I analysed 58,687 movie posters from the past century to see which colours dominate, how their use has shifted over time and what each hue signals to audiences.
This makes me wonder how such trends evolve in conjunction with book covers — feel like the reverse has been true with pops of color becoming more of the norm to stand out on bookstore tables or to be visually appealing on BookTok/an Instagram flat-lay photo.
Great analysis! I was wondering why the average colorfulness plot becomes smooth around the last 20 years? Can you also plot the number of total posters per year or stdavg? Thanks!
I may have missed it, but I didn’t see the greatest movie poster of all time here. (Do I need to say it?) Nor most of the classics. Interesting analysis though.
This makes me wonder how such trends evolve in conjunction with book covers — feel like the reverse has been true with pops of color becoming more of the norm to stand out on bookstore tables or to be visually appealing on BookTok/an Instagram flat-lay photo.
Fantastic work, Stephen...this is very interesting stuff.
Great analysis! I was wondering why the average colorfulness plot becomes smooth around the last 20 years? Can you also plot the number of total posters per year or stdavg? Thanks!
It's smoother as there are more posters. More films made and better online coverage.
Thanks for the clarification!
Fascinating stuff! Loved reading about each color's meanings
Love this! I was thinking of doing a similar analysis recently :)
I may have missed it, but I didn’t see the greatest movie poster of all time here. (Do I need to say it?) Nor most of the classics. Interesting analysis though.