Top 100 3D Movies · DIGIT-ARC

CGSociety and 3D World present a rundown of the Top 100 3D Movies as selected by the CG community

What marks out a truly great 3D movie? The knowledge that it pioneered techniques that became standards within the industry, as Flight of the Navigator did with reflection mapping?
Or that it raised the bar on the volume of effects work possible in a movie, as with Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace? Or simply that it told a memorable story? That was the question we posed in our recent poll to determine the most influential 3D movies of all time, organised in conjunction with 3D World magazine, the industry's leading community portal.

To qualify for inclusion on our shortlist, a movie needed to meet three criteria: to have a running time of 60 minutes or longer; to have received a full cinematic release;and to include a significant element of 3D animation or VFX work, as opposed to matte painting or compositing.

Films like Blade Runner - although undoubtedly influential - were excluded on the grounds that they featured only traditional effects.

Movies that received an Academy Award nomination were automatically included, as did those whose technology reels were screened in the Electronic Theater at SIGGRAPH.

The remainder were chosen from standard reference books such as Isaac Kerlow's The Art of 3D Computer Animation and Effects, and according to feedback from our own contacts in the industry. Visitors to CGSociety were then asked to pick the 10 films on the shortlist that they most admired technically; that had the greatest impact on their working lives; or that most made them want to work in 3D in the first place.

During the three weeks it remained online, 5,874 people filled out the poll, casting well over 50,000 individual votes. To the best of our knowledge, this makes it the largest survey of its type ever conducted - and the definitive guide to the films that shaped an industry.

TOP 100

100
Apollo 13

99
SUPERMAN RETURNS

98
MARS ATTACKS!

97
TOTAL RECALL

96
MONSTER HOUSE

95
TWISTER

94
SUNSHINE

93
FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR

92
THE LAWNMOWER MAN

91
Alien3

90
STAR TREK: THE WRATH OF KHAN

89
ANTZ

88
WALLACE AND GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT

87
2010

86
X-MEN

85
PITCH BLACK

84
THE POLAR EXPRESS

83
BLADE

82
THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE

81
TOY STORY 2

80
BLACK HAWK DOWN

79
PEARL HARBOR

78
YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES

77
THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK

76
THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN

75
X2: X-Men United

74
THE LAST STARFIGHTER

73
APPLESEED

72
CONTACT

71
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME

70
SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW

69
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE

68
ARMAGEDDON

67
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

66
MADAGASCAR

65
Labyrinth

64
HOLLOW MAN

63
THE MASK

62
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN

61
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

60
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE

59
SHREK 2

58
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: AI

57
THE CORPSE BRIDE

56
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON

55
BATMAN BEGINS

54
WAR OF THE WORLDS

53
DRAGONHEART

52
SPIDER-MAN 2

51
HAPPY FEET

50
THE LION KING

49
MEN IN BLACK

48
SPIDER-MAN

47
CHILDREN OF MEN

46
STAR WARS: EPISODE 2 - ATTACK OF THE CLONES

45
PRINCESS MONONOKE

44
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

43
A BUG'S LIFE

42
THE MATRIX RELOADED

41
TITANIC

40
FORREST GUMP

39
STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 - THE PHANTOM MENACE

38
STARSHIP TROOPERS

37
THE IRON GIANT

36
SPIRITED AWAY

35
THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS

34
GLADIATOR

33
SPIDER-MAN 3

32
INDEPENDENCE DAY

31
THE ABYSS

30
GHOST IN THE SHELL

29
CARS

28
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL

27
AKIRA

26
PAN'S LABYRINTH

25
I, ROBOT

24
THE FIFTH ELEMENT

23
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END

22
FIGHT CLUB

21
ICE AGE

20
STAR WARS: EPISODE 3 - REVENGE OF THE SITH

19
SHREK

18
TRON

17
MONSTERS, INC.

16
SIN CITY

15
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST

14
FINDING NEMO

13
KING KONG

12
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS

11
THE INCREDIBLES

10
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

9
FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN

8
TRANSFORMERS

7
RATATOUILLE

6
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY

5
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

4
TOY STORY

3
300

2
JURASSIC PARK

1
THE MATRIX

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Source

V

I think that MATRIX will be on 1 and it is.

H

Yes, wonderful ones.

This is wrong .. it should have been CG Movies and not 3D .. I wonder how the cgsociety named it this way..

there is only a handfull of 3D movies made.. 3D should not be confused with CG( Computer Gfx ) which all of the above movies use. Till date I havent seen even a single 3D movie, 3D movies require a special glasses to be used to see the movie.
This is the list of all 3D films released Link

S

where is Chota Chetan????it was also a 3D movie.LOL!!!

great compilation.
seen many of them.
will see the rest of them soon.

Matrix deserve its spot

Nice list...I've seen only Matrix 1, but whats so "3D" in it?

Charan said:
This is wrong .. it should have been CG Movies and not 3D .. I wonder how the cgsociety named it this way..
there is only a handfull of 3D movies made.. 3D should not be confused with CG( Computer Gfx ) which all of the above movies use. Till date I havent seen even a single 3D movie, 3D movies require a special glasses to be used to see the movie.
This is the list of all 3D films released Link

Agreed

wrong wrong . . no 3d in those movies . .
+1 with above poster

those are not 3d movies (except Toy Story 3D Version )... do u really understand what 3D is !

Bad, bad list. No 3D movies for you

T

Where is ICE AGE 2 ??

Any specific reason these movies are not in CAPS: Apollo 13, Alien3 and Labyrinth ?

off course..there is a diff b/n 3D and Computer Aided Graphics..

C

avatar is good,

these are not 3d movies....aliens,matrix etc were not in 3d..the name of the list is wrong...

Charan is correct!

those are not 3D, the only films i saw in 3D are My dear kuttichathan aka. Chota Chetan and Final Destination 2009

Nice lsit ... came to know about some of the films I've never seen

But as Charan said they are not 3D movies ... a good 3D film I can think about is AVATAR

Umm.. Major bump!

yeah, even I was wondering about why these movies are called 3D. Don't agree with the list at all - the list focuses on mostly post 1990s movies, and very few of the original, pioneering efforts of CG is listed here. The last Starfighter, is just one of the many movies that had groundbreaking CG that made it to the list. Anyone who knows about CG would put the first three star wars movies instead of the last three, as these were the films that really got the whole CG ball rolling. Can think of at least twenty obvious names that the list just leaves out - and the last twenty are all recent movies where CG technology has matured - certainly not "pioneered techniques that became standards within the industry" - and there is no Avatar in there. Additionally, some of the choices are just disgusting... 2010 instead of 2001... whatever did 2010 ever achieve?
Donno if this is a sidetrack, but if you are interested in milestones, try *www.filmsite.org/milestones2000s.html