'The Empire Strikes Back' Ranked Among 'Best Movies of All Time' by Film Fans
In a ranking collated by Empire magazine, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back was named among the greatest films ever made.
The sci-fi sequel came just three years after George Lucas' original space opera, which took the world by storm and dominated the box office in 1977. The first film pulled in an incredible $775 million worldwide against a reported budget of $11 million, allowing it to surpass Steven Spielberg's Jaws as the highest-grossing movie ever at that point in time (via Box Office Mojo).
Needless to say, there was a lot of pressure riding on The Empire Strikes Back to live up to the sky-high expectations of fans. This time, Lucas passed the directorial duties on to Irvin Kershner, while giving Raiders of the Lost Ark scribe Lawrence Kasdan the writing responsibilities.
The sequel went through an incredibly turbulent production process, which included on-set fires, inflated budgets, and actor injuries. The Empire Strikes Back was finally released in 1980, continuing the saga of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader that fans had become so invested in.
Surprisingly, The Empire Strikes Back wasn't an immediate hit. Many fans were displeased with the sequel's darker tone and blamed Kershner and Kasdan for misinterpreting the spirit of Lucas' original screenplay. Critics were also harsher on the sequel; it took home Academy Awards for its sound mixing and visual effects, but wasn't recognized in Best Picture or Best Director, as the first movie was.
Although The Empire Strikes Back wasn't the record-breaking financial giant that the original Star Wars movie had been, it was still a massive financial success. Its worldwide gross ended up totalling $550 million, thanks to a massive marketing campaign and several theatrical re-releases.
In the years since, The Empire Strikes Back has been critically re-evaluated and is now considered one of, if not the very best, Star Wars movies ever made. Its darker tone and higher stakes are now regarded as a crucial turning point in the franchise that transformed it from a light-hearted sci-fi adventure into a truly gripping story that could endure for generations.
In Empire's ranking, they wrote: "If Star Wars gave us a whole new cinematic galaxy, Empire made that galaxy feel so much larger, deeper, and richer [...] It is, simply, bigger and better than the original Star Wars, influential in its own right with its downer-ending and game-changing familial revelations."
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published June 6, 2026 at 6:16 AM.