'Wizard of Oz' beats 'Star Wars' as 'most influential' movie of all time

The Wizard of Oz has topped a list of the ‘most influential’ movies of all time.

The 1939 classic beat movies like Star Wars, Psycho and 2001 in a study undertaken by the University of Turin.

Out of 47,000 movies studied, the classic fantasy has been deemed to have had the most references made to it, and the most spin-offs.

“We propose an alternative method to box office takings, which are affected by factors beyond the quality of the film such as advertising and distribution, and reviews, which are ultimately subjective, for analysing the success of a film,” said lead researcher Dr Livio Bioglio.

“We have developed an algorithm that uses references between movies as a measure for success, and which can also be used to evaluate the career of directors, actors and actresses, by considering their participation in top-scoring movies.”

The study aimed to assess movie’s effects on one another, using an algorithm and the data from IMDb.

As such, the results gathered found the ‘films that inspire other important ones, and for this reason have had a highly influential role in the history of cinema’.

Applying the same algorithm to actors, it found that Samuel L. Jackson, Clint Eastwood and Tom Cruise made up the top three.

The Wizard of Oz was found to have been referenced in almost 3000 other movies, from use of iconic songs like Over The Rainbow, to perhaps its most famous line ‘I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore’, which is quoted in movies from Avatar to Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.

It’s also been remade many times, from The Wiz in 1978, to a Tom and Jerry version in 2011.

Knocked into second place is Star Wars, followed by Hitchcock’s Psycho, the 1930 version of King Kong, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Here’s the top 20 in full:

1. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

2. Star Wars (1977)

3. Psycho (1960)

4. King Kong (19330

5. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

6. Metropolis (1927)

7. Citizen Kane (1941)

8. The Birth of a Nation (1915)

9. Frankenstein (1931)

10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

11. Casablanca (1942)

12. Dracula (1931)

13. The Godfather (1972)

14. Jaws (1975)

15. Nosferatu (1922)

16. The Searchers (1956)

17. Cabiria (1914)

18. Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

19. Gone With the Wind (1939)

20. Battleship Potemkin (1925)

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