StephenFollows.com - Using data to explain the film industry

StephenFollows.com - Using data to explain the film industry

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How much do Oscar nominations help films in theatres?
Tracking over 11 million screenings over three years to look at the effect of receiving a 'Best Picture' nomination.
 • Stephen Follows
What rules govern Hallmark Christmas movies?
What happens when one company releases hundreds of Christmas films for the same audience, year after year.
 • Stephen Follows and Walter Hickey
Are modern movies using flatter lighting than in the past?
I crunched the data on over a million shots of faces across 3,655 movies to see whether modern lighting is getting flatter.
 • Stephen Follows
Can media coverage predict who wins an Oscar?
I analysed fifteen years of Oscar nominees to see whether the most-mentioned contenders in the trades tend to go on to win.
 • Stephen Follows
What types of films are critic-proof?
I crunched the numbers on 8,190 movies to discover which types stay profitable even when the critics are unkind.
 • Stephen Follows
Why are modern films framing actors’ faces differently than they used to?
Using data from over 3,655 movies, I've discovered that directors are increasingly framing their character shots differently.
 • Stephen Follows
Which films are becoming new Christmas classics?
Using ten years of data from 160,000 films, I looked at how audience behaviour shifts each December to reveal the emerging Christmas classic movies.
 • Stephen Follows

November 2025

Does narrative coherence affect a film’s financial performance?
A deep dive into how over 10,000 movies and millions of audience signals help us work out if making sense makes cents.
 • Stephen Follows
How many film festivals reject films already online?
Last month, I looked at how many film festivals still insist on premiere status, and found that most don’t.
 • Stephen Follows
No-one knows how much movies cost to make anymore
The film industry has largely stopped sharing production budgets, leaving less than 4% of movies with any public data, and when tested, many of the…
 • Stephen Follows
Are movies with fewer producers better?
I crunched the data on 75,903 producing credits across 8,415 films in order to discover whether more producers lead to better movies or not.
 • Stephen Follows

October 2025

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