23 | |
| 8 | Forrest Gump | 15 | 10 | The Notebook | 22 | |
| 8 | Casablanca | 15 | 11 | The Lion King | 21 | |
| 8 | Die Hard | 15 | 12 | It’s A Wonderful Life | 19 | |
| 9 | Gone with the Wind | 14 | 13 | Forrest Gump | 18 | |
| 9 | Gladiator | 14 | 14 | The Godfather | 16 | |
| 10 | Caddyshack | 13 | 15 | Finding Nemo | 15 | |
| 11 | The Avengers | 12 | 16 | Love Actually | 14 | |
| 11 | Star Wars (series) | 12 | 17 | Pride & Prejudice | 13 | |
| 17 | You’ve Got Mail | 13 |
If you’re looking to do a heteronormative couple’s night and need to agree on a movie, it appears the best choice might be to pop in one of the “Lord of the Rings” movies or “The Wizard of Oz.” Apparently, both men and women are drawn to stories where an out-of-towner and a loyal lapdog team up to pass through a region of abnormally short residents on the advice of a magical entity and join a mission to solve a convoluted geopolitical struggle alongside an eclectic coterie of traveling companions — a stalwart guardian, an axe-toting hothead and an enigmatic denizen of the woods — in order to once again return to their bucolic existences.1
That, or “The Princess Bride” might be a good call. Great film.
Still, there are differences in taste: Films in the men’s top 20 but not the women’s include “Pulp Fiction,” “The Matrix,” “Star Trek” and “Goodfellas.” Films disproportionately favored by women include “Dirty Dancing,” the “Harry Potter” series, “Pretty Woman,” “Grease” and “Titanic.”
People of each gender also had a few films in their top 20 that didn’t make the overall top 25 and failed to appear on the other gender’s list. Guys disproportionately enjoyed “Die Hard” and “Gladiator,” while women preferred “Love Actually” and “You’ve Got Mail.”
So gender plays a role in what films people find rewatchable. Age also generates some interesting differences.
Films such as “The Lion King,” and “Finding Nemo” performed disproportionately well among younger people. While “The Lord of the Rings” movies were generally popular across all ages, the younger the respondent, the more likely he or she was to put it down. Thirty-somethings and middle-aged people disproportionately listed “Pulp Fiction,” “Goodfellas,” “The Goonies” and “Grease,” all of which are popular and iconic films from when they were younger. And older folks were all about older (or at least not recent) movies, too: “Casablanca,” “Dirty Dancing,” and “Sleepless in Seattle” were more popular the older people got.
Films that appealed to most but not all age brackets included the “Lord of the Rings” series, “The Godfather” and “The Shawshank Redemption.” But there was one constant regardless of age: “Star Wars” was always in the top 10.
But, uh, screw that. Their sad devotion to that ancient Jedi religion did not help them avoid those prequels. Live long and prosper: “Star Trek” (2009) is the only good movie ever.