Yeah I'm not opposed to these moves, although I struggle a little bit with seeing The Adventures of Prince Achmed behind Flesh and the Devil and The Black Pirate. paul may have stated that we focus too much on lasting acclaim, but we also should be wary that we don't focus too much on the initial reception of films - especially when they're so old that data can become a bit vague. The Adventures of Prince Achmed outscores Flesh and Pirate by quite a big margin in terms of lasting acclaim, it does very well in lasting popularity and in terms of influence: it may not have had a lot of 'copycats', directly using its style, but can't we regard Prince Achmed as a movie that showed animators the possibilities of film animation? It helped expand those ideas considerably.

It also seems to take lasting popularity over both fairly easily (especially The Black Pirate). However the same could of course also be said for the other two in initial popularity and acclaim and they are also more influential even though Prince Achmed is influential as well.

if paul agrees, we can have it as #4 as a compromise.

Since Achmed at least "was a critical and popular success" according to an article on JSTOR cited in the English Wiki article on Reiniger that I can't access from home to see what it really says, I wouldn't even be completely opposed to keeping it at #3. I'm just saying we should be wary to keep things in a proper perspective. The 6,000 ratings Achmed has at the IMDb are not that much. "The General" has 92,000 ratings, "Metropolis" 175,000, to compare it with films from around the same time. So, to say it does "very well" in lasting popularity is a stretch. Only a select few movies from the silent era even do somewhat well in lasting popularity. Thus, lasting popularity shouldn't be overly decisive when determining the rankings of films from now on, excepting a few outrunners. And I wouldn't say that Achmed doesn't have any influence. I just don't think it's necessarily more than the movie that made Garbo an international star.

Yes, #4 seems like a good compromise.

So,

1. The General - Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman
2. Faust - F. W. Murnau
3. Flesh and the Devil - Clarence Brown
4. The Adventures of Prince Achmed - Lotte Reiniger
5. The Black Pirate - Albert Parker
6. Mother - Vsevolod Pudovkin
7. Don Juan - Alan Crosland
8. Ménilmontant - Dimitri Kirsanoff
9. A Page of Madness - Teinosuke Kinugasa
10. For Heaven's Sake - Sam Taylor

11. The Scarlet Letter - Victor Sjöström
12. Moana - Robert J. Flaherty
13. La Bohème - King Vidor
14. Sparrows - William Beaudine
15. What Price Glory? - Raoul Walsh
16. Battling Butler - Buster Keaton
17. The Son of the Sheik - George Fitzmaurice
18. The Winning of Barbara Worth - Henry King
19. 3 Bad Men - John Ford
20. By the Law - Lev Kuleshov

I'd also like to point out that 'initial popularity', for me, is becoming an increasingly problematic criterium. I mean, in the early years of cinema, films were much less likely to get a widespread release across countries in which they were produced, let alone other countries/continents. Isn't lasting popularity then a better way of grading this criterium? Of course we shouldn't completely disregard initial popularity, but it is a bit more difficult to judge this.

I'm fine with the compromise by the way.

We shouldn't discard initial popularity though, as the business side of cinema was always pretty fundamental to it's history. Lasting popularity for silent movies, which by and large, are barely watched these days, is more of matter of curiousity.

I see your point. In the US the cutoff year for what you describe seems to be about 1915 so we're still a long way from American films not being distributed nationwide but in other parts of the world this may be true. Others obviously weren't even producing films yet in 1926. Since despite this, films from the silent era were probably watched by the biggest number of people during their original cinematic release(s) and not at whatever later stage, especially when viewed against the total number of people alive at the respective times, I would still say initial popularity should be the more important factor. And this is especially true for most films of the silent era since, as I said, there's only a select few films from that early that are still seen somewhat frequently. And obviously saying something should be weighed less because it's harder to judge only results in fallacies.

Yes, it does become increasingly harder to judge and a few years further back there won't be any numbers to guide us but there's still reports from time to time when something proved extraordinarily popular and if that's all we have, that's all we have. Popularity will become a less important criterion anyway and so will acclaim once we reach the pre-1920s because we will be looking at films with tons of influence that not all that many people will ever have seen. It won't make a difference whether a film has 500 ratings at the IMDb or 300; in the grand scheme of things that's nothing. What matters is the historical importance.


So am I.

1925:

TSPDT

1. Battleship Potemkin - Sergei M. Eisenstein
2. The Gold Rush - Charles Chaplin
3. Strike - Sergei M. Eisenstein
4. Seven Chances - Buster Keaton
5. Lady Windermere's Fan - Ernst Lubitsch
6. The Big Parade - King Vidor
7. The Merry Widow - Erich von Stroheim
8. The Phantom of the Opera - Rupert Julian
9. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ - Fred Niblo
10. Variety - E. A. Dupont
11. The Joyless Street - G. W. Pabst
12. Grass - Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack
13. Paris qui dort - René Clair
14. Lazybones - Frank Borzage
15. Faces of Children - Jacques Feyder
16. The Salvation Hunters - Josef von Sternberg
17. Master of the House - Carl Theodor Dreyer
18. Tartuffe - F. W. Murnau
19. Orochi - Buntarô Futagawa
20. Symphonie diagonale - Viking Eggeling
21. The Freshman - Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor
22. The Goose Woman - Clarence Brown
23. Maciste in Hell - Guido Brignone
24. The Lost World - Harry O. Hoyt
25. Prem Sanyas - Franz Osten & Himanshu Rai
26. Go West - Buster Keaton
27. Chess Fever - Vsevolod Pudovkin & Nikolai Shpikovsky
28. The Unholy Three - Tod Browning
29. The Phantom of the Moulin Rouge - René Clair
30. The Road to Yesterday - Cecil B. DeMille
31. Kentucky Pride - John Ford
32. Jewish Happiness - Alexis Granowsky
33. Feu Mathias Pascal - Marcel L'Herbier
34. The Death Ray - Lev Kuleshov
35. Body and Soul - Oscar Micheaux
36. Stage Struck - Allan Dwan
37. The Red Head - Julien Duvivier
38. The Eagle - Clarence Brown
39. The Monster - Roland West
40. Kino-pravda No. 21: Leninskaia Kino-pravda. Kinopoema o Lenine - Dziga Vertov
41. The Whirlpool of Fate - Jean Renoir
42. Lichtspiel Opus IV - Walter Ruttmann
43. Stella Dallas - Henry King
44. The Dark Angel - George Fitzmaurice
45. Rhythmus 23 - Hans Richter
46. Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse - Henri Chomette
47. A Kiss for Cinderella - Herbert Brenon
48. Tumbleweeds - King Baggot
49. Lady of the Night - Monta Bell
50. The Clash of the Wolves - Noel M. Smith

Films101

1. Battleship Potemkin - Sergei M. Eisenstein
2. The Gold Rush - Charles Chaplin
3. Strike - Sergei M. Eisenstein
4. The Big Parade - King Vidor
5. The Phantom of the Opera - Rupert Julian
6. Seven Chances - Buster Keaton
7. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ - Fred Niblo
8. The Freshman - Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor
9. The Lost World - Harry O. Hoyt
10. The Merry Widow - Erich von Stroheim
11. Lady Windermere's Fan - Ernst Lubitsch
12. Variety - E. A. Dupont
13. The Joyless Street - G. W. Pabst
14. Go West - Buster Keaton
15. Tumbleweeds - King Baggot
16. Stella Dallas - Henry King
17. Grass - Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack
18. Master of the House - Carl Theodor Dreyer
19. The Unholy Three - Tod Browning
20. The Salvation Hunters - Josef von Sternberg
21. Lady of the Night - Monta Bell
22. Body and Soul - Oscar Micheaux

RYM

1. The Gold Rush - Charles Chaplin
2. Battleship Potemkin - Sergei M. Eisenstein
3. Strike - Sergei M. Eisenstein
4. The Big Parade - King Vidor
5. Seven Chances - Buster Keaton
6. Faces of Children - Jacques Feyder
7. Lady Windermere's Fan - Ernst Lubitsch
8. Variety - E. A. Dupont
9. The Phantom of the Opera - Rupert Julian
10. The Joyless Street - G. W. Pabst
11. The Salvation Hunters - Josef von Sternberg
12. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ - Fred Niblo
13. Grass - Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack
14. The Unholy Three - Tod Browning
15. The Freshman - Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor
16. Paris qui dort - René Clair
17. Feu Mathias Pascal - Marcel L'Herbier
18. Go West - Buster Keaton
19. The Death Ray - Lev Kuleshov
20. Tartuffe - F. W. Murnau
21. Master of the House - Carl Theodor Dreyer
22. The Merry Widow - Erich von Stroheim
23. Lazybones - Frank Borzage
24. Orochi - Buntarô Futagawa
25. The Lost World - Harry O. Hoyt
26. Our Heavenly Bodies - Hanns Walter Kornblum, Johannes Meyer & Rudolf Biebrach
27. Chess Fever - Vsevolod Pudovkin & Nikolai Shpikovsky
28. The Whirlpool of Fate - Jean Renoir
29. Maciste in Hell - Guido Brignone
30. Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse - Henri Chomette
31. El húsar de la muerte - Pedro Sienna
32. Symphonie diagonale - Viking Eggeling
33. Lichtspiel Opus IV - Walter Ruttmann
34. In Youth, Beside the Lonely Sea - unknown
35. The Monster - Roland West
36. The Eagle - Clarence Brown
37. Lady of the Night - Monta Bell
38. Body and Soul - Oscar Micheaux
39. Sally of the Sawdust - D. W. Griffith
40. Kino-pravda No. 21: Leninskaia Kino-pravda. Kinopoema o Lenine - Dziga Vertov
41. His Wooden Wedding - Leo McCarey
42. The Red Head - Julien Duvivier
43. Rhythmus 23 - Hans Richter
44. Le double amour - Jean Epstein
45. The Pleasure Garden - Alfred Hitchcock
46. Lullaby - Boris Deutsch
47. Don Q, Son of Zorro - Donald Crisp
48. Das wiedergefundene Paradies - Walter Ruttmann
49. In the Land of Giants and Pygmies - Aurelio Rossi
50. The Tailor from Torzhok - Yakov Protazanov

Box office (UMR)

1. The Big Parade - King Vidor
2. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ - Fred Niblo
3. The Gold Rush - Charles Chaplin
4. Stella Dallas - Henry King
5. The Dark Angel - George Fitzmaurice
6. The Lost World - Harry O. Hoyt
7. The Phantom of the Opera - Rupert Julian
8. Little Annie Rooney - William Beaudine
9. The Golden Bed - Cecil B. DeMille
10. Seven Chances - Buster Keaton
11. The Road to Yesterday - Cecil B. DeMille
12. Go West - Buster Keaton
13. Sally, Irene and Mary - Edmund Goulding
14. Pretty Ladies - Monta Bell
15. Braveheart - Alan Hale, Sr.
16. The Coming of Amos - Paul Sloane
17. Hell's Highroad - Rupert Julian
18. The Wedding Song - Alan Hale, Sr.

Box office (Wikipedia)

1. The Big Parade - King Vidor
2. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ - Fred Niblo
3. The Freshman - Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor
4. The Gold Rush - Charles Chaplin
5. The Phantom of the Opera - Rupert Julian
6. Stella Dallas - Henry King
7. The Lost World - Harry O. Hoyt
7. Don Q, Son of Zorro - Donald Crisp
9. Little Annie Rooney - William Beaudine
10. The Merry Widow - Erich von Stroheim
10. East Lynne - Emmett J. Flynn
10. Madame Sans-Gêne - Léonce Perret
13. The Unholy Three - Tod Browning
14. The Great Divide - Reginald Barker

IMDb (Number of ratings)

1. The Gold Rush - Charles Chaplin
2. Battleship Potemkin - Sergei M. Eisenstein
3. The Phantom of the Opera - Rupert Julian
4. Seven Chances - Buster Keaton
5. Strike - Sergei M. Eisenstein
6. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ - Fred Niblo
7. The Big Parade - King Vidor
8. The Freshman - Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor
9. The Lost World - Harry O. Hoyt
10. Go West - Buster Keaton
11. The Pleasure Garden - Alfred Hitchcock
12. Tartuffe - F. W. Murnau
13. The Merry Widow - Erich von Stroheim
14. Master of the House - Carl Theodor Dreyer
15. The Eagle - Clarence Brown
16. The Unholy Three - Tod Browning
17. Paris qui dort - René Clair
18. The Joyless Street - G. W. Pabst
19. The Wizard of Oz - Larry Semon
20. Symphonie diagonale - Viking Eggeling
21. Chess Fever - Vsevolod Pudovkin & Nikolai Shpikovsky
22. Variety - E. A. Dupont
23. Lady Windermere's Fan - Ernst Lubitsch
24. The Monster - Roland West
25. Grass - Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack
26. Body and Soul - Oscar Micheaux
27. Little Annie Rooney - William Beaudine
28. Stage Struck - Allan Dwan
29. Faces of Children - Jacques Feyder
30. Cobra - Joseph Henabery
31. Lady of the Night - Monta Bell
32. Zander the Great - George Hill
33. The Circle - Frank Borzage
34. The Whirlpool of Fate - Jean Renoir
35. Tumbleweeds - King Baggot
36. Sally of the Sawdust - D. W. Griffith
37. Lazybones - Frank Borzage
38. Maciste in Hell - Guido Brignone
39. Lights of Old Broadway - Monta Bell
40. Don Q, Son of Zorro - Donald Crisp
41. Gus Visser and His Singing Duck - Theodore Case
42. Rhythmus 23 - Hans Richter
43. 1925 Studio Tour - unknown
44. Orochi - Buntarô Futagawa
45. Feu Mathias Pascal - Marcel L'Herbier
46. The Salvation Hunters - Josef von Sternberg
47. Lichtspiel Opus IV - Walter Ruttmann
48. Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde - Scott Pembroke & Joe Rock
49. The Rag Man - Edward F. Cline
50. The Red Kimono - Walter Lang

AFI Desk Reference: notable films (in alphabetical order)

Battleship Potemkin - Sergei M. Eisenstein
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ - Fred Niblo
The Big Parade - King Vidor
The Eagle - Clarence Brown
The Freshman - Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor
Go West - Buster Keaton
The Gold Rush - Charles Chaplin
The Joyless Street - G. W. Pabst
Lady Windermere's Fan - Ernst Lubitsch
Lightnin' - John Ford
The Lost World - Harry O. Hoyt
Madame Sans-Gêne - Léonce Perret
The Merry Widow - Erich von Stroheim
The Phantom of the Opera - Rupert Julian
The Pleasure Garden - Alfred Hitchcock
The Pony Express - James Cruze
Riders of the Purple Sage - Lynn Reynolds
Sally of the Sawdust - D. W. Griffith
The Salvation Hunters - Josef von Sternberg
Seven Chances - Buster Keaton
Shôhin eiga-shû: Machi no sketch - Kenji Mizoguchi
Stella Dallas - Henry King
Strike - Sergei M. Eisenstein
Tumbleweeds - King Baggot
The Unholy Three - Tod Browning
Variety - E. A. Dupont

My list:

1. Battleship Potemkin
2. The Gold Rush
3. The Big Parade
4. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
5. Strike
6. The Phantom of the Opera
7. Seven Chances
8. The Lost World
9. The Freshman
10. The Merry Widow
11. The Unholy Three
12. The Joyless Street
13. Lady Windermere's Fan
14. Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life
15. Variety
16. Go West
17. The Eagle
18. Paris qui dort
19. Master of the House
20. Stella Dallas

21. Chess Fever
22. The Monster
23. Body and Soul
24. Little Annie Rooney
25. Faces of Children
26. Lazybones
27. Orochi
28. The Salvation Hunters
29. Tartuffe
30. Tumbleweeds
31. Braveheart
32. Feu Mathias Pascal
33. The Clash of the Wolves
34. The Vanishing American
35. The Dark Angel
36. Don Q, Son of Zorro
37. Stage Struck
38. Lady of the Night
39. The Plastic Age
40. Sally of the Sawdust
41. Our Heavenly Bodies
42. Lights of Old Broadway
43. The Goose Woman
44. Symphonie diagonale
45. The Circle
46. The Red Kimono
47. Sally, Irene and Mary
48. The Death Ray
49. East Lynne
50. The Road to Yesterday
51. The Pleasure Garden
52. Lichtspiel Opus IV
53. The Golden Bed
54. Gus Visser and His Singing Duck
55. Maciste in Hell
56. Rhythmus 23
57. Cobra
58. Madame Sans-Gêne
59. The Red Head
60. A Kiss for Cinderella
61. The Whirlpool of Fate
62. Prem Sanyas
63. The Phantom of the Moulin Rouge
64. The Rag Man
65. Alice Solves the Puzzle
66. El húsar de la muerte
67. Pretty Ladies
68. Kino-pravda No. 21: Leninskaia Kino-pravda. Kinopoema o Lenine
69. The Coming of Amos
70. The Wizard of Oz
71. Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse
72. The Great Divide
73. Zander the Great
74. Hell's Highroad
75. The Wedding Song

1925
1. The Battleship Potemkin - Sergei M. Eisenstein
2. The Gold Rush - Charles Chaplin
3. The Big Parade - King Vidor
4. The Phantom of the Opera - Rupert Julian
5. Strike - Sergei M. Eisenstein
6. Ben-Hur - Fred Niblo
7. The Freshman - Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor
8. Seven Chances - Buster Keaton
9. The Lost World - Harry O. Hoyt
10. Grass - Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B.Schoedsack

11. The Merry Widow - Erich von Stroheim
12. Lady Windermere's Fan - Ernst Lubitsch
13. The Unholy Three - Tod Browning
14. Joyless Street - Georg Wilhelm Pabst
15. Varieté - Ewald André Dupont
16. Go West - Buster Keaton
17. Tumbleweeds - King Baggot
18. Body and Soul - Oscar Micheaux
19. Stella Dallas - Henry King
20. The Eagle - Clarence Brown

1. Battleship Potemkin
2. The Gold Rush
3. The Big Parade
4. Strike
5. The Phantom of the Opera
6. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
7. Seven Chances
8. The Freshman
9. The Lost World
10. The Merry Widow
Grass
Lady Windermere’s Fan
The Joyless Street
Variety
Master of the House

1. Battleship Potemkin
2. The Gold Rush
3. The Big Parade
4. The Phantom of the Opera
5. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
6. Strike
7. Seven Chances
8. The Freshman
9. The Lost World
10. Lady Windermere's Fan

11. The Unholy Three
12. The Joyless Street
13. The Merry Widow
14. Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life
15. Variety
16. Go West
17. The Eagle
18. Paris qui dort
19. Body and Soul
20. Master of the House

Luuk?

1926, the leads:

1. The General (Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman) (Buster Keaton, Marion Mack)
2. Faust (F. W. Murnau) (Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn)
3. Flesh and the Devil (Clarence Brown) (Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lars Hanson)
4. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Lotte Reiniger)
5. The Black Pirate (Albert Parker) (Douglas Fairbanks, Billie Dove, Tempe Pigott, Donald Crisp)
6. Mother (Vsevolod Pudovkin) (Vera Baranovskaya, Nikolai Batalov)
7. Don Juan (Alan Crosland) (John Barrymore, Jane Winton, John Roche)
8. Ménilmontant (Dimitri Kirsanoff) (Nadia Sibirskaïa, Yolande Beaulieu, Guy Belmont, Jean Pasquier)
9. A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa) (Masao Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa)
10. For Heaven's Sake (Sam Taylor) (Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston)

11. The Scarlet Letter (Victor Sjöström) (Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson)
12. Moana (Robert J. Flaherty) (Documentary)
13. La Bohème (King Vidor) (Lillian Gish, John Gilbert)
14. Sparrows (William Beaudine) (Mary Pickford, Gustav von Seyffertitz)
15. What Price Glory? (Raoul Walsh) (Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, Dolores del Río, Phyllis Haver)
16. Battling Butler (Buster Keaton) (Buster Keaton, Sally O'Neil, Walter James)
17. The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice) (Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Bánky, Montagu Love)
18. The Winning of Barbara Worth (Henry King) (Ronald Colman, Vilma Bánky, Gary Cooper)
19. 3 Bad Men (John Ford) (George O'Brien, Olive Borden)
20. By the Law (Lev Kuleshov) (Aleksandra Khokhlova, Sergey Komarov, Vladimir Fogel)