StephenFollows.com - Using data to explain the film industry

StephenFollows.com - Using data to explain the film industry

August 2026

What percentage of feature films never sign with a sales agent?
I looked at every one of the 224,914 fiction feature films made 2000-24, and at all 3,891 companies credited with selling them, to study the world of…
 • Stephen Follows
Which films are slipping out of the canon of 'Best Movies Ever Made'?
With the help of someone who sounds AND looks JUST like Keanu Reeves, I looked at which movies that everyone says are great, really are not.
 • Stephen Follows
Who owns the world’s biggest film festivals?
I dug through company registers, tax filings and shareholder reports in twelve countries to find out who controls the top 20 film festivals.
 • Stephen Follows
Are foreign actors taking over Hollywood?
I tracked where 5,408 leading actors in American-made films were born, and where their careers began, to find out how American Hollywood leads are.
 • Stephen Follows
What gets a director a second film?
I tracked 146,603 people who directed a first feature to see what separates the ones who got to make another.
 • Stephen Follows
Are movie end credits getting longer?
I timed the end credits of 6,515 films, from 1920 to today, and found they're almost thirteen times longer than they were in the 1950s.
 • Stephen Follows
What makes an agent actually read a cold email from a screenwriter?
I asked 38 agents, managers and assistants who read cold scripts what earns a reply and what gets deleted unread
 • Stephen Follows
What percentage of Hollywood film professionals are nepo babies?
I studied the biographies of 6,921 people, who wrote, directed, and starred in 2,600 top-grossing movies this century to discover how many had existing…
 • Stephen Follows
How old is the average Oscar voter?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doesn't publish its members' ages, so I worked it out.
 • Stephen Follows
Does going viral sell cinema tickets?
Using box off and audience data to determine when a meme is likely to actually put people in a cinema seat, versus when it just entertains people who…
 • Stephen Follows
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