the tiebreakBroken 16 October 2026

The Godfather or Goodfellas?The Godfather,
clearly.

The Godfather 98.9, Goodfellas 85.3 out of 100: a margin of 13.6 points.

One vote per device. You see the split after you vote.

The scorecard

Five criteria, each worth a fixed share, set before any scoring. Disagree? Try another scorecard and watch the bar tip toward whoever is ahead.

As publishedThe Godfather, clearly.The Godfather 98.9, Goodfellas 85.3 out of 100: a margin of 13.6 points.

Set your own
The Godfather98.9Goodfellas85.3

Our scorecard. Try another, and watch the bar tip.

Where it was won

The lead, built criterion by criterion, starting with the one that did most to decide it.

Commercial+7.3
Awards+3.8
Influence+2.5
Critical standing0.0
Audience standing0.0

LeadThe Godfather +13.6the margin, 13.6 points

Each criterion in turn. Swipe through.

01 / 05

15%

Commercial

Adds 7.3 points to The Godfather's lead.

02 / 05

20%

Awards

Adds 3.8 points to The Godfather's lead.

03 / 05

20%

Influence

Adds 2.5 points to The Godfather's lead.

04 / 05

30%

Critical standing

Moves The Godfather's lead by less than 0.1 points.

05 / 05

15%

Audience standing

Moves The Godfather's lead by less than 0.1 points.

Commercial

Adds 7.3 points to The Godfather's lead.

The Godfather
99.8 · phenomenon, a record or a cultural event in itself
Goodfellas
51.1 · hit, a clear profit

Edge: The Godfather +48.6

For The Godfather

“It was the highest-grossing film of 1972, and was for a time the highest-grossing film ever made”

The Godfather, Wikipedia · Lead section, first paragraph

More for The Godfather (13)

For Goodfellas

“Goodfellas grossed $6.3 million from 1,070 theaters in its opening weekend, topping the box office.”

Goodfellas, Wikipedia · Reception: Box office

More for Goodfellas (15)
The receiptsHow the evidence was gathered, what the judge saw, the two checks, and the run's facts.

How the evidence was gathered

researchers: Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok
4
web searches
107
quotes found word for word
147/213
facts after merging
124

What the judge saw

Film A

  • “Metascore Universal Acclaim Based on 16 Critic Reviews 100”
  • “Came in twelfth on the British Film Institute's 2022 Sight & Sound critics' poll, while their directors' poll listed it third.”
  • “is ranked the second-greatest film in American cinema (behind Citizen Kane) by the American Film Institute”
  • “Film A 12 The first of the director’s epic trilogy about the crime family is the disturbing story of a son drawn inexorably into his father’s Mafia affairs.”
  • “2. Film A (the director, 1972) 1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)”
  • “It holds a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes”
  • “The BFI Sight & Sound poll consistently ranks it among the top 10 in both its critics' and directors' surveys.”
  • "100% Positive
  • “in 2007 it placed second on the list of Greatest American Films on AFI's 10th Anniversary edition of 100 Years...100 Movies”
  • “in 2003 an Esquire magazine poll named Film A the greatest film of all time”
  • “One of the most brutal and moving chronicles of American life ever designed within the limits of popular entertainment.”
  • “4, Film A and the first sequel (the director) 1972, 1974”

78 quotes, about 1,440 words. The packet the verdict scored.

Film B

  • “Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, particularly in the gangster genre”
  • “In 2015, Film B ranked 20th on BBC's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world.”
  • “Metascore Universal Acclaim Based on 21 Critic Reviews 92”
  • “In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film a full four stars and wrote, "No finer film has ever been made about organized crime – not even the rival."”
  • “the director's classic mobster movie "Film B" is the greatest film of all time, according to the experts at a British film magazine.”
  • “Hard-hitting and stylish, Film B is a gangster classic -- and arguably the high point of the director's career.”
  • “Metacritic has assigned the film a weighted average score of 92 out of 100, based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".”
  • “All of the performances are first-rate; an actor stands out, though, with his seemingly unscripted manner. Film B is easily one of the year's best films.”
  • “In a poll of 80 film critics, Film B was named the best film of the year by 34 critics.”
  • “In the subsequent 2022 polls, it was ranked 28th in the directors' poll and tied for 63rd (with Casablanca and The Third Man) in the critics' poll.”
  • “93% Tomatometer 168 Reviews”
  • “Film B, written by the author and the director, and directed by the director, is the greatest film ever made about the sensual and monetary lure of crime”
  • “Although Film B doesn’t aspire to the grandeur of the director’s mob, the director’s New Yorkers have their own vitality, even if – or perhaps because – the threat of violence is never far away.”

68 quotes, about 1,440 words. The packet the verdict scored.

Two checks that ran alongside

Names shown
+0.4
names shown: winner unchanged
Change in the margin when the judge sees the names.
A and B swapped
−0.1
0.1 away, passed
Change in the margin when the labels swap. It should sit near zero.

The run

judge
jev-1.13.0
rubric
film v1.1
calls
12
tokens
39,080
wall-clock
3.7 s
packets
The Godfather 1e4669…ff11 · Goodfellas 23d647…9d51

Questions about this verdict

How was The Godfather or Goodfellas scored?
Both sides were scored on our film rubric (v1.1): 5 criteria, with weights declared before the run. For each criterion the judge, jev-1.13.0, picked between worded levels, and plain code turned its answers into a weighted total out of 100 for each side.
What evidence did the judge see?
A blinded evidence packet for each side, labelled Film A and Film B with the names removed. Every quote was matched word for word against its source by code, and counts, dates and records were computed by code. Nothing outside the packet reached the judge.
What does the margin mean?
The Godfather finished 13.6 points ahead of Goodfellas on a 0 to 100 scale. Margins under 3 points are inside our measured noise; this one is outside it.
Can the verdict change?
No. The verdict is settled once published. It is dated as of 16 October 2026, given what was known then, and we move on to the next tie.
How do I vote?
Press Agree or Disagree under the verdict. One vote per device. Once you have voted you see how everyone else called it. Votes are counted and shown; they never change the verdict.
Image credits
  • The Godfather: a red rose boutonniere on a tuxedo lapel, a generated image (Gemini 3 Pro Image), not a photograph.
  • Goodfellas: a bulb of garlic with thin slices and a razor blade, a generated image (Gemini 3 Pro Image), not a photograph.