Last week I introduced the concept of a demographic footprint for individual movies. Nice idea, but what good is it? The Way We Were is on my watch list this week. It’s this week’s Friday Night Movie with my wife. Here’s its demographic footprint:
The Way We Were | ||||
Gender Target | Gender Friendly | Age Target | Age Friendly | Objective “Really Like” Probability |
Female | Female | 30+ | 30+ | 72.6% |
Not much of an insight is it? It’s telling you that it’s a “chick flick”. And, because it was released in 1973, it has greater appeal to older women who nostalgically remember the way it was the first time they saw the movie. The reality is that, if you are familiar with a movie, you know who the movie appeals to without having that knowledge confirmed statistically. But, what about movies you’re not familiar with?
Rampage was the number one movie at the Box Office last weekend. From trailers you might have seen, you know that it is an action movie that you expect to be a “guy movie” but should guys go out and see it? The early data feedback might suggest otherwise.
Beginning this week, I’m using Objective “Really Like” Probability data and Demographic Footprint data to advise you whether going to a movie in last weekend’s Box Office Top Ten is a good bet and, if it is, who is it a good bet for. Here’s this week’s list:
Recommendations for the Weekend Box Office Top Ten | |||
Weekend Ending April 15, 2018 | |||
Movie | Weekend Box Office | “Really Like” Probability? | Who Should See it? |
Rampage | $34.5 | 62.9% | Nobody Yet |
A Quiet Place | $32.6 | 70.4% | Fans of Horror Thrillers |
Truth or Dare | $19.1 | 51.2% | Nobody Yet |
Ready Player One | $11.2 | 71.7% | Fans of Action Adventures |
Blockers | $10.3 | 70.4% | Young Adult Fans of Comedies |
Black Panther | $5.3 | 74.0% | Everyone |
Isle Of Dogs | $5.0 | 72.2% | Fans of Quality Animated Movies |
I Can Only Imagine | $3.9 | 69.6% | Fans of Faith Based Movies |
Acrimony | $3.8 | 54.3% | Nobody Yet |
Chappaquiddick | $3.0 | 70.4% | Grown-Ups Familiar with the Events |
In future weeks you’ll find this list on the sidebar of this page.
The “Really Like” Probability column suggests that there are a number of potentially good options at the movies this week. I use 65% as the cut off for whether I recommend a movie or not. Under that criteria there are seven movies worth seeing by someone. The question is whether these seven movies are worth seeing by everybody.
When a movie is first released it takes a little time to develop fully credible data. Rampage was just released last Friday. The jury is still out as to whether it is more than a mediocre movie for even its target demographic. The data for Black Panther is robust. I can say with a lot of confidence that all demographic groups will probably “really like” the movie. For the remaining six recommended movies, there isn’t enough data to recommend the movie beyond the segments identified here.
Movies recently released in the theaters are the movies you are most unfamiliar with. When Rotten Tomatoes gives a new movie a Certified Fresh and IMDB develops an average rating of 7.5 or higher, you can usually feel confident that the movie is a good movie. Those ratings, though, can’t tell you whether it will be a good movie for you.
With this new weekly list I’m introducing, I’m confident that you can go down this list and increase your odds of seeing a movie this week that you will “really like” . Let me know if you agree. Also, let me know if you like the new blog format I’m experimenting with.