What’s your favorite movie? Audience psychographics and demographics are often used to determine where company resources should be spent and who to market your product or service to. This is especially true of the film industry. When making a movie, directors know what kind of audience the film they’re working on is catered towards, and the producers will do their best to make sure it is marketed as such. Not everybody likes horror movies, and not everybody wants to watch a rom-com, and while there have been some stellar superhero films to come out in the past decade or so, many are tired of capes and spandex. However, there are some films that are adored by so many people that they seem to bypass target audiences completely. Here are a few of the most well-beloved films of all time.
Forrest Gump
Released in 1994, this drama follows Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) as he experiences his incredible life filled with laughter, love, and loss. Whether he’s running across the country, sailing the seas as a shrimp boat captain, surviving in Vietnam, or playing ping-pong, this film has a way of making you laugh as well as cry. It received countless awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, People’s Choice Award for Favorite Movie, and dozens more. Forrest may not be a smart man, but he knows what a good movie is.
The Shawshank Redemption
Starring Tim Robbins as Andy Dufrense and Morgan Freeman as Red, this 1994 film–coincidentally enough–sees our characters locked away in prison for decades. Andy is accused of killing his wife and her affair lover and spends his time in prison assisting the warden, fighting off assaulting gangs, teaching inmates to read, and connecting with his friend, Red. This film shows the brutality of prison and how far a man will go to achieve his goal. It also won several awards and is considered a classic.
Titanic
Once holding the record for the highest-grossing film of all time, Titanic is often regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. While it has had its share of scrutiny, it is still overall loved. As one might guess, it tells a love story of a couple (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) aboard the famous ship and its unfortunate demise. Winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, and the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Movie–along with a grocery list of other achievements–this film’s runtime comes in at over three hours long! True, you may get tired of listening to “Jack!” and “Rose!” being yelled throughout, and many have jokingly poked fun at the fact that there was room for both of them on that piece of debris, this 1997 film is one of James Cameron’s finest–now we just need to keep waiting for the next Avatar movie.
Closing Thoughts
You would be hard-pressed to find someone who dislikes any of these films. If they do, you might need to question if they have actually seen them. And even if they don’t like them, that’s okay, because everybody has their own preferences and opinions–even if they’re the wrong ones, like those who don’t enjoy Forrest Gump.