Popular films are the films most enjoyed by the regular moviegoer. Most popular lists come from large-sample polls. Although most of the respondents to these polls have popular tastes, people with mainstream and highbrow tastes undoubtedly participate as well. This probably weakens the differences found between the popular taste and the other two tastes. For example, the high ranking of Citizen Kane (1941) on the popular list is partly due to mainstream and highbrow voters than to regular moviegoers.
Some people say that most film fans believe that film started in 1977 with Star Wars. There is a bit of truth to this. Nearly 2/3 of the top-100 popular films were made in 1977 or later. The earliest films among the top-100 popular films were made in 1939. Fourteen of the top-100 mainstream films and 22 of the top-100 highbrow films were made before then. However, people with popular tastes make up for this by being more open to recent films than people with other tastes are. There is only one film from the 1990s among the top-100 highbrow films--Schindler's List (1993)—and only eight from the 1990s among the top-100 mainstream films, with the latest made over ten years ago. However, there are 36 films from the 1990s and 2000s among the top-100 popular films.
People with popular tastes tend to ignore films in languages other than English. There are only five films in the top-100 popular films in other languages, and this including The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), which is dubbed into English. This is still more than what the top-100 mainstream films have. Furthermore, people with popular tastes tend to be more open to different genres of films than other people are. The top-100 popular films include at least as many action, adventure, and science-fiction films as the top-100 lists for the other two tastes combined. The top popular films also include more crime, fantasy, horror, and thriller films than the top-100 lists for either of the other two tastes.
People with a popular taste may not consider originality to be particularly important. The top-100 popular films contain more sequels and more remakes than the top-100 lists of the other two tastes combined.