ADAgency

In the realm of cinema, characterised by cultural diversity, the boundaries between nations fade away, providing actors with a captivating journey. Each filming location adds a unique flavor, enhancing the skills of actors and expanding the horizons of the film industry.

In the world of cinema, the roles and opportunities available to men and women often diverge. This distinction arises from factors like movie genres, cultural contexts, and the expectations surrounding gender roles. Across various film types and cultural landscapes, there exists a noticeable difference in the kinds of characters and chances offered to male and female actors. It's a complex interplay between storytelling in movies and societal beliefs about how men and women should be portrayed.

Here are the most common genres for men and women starring in either primary or secondary roles:

As you can see, movies starring men in either primary or secondary roles are usually more action and adventure-filled. However, this is simply a trend recognised in our data set of movies and actors, and ADAgency will also gladly welcome the most romantic of male actors and the most daredevil female actors!

Employing linear regression with cross-validation, our objective was to evaluate the influence of primary and secondary actors' gender on predicting movie revenue and IMDb ratings. The results yielded an intriguing observation: as indicated by the p-values (0.227 for Revenue linear regression and 0.472 for IMDb rating linear regression), the gender of the secondary actor appears to have less statistical significance in predicting both movie revenue and IMDb ratings than the primary role gender. For the sake of visualisation, we will therefore focus only on the primary role gender.

Following matching treatment (male primary role) and control (female primary role) on various potential confounders (e.g., Year of release + Runtime + Award Wins + Award Nominations + Actor age), we proceeded to analyse the differences in IMDb ratings and revenue regarding the primary actor's gender across the most common movie genres.

From our matching analysis, it's evident that specific movie genres show varying revenue patterns based on the primary actor's gender. Generally, films with a female lead tend to yield lower revenue across most genres, notably in Crime Fiction, Indie, or Mystery productions. However, there are exceptions, notably observed in Adventure or Family film productions, where the trend might differ.

However, it's crucial to emphasise that, especially within these genres, the margin of error in estimating revenue is significant, necessitating cautious interpretation before drawing definitive conclusions. Furthermore, the presence of unmatched or unobserved confounding factors could also potentially yield issues.

Regarding the IMDb rating, the error bars observed are notably less pronounced. A discernible trend emerges where, across all genres, movies featuring a female primary actor tend to receive slightly lower IMDb ratings compared to those with a male lead.

Whilst this distinction seems fairly consistent across genres, it's important to highlight that the presence of unmatched or unobserved confounding factors might contribute to potential issues, indicating the need for cautious interpretation of any conclusive findings due to the inherent uncertainties in the data.

Alright, your biological characteristics clearly seem to influence your financial and critical success, but how about where you live?

ADAgency spans every continent, with a marked presence in 24 countries around the world. As part of a study to determine the ideal country for actors committing to our company, our statistical engineers undertook an in-depth analysis. The study involved a sample of 10,000 films, covering a variety of genres and from 24 different countries.

The researchers began their analysis by examining revenue distribution trends in each country, seeking to establish meaningful comparisons of revenue trends in the film industry. Statistical tests, such as the Shapiro test, were used to assess the normality of the revenue distribution by country.

Statistical tests revealed that none of the countries' revenues follow a normal distribution, rejecting the hypothesis across all nations. Subsequent non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis tests aimed to identify significant differences in revenue distributions between countries. Results indicated a small group — Germany, Australia, and the United States, with similar revenue distributions or at least not significantly different ones. The remaining countries exhibited significant differences. ADAgency utilised this analysis to advise clients on the most favourable countries for a successful career.

These tests were therefore also accompanied by a look at criticism across these countries. The aim was also to support our customers, who are looking for validation from the public and critics in addition to money and wealth.

Genre preference is a crucial factor in each country. To guide our clients effectively, it's essential to align players with local market preferences. Our engineers analysed film genre preferences by country using heatmaps, revealing insightful trends to help direct players based on specific countries.

But let's now look at what kind of film is profitable or rates high by genre and by country to really know where to direct our actors.

For revenues, a notable trend is that countries generating the most revenue overall, such as the USA, UK, Australia, and Canada, also lead in revenue across various film genres. Conversely, lower-revenue countries like India show consistently lower revenues across genres. Regarding specific genres, independent films, typically lower-budget and not aimed at blockbuster success, exhibit lower revenues. Despite cinema market dominance, dramatic films don't generate the highest revenues; instead, science fiction and family films surpass them in earnings.

Horror films generally receive lower ratings across countries, with Canada, the USA, the UK, and India showing similar ratings. Drama, Mystery, Romance, and Indie Thriller consistently receive high ratings globally. Successful countries, like the USA and Australia, tend to excel in various genres, while countries with lower overall income, such as India, show less uniform success across genres. Dramatic films receive widespread appreciation and critical acclaim. Country-specific trends include Hong Kong's strength in Crime Thriller and Thriller genres, Korea's talent for crime thrillers, and Japan's proficiency in musical dramas, family films, crime fiction, and crime thrillers.

At ADAgency, we prioritise analysing cast diversity to determine key factors for an actor's success. To address the question of what contributes to success, our data analysts studied how diversity influences movie revenues and ratings. Despite the complexity of quantifying diversity, exacerbated by globalisation, our specialists developed a novel numerical estimation method for ethnicities. By examining co-occurrences and applying a unique transformation, we can map ethnicities onto a plane for comprehensive analysis.

The central position of the 'White' ethnicity is due to its predominant representation, accounting for nearly 60% of all movies. The American and European industries, being the most influential, exhibit a tendency to select 'White' actors for both primary and secondary roles.

However, we observe that some ethnicities tend to get closer to that behemoth, majorly driven by the Asian continent. Bollywood has known a big evolution these last decades as well as Japanese and Chinese sectors. This tendency can also be shown when graphing the evolution of diversity through the years.

Now let's dive into what made you visit our website: The quest of glory and fame. If we take a look at the revenues and IMDb rating based on the ethnicities, we can try to answer our initial question:

A 95% confidence interval was employed to gauge the uncertainty of mean values. Regarding revenues, precise predictions are possible when casting involves exactly the same ethnicity for primary and secondary roles (distance 0). As cast diversity increases, revenues tend to rise, but the widening confidence interval reduces accuracy with fewer available data points. Notably, peaks in revenue align with the presence of 'White' actors. In contrast, ratings hover around 6.0, with a potential upward trend at higher distances, though limited data availability may influence this observation.

We've provided an overview of global diversity in movies. Our primary aim is to identify the most suitable pair of ethnicities. Thus, we focus on realistic and robust data, particularly from the most represented ethnicities in our dataset: 'White' and 'South Asian' individuals. Together, they constitute nearly 85% of all movies in the dataset, yielding the most consistent results in average revenue and movie ratings.

Comparing 'White' and 'South Asian' ethnicities reveals significant differences. 'White' ethnicities generally yield higher revenues, as confirmed by the confidence interval, emphasizing the importance of having a 'White' actor for box office success. In contrast, ratings suggest that for actors aiming to create historic movies, ethnicity carries less weight, providing more flexibility in choosing secondary actors, at least for 'White' and 'South Asian' categories.

Turning attention to revenues, we will exclusively examine the significance of the role in the movie for 'White' actors, as 'South Asian' actors do not exhibit any specific tendency.

The cinematic industry stands as a testament to evolution, constantly shifting and transforming across the years. This dynamic realm of storytelling and visual artistry has continuously evolved, embracing technological advancements, societal changes, and artistic innovations. Following our preprocessing here are what we are working with:

The revenue figures show variations across different decades, indicating fluctuations in the industry's financial performance over time. The 1960s and 1970s appear to be the most lucrative decades, with significantly higher average annual revenues compared to the surrounding decades. The 1940s also show a notably high average annual revenue, following a period that spans the end of the Great Depression and the wartime years, potentially reflecting a surge in cinema attendance during that time.

The IMDb rating figure shows variations across different decades, showcasing how critics' opinions have evolved over time. Over numerous decades, critical ratings exhibit a notable consistency, generally hovering within a narrow band of 6.3 to 6.8. Despite this stability, there's a slight downward trend in ratings as time progresses. Was cinema really that much better before?!

However, it's important to note that these figures likely represent averages and may not capture the full scope of the industry's complexities. The fluctuations could be influenced by various factors, including economic conditions, technological advancements, the popularity of specific genres, or the introduction of new entertainment mediums impacting cinema attendance.

Genres within cinema often rise, fall, and transform, mirroring cultural trends and the ever-changing tastes of audiences. New genres emerge as innovative narratives and storytelling methods evolve, sometimes blending existing genres or introducing entirely novel concepts. Simultaneously, certain genres might fade into obscurity as they lose relevance or fail to resonate with contemporary audiences.

Over the years, timeless genres like drama, romance, adventure, comedy, and action maintain a consistent presence among the primary genres. However, starting from the 60s, the drama genre gradually declines, becoming one of the least financially lucrative genres among the principal ones.

During the 60s, adventure and action genres dominate as top earners, marking a golden era. The 70s witness a peak in the popularity of comedy and romance genres. In contrast, the 80s witness the emergence of the thriller genre, which becomes a standalone top-earning category in the following years.

Interestingly, musicals experience a decline in financial success post their 80s heyday, struggling to generate revenue in the 90s and 2000s. Conversely, fantasy genres exhibit an opposite trend, gaining financial traction during this period.

Similar to revenues, traditional cinema genres like drama, romance, adventure, comedy, and action persist as mainstays over the years, exhibiting consistent presence. Most genres share analogous trends among themselves, maintaining a relatively close pattern. However, a notable outlier emerges in horror movies, consistently rating approximately 0.5 lower than other genres in terms of IMDb ratings.

Interestingly, the thriller genre experiences a decline in ratings during the 90s, echoing its revenue behaviour from the preceding decade, which saw a decline following its success in the 80s.