How To Make The Perfect Movie

HOW TO MAKE THE PERFÈCT MOVIE FINDING THE PERFECT FORMULA AND... ACTION! We've all got our favourite movie, but we wanted to see if it was possible to come up with a blueprint to make the perfect film. To do this, we've analysed IMDB's Top 250 Movies (voted for by the public) for trends. Here's what we found. THE BUDGET We eliminated movies from the data set that were released pre-1990, to help better account for the cost of more modern technologies as well as inflation. The average budget you'd need to create a movie that everyone will love? $72.3 MILLION $262.5M $2.03M About the same as The Lion King That's pretty cheap really, considering Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides cost an estimated $400m to make, and doesn't even make it into the Top 250 - although it has grossed more than $1bn since its release. THE GENRE DRAMA ACTION 29.2% 13.6% CRIME 15.6% 73 of the Top 250 Movies fall into the main genre of DRAMA To further back this up, 30% of movies also have their secondary genre listed as 'drama', with 33 of these falling under 'crime drama'. In fact, 4 of the Top 5 Movies on IMDB are listed as crime drama. DRAMA CRIME AGE RATING With over half of the movies in the Top 250 catering for mid-teens and above, this means we're probably going to have frequent, strong language, and possibly strong violence. <15 15 18+ 46% 20% 34% 15+ LOCATION 44% of the Top 250 Movies were filmed in America, with the UK a close second. UK 30% JAPAN 14% USA 44% Popular with Hobbits USA RUNNING TIME At 5 hours 20 minutes, the Indian epic "Gangs of Wasseypur" (2012) is the longest in the Top 250, with the shortest being the Buster Keaton classic "The General" (1926) at 1 hour 7 minutes. The average movie length therefore clocks in at about 2 HOURS, 9 MINS LEAD ACTOR Leo's your man with six appearances as the main character in the Top 250. LEONARDO DICAPRIO TOM HANKS 5 APPEARANCES CLINT EASTWOOD 5 APPEARANCES ROBERT DE NIRO 5 APPEARANCES FEMALE LEAD There is a noticeable lack of females in the Top 250. Whilst there are plenty of actresses who appear twice (such as Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis & Maggie Gyllenhaal) only Grace Kelly (deceased) and Carrie Fisher (who appears four times for the same role, Princess Leia in Star Wars) appear more. CARRIE FISHER SUPPORTING ACTORS Tom Hardy, Robert Duvall and Steve Buscemi each appear 4 times as supporting actors, but Tom Hardy is billed as primary supporting actor more times than the others. TOM HARDY THE DIRECTOR Ideally, Alfred Hitchcock would direct (with 8 movies in the Top 250), but as he sadly passed away many years ago, we have a choice between Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. MARTIN SCORSESE 7 MOVIES /250 STEVEN SPIELBERG 7 MOVIES /250 AVERAGE RANK AVERAGE RANK 104 118 CHRISTOPHER NOLAN 7 MOVIES /250 AVERAGE RANK 45 But with a whopping 10% of movies in the Top 50 directed by Christopher Nolan, he seems the obvious choice CHRISTOPHER NOLAN DOES SOMEONE HAVE TO DIE? YES NO 80.4% 19.6% DEATHS COMPARED RELEASED PRE-1970 RELEASED SINCE 1970 RANKED 1-50 RANKED 51-250 73% 83% 90% 78% In a word: yes. To keep up with both modern trends and the very top movies in the Top 250, it seems that - unfortunately - someone will have to die in the film. A bit grim, really. YES, SORRY... THE TITLE The average film title in IMDB's Top 250 is 2.936 words long, let's call it 3 words long. Knight Great Good, Rush Train Mind Murder UponBeautiful City Wild Wars Story Back Terminator Dark Kid Castle Princess Ma Beauty One Life Blood Sunset Dollars Godfather Hotel Episodes Love Lord Star Day, Rings Lives Kill Will Time Man Return Years part Sunrise Toy American Wind Spring Gone King Men Two And this is the list of the most popular words used in the top 250 film titles. Obviously the words Star, Wars and Episode (as well as a few other titles e.g. Godfather) are skewing the data somewhat so if we remove these we are left with a few options. BLOOD DOLLAR SUNRISE MIND THE TRAIN CASTLE OF BLOOD AMERICAN MURDER TRAIN There are many possibilities, but we went with.. TIME OF DAY POSSIBLE SYNOPSIS Forensics expert Max Day (Leonardo Di Caprio) takes early retirement after sustaining a serious injury in the line of duty. Against his wishes he is called back for one last case; to team up with ex-convict and IRA terrorist, Ted Knight (Tom Hardy) to solve a series of crimes that threaten to destroy his entire world. IN SUMMARY BUDGET: $72.3M GENRE: CRIME DRAMA RATING: 15+ LOCATION: USA RUNNING TIME: 2HR, 9MIN STARRING: LEONARDO DICAPRIO & TOM HARDY DIRECTOR: CHRISTOPHER NOLAN TITLE: TIME OF DAY EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY LEONARDO DICAPRIO TOM HARDY TIME OF DAY A CHRISTOPHER NOLAN FILM onEARY ACTRES ue DESTIPER NOLAN LEONARO DCAPRO TME OF DAY TIM HARDN CARE ASHER VORSAN REEMANADAN SANCLER IsANLOOKWOD p ANE BABRERT DEAIS anaoETERBNGHAMacaranselIKE DRAN nn RAN PANI PHLPA LAN HOR AY FOWLER KATE WALTON e LARE BRANHASENNS RYONY SORO e AAN DENNS RIEA WALIER JAS WALSH DECEMBER 18 And with 201movies nominated, 114 winners and 367 Oscars in the Top 250, this movie has a good chance of winning at least one! AND... THAT'S A WRAP, FOLKS! BROUGHT TO YOU BY SOURCES Superfi IMDB COM WIKIPEDIA.ORG THE-NUMBERS COM BOXOFFICEMOJO.COM www.superfi.co.uk www.SUPERFI.CO.UK THE DARK KNIGHT RISES INTERSTELLAR FINDING NEMO JURASSIC PARK AVERAGE GOODFELLAS THE KING'S SPEECH PULP FICTION RESERVOIR DOGS