# The five movies that nearly everyone on Earth has seen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 15, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786 "2006-04-15T15:42:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Agnostic\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Agnostic\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agnostic_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/21 "2006-04-15T22:34:58Z")
I heard a Peace Corps veteran speak recently who claimed the most popular movies worldwide are action films. Any movie with a good amount of dialogue is going to limit its world-wide audience as most people do not care for subtitles. And dubbing can be uneven at best. With the better action movies, you do not need to understand the dialogue, most of which tends to be trite anyways, to follow the plot. The veteran said that Rambo was very popular where she was stationed (small Pacific island), and heard that similar was true elsewhere from other veterans. I can easily understand why. Big guns, explosions, unimportant dialogue - hell, English-speakers can’t understand Stallone. (She also told the story of a volunteer that went native, spending the majority of his time hanging out and drinking the local hooch. He was finally asked to resign. He did so, then went back on his own and opened a video rental shop.) My best guess using the criteria of the OP, _“Could you talk about this movie in a crowd of people you’ve never met, in any country on Earth, and have the vast, vast majority of people you are speaking to also have seen the movie?”_ I would go with Jaws; Rambo; the Lion King; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (its home market is 1/6th to 1/5th of the world already.); The Wizard of Oz and Jurassic Park in no particular order. Honorable mentions - where the vast majority know of the film even if they have not seen it: Casablanca Star Wars Gone With The Wind The Godfather Psycho Titanic Predator James Bond movies I recall reading that Jackie Chan was the most popular actor in the world, followed by David Hasselhoff. Though that may have just been a bogus trivia list somewhere.YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Delly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Delly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delly)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/22 "2006-04-15T23:09:08Z")
Surely a movie like **ET** would be up there with those movies that nearly everyone has seen? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/23 "2006-04-15T23:09:40Z")
> [@Martini Enfield](#): > > The litmus test is “_Could you talk about this movie in a crowd of people you’ve never met, in any country on Earth, and have the vast, vast majority of people you are speaking to also have seen the movie?_” No. Better to ask: what five movies have been seen by the most people\*? That’s more debatable. 😉 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon The Ten Commandments The Wizard of Oz Star Wars Some Bollywood film \*Which itself is different from “what five movies have been seen the most times?” ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/24 "2006-04-15T23:23:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I could go anywhere in the world and talk with strangers about those movies, but that’s just because most of the people I’d associate with, anywhere in the world, are fellow nerds. Among the general population? Not so much. The OP’s list are also relatively recent movies, which will also hurt them. How many times has _T2_ run on broadcast TV? It might have been once or twice. But compare that to old classics like _The Sound of Music_, _The Wizard of Oz_, or _It’s a Wonderful Life_, which run every year or more, and have for many decades. Even the best contender on the OP’s list, _Star Wars_, has probably had less showings than any of the three I mentioned, and many of those were probably multiple viewings by the same people. I have to agree, though I suspect that _Star Wars_ has sufficient crossover appeal to have been seen by a large swath of the population (both in the US and worldwide) that would otherwise not watch space opera. **Chronos** makes a good point that the films most widely seen are those that are cycled endlessly on broadcast television, though with the advent of cable the younger generation may have never sat through an entire viewing of _It’s A Wonderful Life_ (a film I didn’t myself see until I was 17). Popular musicals, while widely known, only appeal to a limited subset of viewers; despite my aspirations toward comprehensive literacy in film history you’ll practically have to restrain me _A Clockwork Orange_-style to get me to sit through a musical (though I am partial to _Singin’ In The Rain_, more for its plot than the musical numbers). I’d put money on some of the Disney animations, especially _Bambi_ and _Snow White_, as most people will see these in childhood regardless of age. (I assume, perhaps wrongly, that they have international appeal as well.) As for classic films like _Casablanca_, _Citizen Kane_, _Rear Window_, et cetera, I find myself continually astonished at the number of people I meet who have never seen these films. Of course, _Rear Window_ was out of circulation for a while, and _Citizen Kane_ and _Casablanca_, while embedded in the public consciousness, were virtually unwatchable before their respective restorations. Other great classics like _The Third Man_, _On The Waterfront_, or _Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb_, exist as vague memes in the collective cultural memory but very few people have actually watched them or even know the basic plot details. And a film like the Frankenheimer version of _The Manchurian Candidate_ is virtually unseen thanks to being unavailable for so many years; unless you’re a film geek or are over sixty you’ve probably never seen a single frame. (Mores the pity; it’s a great Mamet-esque black satire.) How about [thread=7302764]The Five Movies That Nearly Everyone On Earth Should See[/thread]? Stranger ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/25 "2006-04-15T23:28:25Z")
So far I’ve seen every movie listed so far. John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants sent this as a footnote of one of TMBG’s email newsletters last year: I have not seen any of these movies ``` * Jaws * Star Wars * The Matrix * Pulp Fiction * Blair Witch Project * Silence of the Lambs * On Golden Pond * Back to the Future * Scream * I Know What You Did Last Summer * Die Hard * Spider Man * The Lion King * Lord of the Rings * Home Alone * Saving Private Ryan * Austin Powers * Top Gun * Rain Man * My Big Fat Greek Wedding * Pretty Woman * Jerry McGuire * Rambo * Napoleon Dynamite * Grease ``` “I don’t think I have ever seen a movie with Tom Cruise or Bruce Willis except fragments on broadcast TV. I have, however, purchased almost every ZZ Top album since Eliminator. I have no explanation or excuse for this random behavior.” ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/26 "2006-04-15T23:54:24Z")
At the risk of sidelining my own OP, there are quite a number of films mentioned here that _I’ve_ never seen, including: _The Sound Of Music_ _Miracles on 34th St_ _It’s A Wonderful Life_ _The Ten Commandments_ _Ben Hur_ _Titanic_ _Casablanca_ _Singing In The Rain_ _The Shining_ Interesting that people think the list we came up with is “Geek Movies”- we all agreed we’d be pretty hard pressed to find people who hadn’t seen those five movies, even if it was a long time ago- but we’re all Male, Mid -20s, and generally well educated, which in hindsight may have skewed the perspectives a bit. Titanic was deliberately left off the list because there are quite a few people (myself included) who’ve never seen it, and never intend to. The Dirty Harry movies are surprisingly popular in some parts of the world, but most people around my age (24) have never seen one and have only the vaguest idea who the character is. The Wizard of Oz probably should have been there, but you can bet that there are a LOT of people out there who think it has something to do with the HBO Prison Drama… ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/27 "2006-04-16T00:12:57Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants sent this as a footnote of one of TMBG’s email newsletters last year: > > \ > > “I don’t think I have ever seen a movie with Tom Cruise or Bruce Willis except fragments on broadcast TV. I have, however, purchased almost every ZZ Top album since Eliminator. I have no explanation or excuse for this random behavior.” There’s such a fine line between quirky and dickhead. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/28 "2006-04-16T00:31:26Z")
Some of your suggestions are out of touch with the international market. For example, here in Denmark, I think it will be difficult to find someone who has even heard about Miracle On 34th St. I think the best answer to the question is given by maximising the formula: Box office gross adjusted for inflation - a factor for people who has seen it and died since it was released. [here is a box office list](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm) A guess would be: Star Wars E.T Titanic The lion king Jurassic park ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/29 "2006-04-16T00:37:34Z")
I can’t believe SW Ep. I made it into the top 20. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/30 "2006-04-16T00:49:56Z")
I can’t believe Twister is on that adjusted for inflation list. And it beats One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Even Titanics placement doesn’t seem so odd compared to that. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/31 "2006-04-16T00:56:56Z")
I understand “Rambo” is HUGE in the non-English-speaking parts of the world. Good thing for Sly. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/32 "2006-04-16T01:17:24Z")
> [@](#): > > **Martini** : We all agreed we’d be pretty hard pressed to find people who hadn’t seen those five movies, even if it was a long time ago- but we’re all Male, Mid -20s, and generally well educated, which in hindsight may have skewed the perspectives a bit. Although I’m a Netflix member, I’ve never watched **The Matrix**. I don’t think that most of the women that I know personally who are over sixty have seen it. Knowing how savvy older women Dopers are here, I’m sure many of them have. I doubt that internationally _women_ are all that delighted with action films. Perhaps they are just accomodating to their dates who want to see them. I would think that most women like to see characters they can identify with and with some exceptions, most actions films are about men and are too often shallow. Since most movies are about men, give us something with meat in it – like **The Godfather**. I think that belongs on the list and it is one action film that belongs there. (Hey, **mr. jp,** I saw it in Odense.) ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/33 "2006-04-16T01:24:00Z")
I’ve seen _one_ movie from Zeldar’s list, and that was only in the past 4 years. And I belong to the Writers Guild of America. I know a lot of people who have never seen a Star Wars movie, never seen a Godfather film, and Titanic was so huge because teenage girls saw the film over and over again. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was apparently a flop in China – too much talk, not enough action. And I know I’m a minority, but I saw my first Disney movie when I was 18 (and had a 6-hour break between classes in College.) ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2006, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786/34 "2006-04-16T02:00:23Z")
I’ve never seen _Titanic_ . I thought I was the only one. I just can’t stand Celine Dion, and I can’t get her out of my head when I think of the movie. Until I met my wife, I never saw _The Sound of Music_, and never wanted to. My list would have: Godfather Casablanca Wonderful Life Wizard of Oz The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Why the last one? Because it’s on television so much. I think I’ve randomly stumbled on it while visiting my folks during the holidays about six or seven times. I wathed it every time too! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-five-movies-that-nearly-everyone-on-earth-has-seen/352786.md?page=1)