A great hero can only exist with a great villain stood opposite them, giving them a reason to rise up and overcome the odds. In fact, it’s tricky to think of any great movie that exists without a compelling antagonist.
However, in many cases, audiences actually find themselves engaging more with the bad guy than the hero!
Whether they’re scary, funny, or just so charismatic that you can’t help but be drawn to them, some of cinema’s best ever characters are villains.
But who are the best and most popular movie villains?
Here at ToppCasinoBonus, we've ranked some of the most iconic baddies based on the following three factors to find out:
Rotten Tomatoes score
(from their most notable movie)
Google search volume
Wikipedia Page Views
(in the last 30 days)
RANKED #1 - OVERALL SCORE: 81.05/100
Wikipedia Page Views:
164,475
Until recently, only diehard comic book fans would have heard of Thanos. While we had glimpsed him in the post-credits scenes of various movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and last year’s Endgame that saw the “Mad Titan” cement himself as one of the best superhero villains of all time.
The record-breaking Avengers: Endgame received a 94% rating from critics at Rotten Tomatoes, with over half a million people Googling Thanos each month, with over 160,000 Wikipedia page views too.
RANKED #2 - OVERALL SCORE: 69.2/100
Wikipedia Page Views:
375,997
Often hailed as cinema’s greatest ever baddie, Darth Vader has been one of the most iconic villains for over 40 years now.
It’s slightly surprising to see how far behind Vader is when it comes to Google searches (37,000 a month), but it goes without saying that he remains one of cinema’s best ever villains, stealing every scene that he’s in, whether it’s the voice acting by James Earl Jones, the imposing frame of David Prowse, or that iconic theme music.
RANKED #3 - OVERALL SCORE: 66.57/100
Wikipedia Page Views:
41,214
One of the best things about Batman's nemesis is that we’ve seen so many different takes on the character, from the campy 1960s movie based on the TV show to the darker portrayals by Jack Nicholson and the recent Oscar-winning performance by Joaquin Phoenix.
But it’s arguably Heath Ledger’s take on the Clown Prince of Crime which remains the most iconic. The Dark Knight is considered one of the best superhero movies of all time, in large part due to Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance, receiving an impressive 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Key Thanos Joker Terminator Tony Montana No data
Albania - 5,500, Andorra - 400, Angola - 2,600, Antigua And Barbuda - 700, Argentina - 237,000, Australia - 258,000, Austria - 36,000, Azerbaijan - 13,000, Bahamas - 2,600, Bahrain - 5,800, Bangladesh - 32,000, Belarus - 3,500, Belize - 900, Benin - 250, Bolivia - 25,000, Bosnia And Herzegovina - 8,100, Botswana - 1,200, Brazil - 1,300,000, Brunei - 3,900, Bulgaria - 17,000, Burkina Faso - 100, Cambodia - 5,800, Cameroon - 2,100, Canada - 283,000, Cape Verde - 400, Chile - 132,000, Colombia - 182,000, Costa Rica - 34,000, Czech Republic - 47,000, Democratic Republic of the Congo - 1,000, Denmark - 48,000, Dominican Republic - 20,000, Ecuador - 44,000, Egypt - 75,000, El Salvador - 14,000, Estonia - 5,400, Ethiopia - 1,200, Fiji - 2,300, Finland - 28,000, France - 370,000, Gabon - 1,500, Germany - 304,000, Ghana - 6,300, Gibraltar - 150, Guadeloupe - 2,100, Guatemala - 16,000, Guyana - 1,600, Honduras - 9,800, Hong Kong - 52,000, Hungary - 60,000, Iceland - 3,000, India - 799,000, Indonesia - 471,000, Israel - 42,000, Ivory Coast - 2,500, Jamaica - 5,600, Jordan - 9,900, Kazakhstan - 9,200, Kenya - 12,000, Kuwait - 10,000, Kyrgyzstan - 2,600, Laos - 1,300, Latvia - 6,100, Lebanon - 7,800, Libya - 3,100, Lithuania - 12,000, Luxembourg - 2,800, Madagascar - 1,400, Malawi - 150, Malaysia - 141,000, Maldives - 1,700, Malta - 2,900, Mauritius - 5,800, Mexico - 578,000, Moldova - 2,700, Mongolia - 4,800, Montenegro - 1,900, Mozambique - 2,600, Namibia - 1,200, Nepal - 9,900, Netherlands - 81,000, New Zealand - 44,000, Nicaragua - 6,900, Niger - 150, Nigeria - 30,000, Norway - 46,000, Oman - 7,500, Palestinian territories - 2,500, Panama - 12,000, Paraguay - 14,000, Peru - 87,000, Philippines - 235,000, Puerto Rico - 20,000, Qatar - 11,000, Russia - 55,000, Rwanda - 600, Saint Vincent And Grenadines - 500, Senegal - 1,400, Seychelles - 60, Singapore - 56,000, Slovakia - 22,000, South Africa - 75,000, South Korea - 26,000, Spain - 289,000, Sweden - 59,000, Switzerland - 35,000, Taiwan - 33,000, Tanzania - 3,300, Thailand - 119,000, Togo - 600, Trinidad And Tobago - 11,000, Ukraine - 18,000, United Arab Emirates> - 54,000, United Kingdom - 584,000, United States - 2,600,000, United States Virgin Islands - 200, Uruguay - 17,000, Venezuela - 91,000, Vietnam - 157,000, Zambia - 2,100, Zimbabwe - 3,200.
Afghanistan - 1,400, Algeria - 28,000, Armenia - 5,900, Belgium - 52,000, Bhutan - 300, Croatia - 19,000, Cyprus - 9,400, Djibouti - 100, Georgia - 16,000, Greece - 167,000, Haiti - 800, Iraq - 20,000, Ireland - 37,000, Italy - 327,00, Japan - 57,000, North Macedonia - 4,800, Morocco - 35,000, Pakistan - 78,000, Poland - 207,000, Portugal - 52,000, Romania - 53,000, Saudi Arabia - 44,000, Serbia - 19,000, Slovenia - 7,800, Sri Lanka - 23,000, Suriname - 2,200, Tajikistan - 500, Tunisia - 13,000, Turkey - 316,000.
Republic of the Congo - 60
Mali - 300
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RANK |
Villain |
Portrayed By |
Best Known Film |
Rotten |
Monthly |
Wikipedia |
Overall |
|---|
We ranked each villain on the following three factors, giving each a normalised score out of 100 for each factor, before taking an average score out of 100.
Rotten Tomatoes score
The critic score (also known as the ‘Tomatometer score’) of the villain’s best-known film according to Rotten Tomatoes. If the villain has appeared in numerous different films, we looked at the one with the highest inflation adjusted box office revenue.
Monthly Google Searches
The number of average monthly Google searches for the character’s name, according to Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer.
Wikipedia Page Views
The number of page views in the past 30 days on Wikipedia (as of 03/04/2020).
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ToppCasinoBonus.com is an online portal offering advice about online casino offers. At present we mostly cater to a Norwegian audience, however, we are looking at expanding our offering to other markets and the Villain Index was created to gain brand awareness in the UK and other English speaking countries. The topic of the Villain Index was specifically designed to resonate with media in areas where market insights shows potential costumers can be found.