'The Dark Knight' Is The Last 10 Years' Most Viewed IMDB Page

The Dark Knight" src="//cfm.yidio.com/images/article/images/_1600x1200_5158.jpg" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; float: left; width: 300px; height: 225px; " />Watch enough Hollywood studio system-era movies and there's a saying about notoriety that keeps popping up, often among mavericks and notorious types like wiseguy gangsters and anybody else with some moxie giving some nosy individual a good brush-off.

"All I know is what I read in the papers."

While the former newspaper scribe in me is flattered by that vote of confidence for struggling print media, it's now a different era where what people say about you often isn't as valuable overall as how many people are talking about you. As a society, it seems like we've shifted from always caring what's being said, to caring equally if not more about achieving a trifecta of trending on Twitter. Making the front page of Reddit is to some as golden an opportunity as winning an Oscar, and being infamous can be as lucrative as being famous.

So with that being said, what movie over the last 10 years has had its Internet Movie Database page visited more times than any other film great or small, amazing or crap-tastic?

To the surprise of very, very few, that would be Christopher Nolan's 2008 "Batman Begins" sequel "The Dark Knight." In fact, Whatculture.com IMDB's rankings for several categories suggesting just who these here Interwebz say really rules the silver (and small) screen, based soley on how many people looked at what page.

And these days, that really is the best indicator of having made your mark. From a professional and artistic perspective, an Oscar, Golden Globe or being named on any American Film Institute "100" list will almost always trump all. But at the end of the day, people make movies to be seen and enjoyed by audiences, not necessarily critics. So in that sense, the prevailing wisdom is indeed that the last reaction you want is to get no reaction at all. Billions may hate Michael Bay's "Transformers" movies, but the $2 billion the trilogy has grossed worldwide so far at least says that billions have willingly paid to see them.

Luckily for us all, "The Dark Knight" isn't "Transformers." In fact it's so beloved, that it briefly topped IMDB's Top 250 Movies based on user votes, putting it above "Titanic," "Goodfellas," "The Godfather," "Citizen Kane," "Casablanca" and others more traditionally revered as "classics" than the mega-budget superhero sequel.

Interestingly enough, the second-place movie? Richard Kelly's haunting, abstract, existential and OK, just-plain-odd 2001 indie "Donnie Darko." Maybe it isn't quite as universally beloved as "The Dark Knight" and sure, half the people visiting probably just hoped something on the IMDB page could clear up just what in the bluest of blue Hells this movie about insomniac teenagers, time-traveling humans in bunny suits named Frank and 1980s teenage malaisse was about. But it was the first movie that did really get the likes of Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jena Malone noticed.

Other inferences of note?

People during the last 10 years had a serious fascination with the third, fourth and fifth "Harry Potter" movies. All made the top 10 most-viewed list, with first, second, sixth, seventh and eighth absent. Is this some weird mutation of middle-kid syndrome where the oldest and youngest get screwed over?

People love Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. In descending order, those are the top three most-viewed stars.

In likely a "Donnie Darko"-like example of "Internet, tell me what the Hell that was?", "Lost" was the most viewed television series page, followed by "House" and "Grey's Anatomy."

Last but not least, as of now, the most viewed page for a movie in production?

Welcome to a preview of the next 10-year list's top dog: "The Dark Knight Rises."

Check out the lists below in their entirety.

Top Stars of the Last 10 Years:
1. Johnny Depp
2. Brad Pitt
3. Angelina Jolie
4. Tom Cruise
5. Natalie Portman
6. Christian Bale
7. Scarlett Johansson
8. Jennifer Aniston
9. Keira Knightley
10. Emma Watson

Top Films of the Last 10 Years:
1. The Dark Knight
2. Donnie Darko
3. Pulp Fiction
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
6. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
7. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
8. Twilight
9. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
10. The Godfather

Top TV Series of the Last 10 Years:
1. Lost
2. House M.D.
3. Grey’s Anatomy
4. Heroes
5. How I Met Your Mother
6. 24
7. Glee
8. True Blood
9. Dexter
10. Gossip Girl

Top Most Anticipated In-Production Movies:
1. The Dark Knight Rises
2. Men in Black III
3. The Dictator
4. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
5. The Expendables 2
6. Battleship
7. The Avengers
8. Rock of Ages
9. The Hunger Games
10. Prometheus