Recent articles on the Film Data Blog

Each week I look at a different film industry topic, focusing on the data and statistics to reveal what's really going on.

Why do cinemas hate long movies?

November 11, 2019 4 comments

Last week, I was chatting with a cinema owner who was angrily complaining about Martin Scorsese’s new movie, The Irishman.

The movie has proved controversial on a number of fronts:

  • It has a very short ‘release window’, thanks to it being entirely funded by Netflix.  This means that it will available to stream only 19 days weeks after it first appeared in cinemas.  This has caused much consternation in the exhibition sector, leading to major chains refusing to screen it.
  • Scorsese has made some comments about his dislike for Marvel movies, referring to them as “not cinema” and describing them as “theme parks”.
  • It is a very long movie, coming in at three and a half hours.  This means that it is longer than …
Read full article

How many independent films are based on previous films?

October 28, 2019 1 comment

If you ask the average movie-goer what they don’t like about Hollywood movies, they are likely to mention the seemingly endless production of sequels, prequels and spin-offs.

Last week, a filmmaker asked me how common these were among independent movies.  I didn’t know offhand, so I decided to find out.

I used my database of all feature films made in the past twenty years (1999-2018) and set about discovering which were derived from other films.

How often are independent films derived from a previous film?

Across all independent films produced in the past two decades, just under 7% were derived from a previous feature film in some way.

Action, Adventure and Fantasy films were the most likely to be following on from a previous film, …

Read full article

What percentage of independent films are profitable?

October 7, 2019 14 comments

The profitability of independent films is a complicated topic for a whole variety of reasons.

The indie film sector is:

  • Decentralised. It relies on a constantly shifting chain of third parties across the world, with no requirement to report to a centralised body, no third party verification and lacks even agreed reporting standards.
  • Opaque. Some revenue streams withhold all data (such as VOD subscription platforms like Netflix and Amazon) while even the most transparent streams come with levels of uncertainty (i.e. theatrical gross is clear but the costs it took to earn that gross is not).  But it’s not just the sources of income; distributors, sales agents and producers keep their figures extremely close to their chest, often not even sharing full data with those …
Read full article

Do you need a famous actor to get your film into cinemas?

September 30, 2019 2 comments

A common belief among sales and distribution professionals is that “names sell”.  As in, films starring famous actors (“names”) are more marketable than films without any famous names. But how true is this?

Bruce Nash and I teamed up to find out in the latest of our research projects for the American Film Market.

Studying all US-produced movies shot in 2017 we looked to see if having a well-known actor in a leading role helped get a film into cinemas. We focused on films made in 2017 to ensure that they have had time to either find a theatrical release or not. For example, a few of the films shot in 2017 have only recently been released, up to two and a …

Read full article
View all articles