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Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

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Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#2
Interesting. I'd just been thinking about this. The last two new releases I tried watching were so bad that I couldn't finish either of them. I know this is only 2 data points, but they were both bad in the same way: they were completely predictable. That's something you commonly see in a declining medium. People recycle old ideas instead of having new ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spolia

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#3
Although I agree with the statement in general, I have to ask: is polarization really a good measure of declining quality? With ticket prices these days, maybe a higher percentage of audiences are more likely to think it was good so they don't feel like they wasted money...

Either way, nice visualization and it's always fun to read catty reviews about bad movies.

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#4
I'm not sure if I'm reading the visualizations correctly, but thankfully, they put Christopher Nolan on there, so I can have a reference as to whose work is best. ;-)

I do have to agree with AndrewO though, there are many movies that I consider to be of the highest quality that I would consider as eliciting heavy polar reactions. Primer is perhaps the best geek example.

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#5
This article makes two huge assumptions:

1) Critical meta-ratings as THE measure of quality

2) The Top 20 popular movies per year as a representation of the entire year's quality.

The author's final result seems to be that movie studios prefer to make movies that have a built-in audience (at least for big-budget blockbuster movies).

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#7
In other news, those damn kids have it too easy these days, had to walk 10 miles, bare foot, in 10 feet of snow, up hill...

Sensationalist title and a data visualization that's useless. Try average Rotten Tomatoes score or something, not some random stat with no formula made up on the spot. Seriously, what does "polarizing" actually stand for?

This kind of thing has been going on since the beginning of time and will continue until the end of it. Sorry, nothing to see here.

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#8
Two things:

* I don't think polarization is a good signal for poor quality; I would rather suggest it means a more niche product, more highly focused. That the niche being served is largely adolescents is unfortunate.

* I think big-budget movies have been getting more conservative and predictable, but I would hazard a guess that it's due to financial industry turmoil and consequently less desire for risk taking.

Re: Visualization: Movies Are Getting Worse

#9
post #8

Two things: * I don't think polarization is a good signal for poor quality; I would rather suggest it means a more niche product, more highly focused. That the niche being served is largely adolescents is unfortunate. * I think big-budget movies have been getting more conservative and predictable, but I would hazard a guess that it's due to financial industry turmoil and consequently less desire for risk taking.

"That the niche being served is largely adolescents is unfortunate."

That is the power of the high school date movie crowd at work.

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