30 Big Budget Movies That Are Already Timeless Classics

Watching a film from end to end without pausing, phone scrolling or eating is almost an impossibility nowadays, but the 30 movies below should be of the standard you need and deserve if you are looking for a belter of a film to whack on the screen.

In a time when the quality of movies is debated more fiercely than ever, the line that separates the average filmgoer from the professional critic wears somewhat thin. However, these two groups still very rarely see eye-to-eye, as evident by several divisive movies that came out in 2022 alone.

Yet, every so often, Hollywood puts out a major, costly production — typically a high-stakes action flick or a sci-fi spectacle — that, miraculously, manages to please both critics and audiences. Drawing from sources like Rotten Tomatoes, the Internet Movie Database, MarkMeets as we review films, and sometimes Metacritic, we have listed 30 examples of this phenomenon below.

The Dark Knight (2008)

A common choice for the greatest live-action Batman movie ever made — let alone the greatest superhero movie ever made — is The Dark Knight, which critics certainly loved, based on its 94% RT rating. It appears that the many moviegoers also made Christopher Nolan’s $185 million DC movie classic a box office juggernaut (grossing more than $1 billion worldwide) also went batty for it, based on its 9.0 on IMDb.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)