A spokesman for phone recycling website www.PhonePiggyBank.com, which carried out the study, said: "E.T. is a film for the whole family. It is emotionally-charged, funny and engaging and will never be equalled in terms of its originality and global appeal.

"It is a worthy winner and it actually beat a string of bigger budget movies to come top. This shows that quite often the golden oldies are better than more modern flicks."