Many movie fans like to keep up with the latest and greatest films. A trip through the Oscar nominees is a common way to do that and another method that movie fans like to use is IMDb's rankings as s vote on what they've seen. IMDb's top 10 movies of 2021, therefore, reflect not just high scores but the number of votes that each film has received.
Updated on August 19th, 2022 by Mark Birrell: 2021 proved to be a big year for movies as theaters proved that they could still draw crowds big enough to break all-time records. With the sequel to Dune, listed by s as one of the best movies of 2021 on IMDb, shooting now for a 2023 release, many film fans are ing that this was a notable year for blockbusters.
Free Guy - 7.1 (356K Votes)
• Available on HBO Max and Disney+
Though littered with references to a number of famous franchises and pop culture favorites, one of the few blockbuster movies of 2021 based on an original idea.
Ryan Reynolds stars as the titular Guy, an NPC in a popular online game who becomes an unlikely hero after falling for a real-life player and breaking all the rules in his pursuit of her. Filled with comedy and action, Free Guy hit all the right notes with both movie fans and gaming fans, with cameo appearances from famous streamers like Ninja and Pokimane.
The Suicide Squad - 7.2 (339K Votes)
• Available on HBO Max
Though the DCEU's first attempt at a Suicide Squad movie made a lot of money at the box office, the film was panned by critics and found to be dissatisfying by a large majority of fans due, in part, to its brutal editing phase. This semi-sequel/quasi-reboot retained some of the original film's cast while taking a more directly comedic approach as per the style of its writer and director, James Gunn.
Peacemaker, has been one of the most talked-about comic book shows of 2022.
Don't Look Up - 7.2 (520K Votes)
• Available on Netflix
This star-studded social satire follows two astronomers who discover a comet that's hurtling towards Earth and threatening to wipe out all life. The true enemies, however, prove to be political discourse and media spin as they struggle to get any government action to take shape.
Despite committed performances from leads Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, alongside ing cast such as Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill, critics were fairly harsh to the movie, partially due to its direct message about science denialism. However, the general public has been much more receptive, with voters on IMDb ranking it as one of the top 10 movies of 2021.
Cruella - 7.3 (227K Votes)
• Available on Disney+
Taking a page from the huge success of DC's Joker, this moderately dark prequel movie gives a sympathetic origin story to one of Disney's most iconic villains whilst still retaining the classically comedic vibes that fans of the company know and love.
Emma Stone stars as the titular master criminal and fashion icon, serving up Cruella delivered a fully fleshed-out new story while setting things up for a new take on the well-known 101 Dalmatians adventure.
No Time to Die - 7.3 (384K Votes)
• Available on Amazon Prime Video
After numerous delays to its release, which was initially scheduled for 2020, his run as the infamous superspy James Bond on a high note with an unusually emotional take on the typically cold character whilst still paying heavy homage to the long legacy of the 007 franchise.
The results were a crowd-pleasing mixture of fresh and familiar ideas that left lots of room for big plot twists and an explosive finale that featured a shocking first for the series.
Nobody - 7.4 (238K Votes)
• Available to purchase on Prime Video
John Wick creator Derek Kolstad.
Odenkirk proved himself to be a surprise action star whilst also delivering the comedy antics that audiences mostly know him for and, though it's packed full of its own ridiculous sequences, this bare-knuckle thriller is the most grounded of the action films to feature in IMDb's top 10 movies of 2021.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - 7.4 (367K Votes)
• Available on Disney+
The seemingly-unstoppable expansion of Marvel Studios continued in 2021 with the highly-successful company releasing 4 movies on top of 4 streaming series. The second MCU film of 2021 saw the studio introduce its first Asian hero to movie audiences and it proved to be another hit for the over-arching franchise of comic book blockbusters.
Though the titular hero, and lead actor Simu Liu, weren't household names before the film's release, they both now look to be long-lasting stars for the ever-growing universe.
Zack Snyder's Justice League - 8.0 (387K Votes)
• Available on HBO Max
After Warner Bros. released a chopped-up version of Justice League in 2017, complete with many rewrites and reshot scenes from director Joss Whedon, fans began to demand the original version of the film. A movement taking around two-and-a-half years finally got Snyder his chance to finish his vision.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is not just a director's cut, it's an entirely different movie compared to Whedon's version. The film is twice as long, has a lot more character development, and treats the characters with a lot more respect. It also restores three characters of color removed from the theatrical cut; Iris West, Elinore Stone, and Ryan Choi. Perhaps the film's most notable change is the vastly expanded role for Ray Fisher as Cyborg, who Zack Snyder called "the heart" of his film.
Dune - 8.0 (600K Votes)
• Available on HBO Max
Though there are higher-rated movies on IMDb from 2021, but only one other film has more votes on the site than Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of the iconic science-fiction novel Dune, making its incredibly high score all the more impressive and significant when considering the top 10 movies of 2021 on the site.
The epic film also did handsomely at the box office despite being released on HBO Max on the same day as its theatrical release, proving to be a must-see big-screen event thanks to its gorgeous vistas as well as its soul-stirring music and sound design, with a sequel promptly greenlit.
Spider-Man: No Way Home - 8.3 (706K Votes)
• Available on Starz
Marvel Studios' final film of 2021 proved to be not only the company's biggest but the biggest movie of the year overall, breaking box office records almost instantly and becoming one of the most financially successful theatrical releases of all time. Enthusiasm for Spider-Man: No Way Home proved that there's life in theaters yet.
A smorgasbord of fan-favorite characters and big reveals proved to be the perfect cocktail for audience satisfaction, and it quickly rose to be one of the year's most highly-ranked movies on IMDb with a huge number of votes.
