Films of the Decade – Social Aggregation unravels Top 10 lists

The web is a marvelous tool for research and information gathering. It is also, now, a way to collect and compare. If you have a passion for music, say, or film, you no longer need to buy dozens of newspapers or magazines to see an overview of Top 10 lists.

One rather clever example of list comparison was undertaken by Gawker.com to compile a summary of the Best Films of the Decade. Hundreds of films were collated from dozens of sources, including industry magazines, international newspapers and lifestyle websites and magazines.

The results of the survey reveal some surprises, not least that the critics failed to agree. Other highlights:

• Pixar was the most successful studio
• Lord of the Rings impressed mightily
• Harry Potter failed to feature
• comedy failed to impress
• few films gained more than a half dozen mentions

The aggregated results list of the Top 30 Films of the Decade:

Lord of the Rings trilogy

appeared on 12 lists
There Will Be Blood

11 lists
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ::
Lord of the Rings trilogy

10 lists
No Country For Old Men

8 lists
Momento

7 lists
Brokeback Mountain :: The Dark Knight

6 lists
Almost Famous :: Catch Me If You Can :: Children of Men :: Pan’s Labyrinth :: Wall-E

5 lists
City of God :: The Departed :: Finding Nemo ::
The Incredibles

4 lists
Cache :: Gladiator :: Kill Bill :: The Lives of Others ::
Lost in Translation :: Royal Tennenbaums

3 lists
The 40 Year Old Virgin :: Amelie :: Anchorman ::
The Bourne series :: Mullholland Drive :: Sideways ::
Slumdog Millionaire :: The White Ribbon ::
You Can Count on Me

Highest Paid Actresses 2008 – Angelina Jolie tops chart

Money may not be everything, but it certainly proves talent and popularity. The critics bleat on about their favourites, or who they have been paid to promote, but the public support has the final say. So we are happy to see one of our favourites at No 1 in the highest paid actress chart for 2008.

Angelina Jolie earned above $15 million for Wanted and may receive $20m for a sequel. The fee is not the only income, however, and the $15m for Edwin A. Salt will be boosted by healthy shares of profits. But also don’t forget that Angelina (and Brad) give millions to charity, and huge amounts of time to humanitarian activities.

At No 2, Julia Roberts has returned and hit the jackpot with Duplicity, earning $15 million-plus for the thriller directed by Tony Gilroy. Roberts is also a strong supporter of charities.

Moving from rather cute child actress and coed, Reese Witherspoon has accomplished a surprising variety of roles. Her salary for Four Christmases was around $14m and total earnings put Witherspoon at No 3 for the year.

Cameron Diaz is still a high earner, with around $10m for the comedy What Happens in Vegas, and that helped toward total earnings of around $50m for the year.

Another former child and TV star is No 5, Katherine Heigl, who is leaping up the earnings list. With around $6m for The Ugly Truth and $225,000 per episode for Grey’s Anatomy, our guess is her bank balance is fairly healthy.
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