In 2008 10,000 Empire readers, 150 of Hollywood's finest and 50 key film critics voted in the most ambitious movie poll ever attempted. This resulted in the list "The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time".

In 2014 the poll was done again. This time 250.000 people voted, resulting in the "The 301 Greatest Movies Of All Time".

In 2017 another poll was done, this time resulting in the "Empire 100 Greatest Movies".

In 2020, Empire celebrated the fact that 30 years earlier the first Empire did hit the shelves by creating the list "The 30 best films of Empire's lifetime".

In 2022, they updated the "Empire 100 Greatest Movies" list.