2018: A Year in Movies
The Relationship Between IMDB Viewer Votes, Gross Earnings and Which Genre Enjoys the Most of Both
It does not take the late Siskel and Ebert to figure out which movies sell and captivate audiences. There is a reason the term “blockbuster” was coined to describe those movies that not only crush sales records, but also adhere to a certain theme in their respective scripts. For decades, without fail, action movies have enjoyed successes at the box office and at homes across America.
The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) compiles a list of the top 100 movies, each year, based on gross profits, and a star-rating generated by viewer votes. In the accompanying graphic the top 100 movies of 2018 are depicted to include how much money they earned that year, what their “star” rating was and how many viewers voted to participate in that rating. Moreover, the genre of these movies is conveyed throughout the pictorial by color coding. The larger the circle on the chart, the more votes it received in conjunction with their respective star-rating. Out of those 100 movies, ten were removed from the dataset due to a lack of information regarding their gross earnings for the year.
Perhaps the real story is just how much action movies blow all other genres out of the water in virtually all categories. A quick glance at the graphic and viewers will note that the board is dominated by red: action. Not only are there more action movies represented across the image for 2018 movies, but they also enjoy larger circles, meaning more consumers chose to vote for that particular movie. Additionally, the vast majority of action movies hold a 6 or higher star-rating and the eight highest voted-on movies also grossed between $200 million and $700 million in 2018.
For context, two separate images were included to isolate action movie statistics as well as those for another popular genre: drama. Note, that action films overshadow this other popular category of movies in all areas. Moreover, the scope in which drama takes a back seat to action is dramatic to say the least. Only two drama pictures reach the lower end of the action gross revenue spectrum of $200 million. The remainder hover well below that mark, a place in which most action movies consider their median earnings.
This is also the case for all other movie categories, save one animation movie (The Incredibles 2) which enjoyed the same level of success as major action movies. However, many can argue that such a movie can also be included in the action category based on the plot and sequencing. In the end, the data illustrates that if a production company wants to make a popular and profitable movie, they are better off choosing action over all else.
