How to make a movie tier list

What a movie tier list is for

A tier list sorts films into a few labelled bands, usually drawn as rows from best at the top to worst at the bottom. Each row can hold as many films as belong there. It is a looser format than a numbered list, and that is the point: it records how you regard a film without asking you to decide whether it is your fourteenth or fifteenth favourite.

That makes tier lists good at a few specific jobs. They give a quick picture of your taste across a large collection. They are easy to share and argue about. They also make room for honest ties, where two films matter to you in completely different ways but about equally.

If what you really want is an ordered top ten, you will be better served by a ranking. Our guide on how to rank your favourite movies covers that. This guide is about the bands.

Define each tier before you place a single film

The most common reason a tier list feels arbitrary is that the tiers were never defined. “A” on Monday becomes “B” by Thursday because nothing anchors it. Before placing anything, write one sentence for each tier that describes what a film must do to belong there.

Good tier descriptions are about your response rather than about the film’s reputation. Compare these two ways of describing a top tier:

• Vague: “The best films.”
• Useful: “I would happily watch it again tonight, and it still changes how I see something.”

The useful version gives you a test you can apply to any film. It also makes clear that the list is personal, so a widely admired film you found cold can sit lower without needing an apology.

You can name tiers with letters, words or both. Letters borrowed from school grades, with an extra “S” above “A”, are common because they are instantly readable. Words carry more meaning. Combining the two, as in “S: rewatch tonight”, gives you both.

How many tiers should you use?

There is no correct number, but the choice has consequences.

• Three tiers (loved, liked, didn’t work for me) are fast and almost argument-free. They are a good start for a big backlog, but your favourites will crowd the top row.
• Four to six tiers suit most personal lists. There is enough room to separate a lifelong favourite from a very good film, without too many borderline calls.
• Seven or more give fine distinctions, but each extra boundary creates more films that could sit on either side of it. At that point you are close to making a ranking, and comparisons may serve you better than sorting.

A useful check: if one tier holds more than about half your films, it is probably doing two jobs. Split it, or tighten its description.

A worked example: ten films in five tiers

Here is one viewer’s illustrative list. The tiers and placements describe a single person’s taste, not a critical consensus; your own list will almost certainly differ.

A few things are worth noticing. Paddington 2 sits beside Parasite because the A tier is defined by willingness to rewatch, not by ambition or seriousness. Oppenheimer is in the bottom tier despite its acclaim, because this viewer found its three hours a slog; the tier description makes that a statement about their experience, not about the film’s craft.

The list also reveals something an ordered ranking would hide: this viewer has two films they regard as equally essential, and three very different films they would happily see again. Forcing those into positions one to five would add precision they do not actually feel.

What to do with borderline films

Every tier list has films that hover between two rows. In the example, La La Land was a close call between A and B. Three techniques help.

Compare with a resident. Pick a film already settled in the higher tier and ask your tier question about both. Would this viewer rewatch La La Land as gladly as Mad Max: Fury Road? They decided not, so it stayed in B.

Reread the description, not the film’s reputation. Borderline cases are often films you feel you ought to rate higher. Go back to the sentence that defines the tier and apply it literally.

Allow a “to rewatch” shelf. If your memory of a film is too faint to place it fairly, park it outside the tiers until you see it again. That is better than guessing and forgetting that you guessed.

When tiers beat a strict ranking, and when they don’t

Tiers work best when you have many films, when you care more about broad regard than precise order, or when you want a list that is quick to read at a glance. They are also kinder to films that are excellent in incomparable ways.

A strict ranking is better when you need to choose: a single recommendation, a top ten for the year, or a decision between two favourites. It is also more sensitive to change, because every new film must find an exact position.

You do not have to pick one. Many people keep tiers for their whole collection and an ordered list only for the top tier. If you would like to build that order through comparisons, our explainer on pairwise ranking describes how choosing between two at a time produces one.

Keep the list fresh

Taste changes, and a tier list that never moves becomes a record of who you used to be. That is fine if it is what you want, but most people prefer a list that keeps up.

• Place new films as you watch them. Compare a new film with a resident of the tier you think it belongs in, then decide.
• Move films after a rewatch. A second viewing is the best evidence you will get. Let it change the placement.
• Date your list. A short note such as “October 2026” makes an old version interesting rather than embarrassing when you look back.
• Revisit the descriptions occasionally. If you keep overriding a tier’s definition, rewrite it to match what you actually do.

Keeping a film log alongside the tiers helps, because a short note written after each viewing is a better guide to placement than a memory several years old.

Film tiers in Crestora

In Crestora’s Theatre, you do not drag films into rows yourself. You compare films two at a time, and those choices update an Elo-style score for each one. Each film then lands in a tier according to its score band, so your tier list is built from your comparisons rather than from a separate sorting step.

Crestora’s film tiers, from top to bottom, are:

• SS · Divine masterpiece
• S · Pure brilliance
• A+ · Absolutely killer
• A · Great
• B · Respectable effort
• C · Painfully mediocre
• D · Utter disappointment
• E · Hot trash
• F · Burn with fire

Films you have not yet compared wait outside the tiers until they have a score. Because placement follows the scores, a borderline film moves between tiers naturally as you make more comparisons, and close calls can be recorded as a draw with “Too tough”. Crestora is free on iPhone.