Movie Auditor › Rankings › 2004
Best Movies of 2004, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
86 films from 2004 are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ('2004), at 8.3 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.4. Biggest split between audiences and critics: The Butterfly Effect, 7.6 on IMDb against 30 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind '2004 | Sci-Fi / Drama / Romance | 8.3 | 93% | 89 | 8.1 | Michel Gondry |
| 2 | Million Dollar Baby '2004 | Drama | 8.1 | 90% | 86 | 8.0 | Clint Eastwood |
| 3 | Howl's Moving Castle '2004 | Fantasy / Animation | 8.2 | 88% | 82 | 8.4 | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 4 | The Incredibles '2004 | Action / Animation | 8.0 | - | 90 | 7.7 | Brad Bird |
| 5 | Kill Bill: Vol. 2 '2004 | Action / Crime / Thriller | 8.0 | 84% | 83 | 7.9 | Quentin Tarantino |
| 6 | Downfall '2004 | Drama / War | 8.2 | 90% | 82 | 7.9 | Oliver Hirschbiegel |
| 7 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban '2004 | Fantasy | 7.9 | 90% | 82 | 8.0 | Alfonso Cuarón |
| 8 | Hotel Rwanda '2004 | Drama / War | 8.1 | 91% | 79 | 7.7 | Terry George |
| 9 | Before Sunset '2004 | Drama / Romance | 8.1 | 95% | 91 | 7.8 | Richard Linklater |
| 10 | The Notebook '2004 | Romance / Drama | 7.8 | 55% | 53 | 7.9 | Nick Cassavetes |
| 11 | Shaun of the Dead '2004 | Horror / Comedy | 7.8 | 92% | 76 | 7.5 | Edgar Wright |
| 12 | The Bourne Supremacy '2004 | Action / Drama / Thriller | 7.7 | 81% | 73 | 7.3 | Paul Greengrass |
| 13 | Man on Fire '2004 | Action / Drama / Thriller | 7.7 | 39% | 47 | 7.5 | Tony Scott |
| 14 | The Butterfly Effect '2004 | Sci-Fi / Thriller | 7.6 | 34% | 30 | 7.6 | Eric Bress |
| 15 | Saw '2004 | Horror / Mystery / Crime | 7.6 | 50% | 46 | 7.4 | James Wan |
| 16 | Spider-Man 2 '2004 | Action / Sci-Fi | 7.5 | 93% | 83 | 7.3 | Sam Raimi |
| 17 | The Machinist '2004 | Thriller / Drama | 7.6 | 77% | 61 | 7.5 | Brad Anderson |
| 18 | Collateral '2004 | Drama / Crime / Thriller | 7.5 | 86% | 71 | 7.2 | Michael Mann |
| 19 | The Aviator '2004 | Drama | 7.5 | 86% | 77 | 7.2 | Martin Scorsese |
| 20 | Shrek 2 '2004 | Animation / Comedy / Fantasy / Romance | 7.4 | 89% | 75 | 7.3 | Conrad Vernon |
| 21 | The Terminal '2004 | Comedy / Drama | 7.4 | 61% | 55 | 7.4 | Steven Spielberg |
| 22 | Finding Neverland '2004 | Drama / Fantasy | 7.6 | 83% | 67 | 7.3 | Marc Forster |
| 23 | Ray '2004 | Drama / Musical | 7.7 | 80% | 73 | 7.5 | Taylor Hackford |
| 24 | Kung Fu Hustle '2004 | Action / Comedy / Crime / Fantasy | 7.7 | 90% | 78 | 7.5 | Stephen Chow |
| 25 | Troy '2004 | Action | 7.3 | 53% | 56 | 7.2 | Wolfgang Petersen |
| 26 | Sideways '2004 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 97% | 94 | 7.1 | Alexander Payne |
| 27 | Garden State '2004 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.4 | 86% | 67 | 7.1 | Zach Braff |
| 28 | The Chorus '2004 | Drama / Comedy / Musical | 7.9 | 68% | 56 | 7.7 | Christophe Barratier |
| 29 | The Passion of the Christ '2004 | Drama | 7.3 | 50% | 47 | 7.5 | Mel Gibson |
| 30 | House of Flying Daggers '2004 | Drama / Action | 7.5 | 87% | 89 | 7.3 | Zhang Yimou |
| 31 | Dawn of the Dead '2004 | Horror / Sci-Fi / Action | 7.2 | 77% | 59 | 7.1 | Zack Snyder |
| 32 | I, Robot '2004 | Action / Sci-Fi | 7.1 | - | 59 | 7.0 | Alex Proyas |
| 33 | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou '2004 | Comedy / Drama | 7.2 | 73% | 62 | 7.1 | Wes Anderson |
| 34 | Mean Girls '2004 | Drama / Comedy | 7.1 | 84% | 66 | 7.2 | Mark Waters |
| 35 | Layer Cake '2004 | Drama / Thriller / Crime | 7.2 | 81% | 73 | 6.9 | Matthew Vaughn |
| 36 | Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy '2004 | Comedy | 7.1 | 66% | 63 | 6.7 | Adam McKay |
| 37 | Team America: World Police '2004 | Action / Comedy | 7.2 | 77% | 64 | 6.7 | Trey Parker |
| 38 | The Phantom of the Opera '2004 | Thriller / Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 32% | 40 | 7.3 | Joel Schumacher |
| 39 | Closer '2004 | Drama / Romance | 7.1 | 67% | 65 | 6.8 | Mike Nichols |
| 40 | Super Size Me '2004 | Documentary | 7.2 | - | 73 | 6.7 | Morgan Spurlock |
| 41 | The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie '2004 | Animation / Comedy / Fantasy | 7.2 | 68% | 67 | 7.1 | Stephen Hillenburg |
| 42 | Napoleon Dynamite '2004 | Comedy | 7.0 | 72% | 64 | 6.8 | Jared Hess |
| 43 | Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle '2004 | Comedy | 7.0 | 75% | 64 | 6.6 | Danny Leiner |
| 44 | District B13 '2004 | Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi | 7.1 | 81% | 70 | 6.8 | Pierre Morel |
| 45 | National Treasure '2004 | Action / Mystery | 6.9 | 47% | 40 | 6.7 | Jon Turteltaub |
| 46 | Hellboy '2004 | Fantasy / Action | 6.9 | 81% | 72 | 6.7 | Guillermo del Toro |
| 47 | Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events '2004 | Comedy | 6.8 | 72% | 62 | 6.8 | Brad Silberling |
| 48 | 50 First Dates '2004 | Comedy / Romance | 6.8 | 45% | 48 | 6.9 | Peter Segal |
| 49 | The Lion King 1½ '2004 | Animation / Comedy | 6.5 | 76% | - | 6.6 | Bradley Raymond |
| 50 | Primer '2004 | Sci-Fi / Drama / Thriller | 6.7 | 72% | 68 | 6.7 | Shane Carruth |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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