Yes, there are many movies over 100 years old, with significant silent films from the early 1900s, like Georges Méliès's A Trip to the Moon (1902) and classics from the 1920s, such as The Lost World (1925), still enjoyed today, forming a rich part of cinematic history.
While it can be difficult to know where to start with movies of the past, these century-old films have a lot to offer contemporary viewers.
The cinema was invented in 1894, but the movies as we know them -- as a vehicle for storytelling -- began 100 years ago, in a New York City dive called Huber's Museum, on 14th Street. There, one week before Christmas in 1903, the first public screening of Edwin S.
Roundhay Garden Scene (french: Une scène au jardin de Roundhay) is a short silent motion picture filmed by French inventor Louis Le Prince at Oakwood Grange in Roundhay, Leeds, in Yorkshire, England on 14 October 1888. It is believed to be the oldest surviving film.
Titled 100 Years, the project is scheduled for release on November 18, 2115. Created in partnership with Louis XIII Cognac, which itself takes a century to mature, the film is sealed inside a high-tech vault programmed to unlock exactly 100 years after production wrapped.
18+ movies to watch
According to movie database IMDb, Logistics (Sweden, 2012) is the longest film ever made, with a running time of 857 hours (which is 35 days 17 hours).
The #1 movie in the world, based on the highest worldwide box office gross, is James Cameron's Avatar (2009), followed by Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). These rankings focus on total money earned, with Avatar exceeding $2.9 billion globally.
A famous 7-hour-plus film is Béla Tarr's surreal Hungarian masterpiece Sátántangó, known for its bleakness and artistic depth, while experimental projects like Anders Weberg's Ambiancé (planned for 720 hours) and the 35-day experimental Logistics explore extreme lengths, but for a mainstream-adjacent 7-hour experience, viewers often watch parts of extremely long documentaries like The Journey, sped up from their original 14-hour length.
Logistics, or Logistics Art Project, is a 2012 Swedish experimental film conceived and created by Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson. At 51,420 minutes (857 hours or 35 days and 17 hours), it is the longest film ever made.
A 2015 film titled 100 Years was completed but locked away to be released exactly a century later, on November 18, 2115. Starring John Malkovich and directed by Robert Rodriguez, the movie is sealed inside a high-tech safe programmed to open after 100 years.
In 1902, when the first colorized film A Trip to the Moon appeared on the screen, the earliest example of true color cinema appeared. This technology was invented by Briton Edward Turner in 1899.
There's no single "number one movie" as it depends on the criteria, but James Cameron's Avatar (2009) is the highest-grossing film worldwide unadjusted for inflation. When adjusting for inflation, Gone with the Wind (1939) is often cited as number one, while The Shawshank Redemption (1994) is consistently rated the top movie by users on IMDb based on critical acclaim and audience votes.
In 2015, director Robert Rodriguez and actor John Malkovich created a movie called “100 Years” — but no one alive today will ever see it. The film has been locked away in a vault in France and is set to be released in 2115, exactly 100 years after it was made.
The top March 2027 movie releases are The Resurrection of the Christ (Part One), Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Godzilla X Kong: Supernova, The Thomas Crown Affair and The Chosen: Season 6 Finale.
The movie that took 48 years to make is The Other Side of the Wind, Orson Welles' final, unfinished film that began shooting in the 1970s and was finally completed and released by Netflix in 2018, long after Welles' death. The project was famously trapped in legal issues and distribution nightmares, with production spanning years and the editing process continuing posthumously until its eventual release, making it one of the longest-produced films ever.
Oppenheimer is a movie about the creation of a big, big bomb. So, fittingly, it has a big, big runtime. The film, now streaming exclusively on Peacock, is 3 hours long, making it the longest film that director Christopher Nolan has ever made.
The "saddest" movie based on a true story is subjective, but top contenders often include Schindler's List, due to its harrowing Holocaust depiction; 12 Years a Slave, for its brutal portrayal of American slavery; Grave of the Fireflies (animated, deeply tragic WWII story); and The Pianist, showing survival in the Warsaw Ghetto, with Worth, focusing on the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, also cited for emotional impact.
There's no single definitive #1 most-watched movie due to different metrics (box office, TV, streaming), but James Cameron's Titanic often appears at the top for overall viewership, blending massive theatrical success with extensive TV broadcasts, while Disney's The Lion King and The Wizard of Oz are frequently cited for sheer volume over decades, and Avatar holds the box office crown, notes Statista and Wikipedia.
Beyond their thematic depth and emotional pull, classic movies frequently achieve their revered status through significant cultural and artistic significance, often representing pivotal milestones or turning points in the ongoing evolution of cinema as an art form and a cultural force.
Yes, many movies have made over a billion dollars at the global box office, with blockbusters like Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Titanic, Barbie, Inside Out 2, and Spider-Man: No Way Home leading the list, becoming a common achievement for major franchises and hit films in recent years. The first movie to reach this milestone was Titanic in 1998, and now dozens of films have joined the "billion-dollar club".
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) This iconic film, directed by Aditya Chopra, is the most running film of Indian cinema. It has been screening continuously at Mumbai's Maratha Mandir cinema for over 28 years, with a staggering 1225 weeks of shows.
The animated film that famously took 29 years to make is The Thief and the Cobbler, which began production in 1964 and was finally released (in a modified form) in 1993, though it was an unfinished project riddled with production hell and director changes. Another contender is Mad God, a stop-motion film that was in development for 30 years before its release in 2021.
At 51,420 minutes (857 hours or 35 days and 17 hours), it is the longest movie ever made.