Monday, January 11, 2010

Movie Distributions

NY Times

The NY Times put together a fantastic map of Netflix rental patterns. It shows the popularity of certain movies by zip code in twelve major cities. What I find fascinating are the patterns that show up and how they match up. From this I came up with four categories of movies. Let me know if you find any more patterns.

Elitist films: Films popular in areas that tend to be seen as trendsetting or fashionable. The demographics of these areas tend to be young, educated, liberal, and white. Examples: The Wrestler, Milk, Rachel Getting Married

Proletariat films: Films most popular in poorer areas. These tend to be action films or films about minorities. Examples: Transformers, Lakeview Terrace, G.I.Joe

Bourgeoisie films: These films are hard to distinguish from Elitist films, but there are a few that stand out. The ones that stand out are generally romantic comedies popular in wealthier areas with older populations. Examples: Mamma Mia!, Last Chance Harvey, Australia

Everyman films: I also like to call these "fleeing the center films" as they are films that equally popular everywhere except in Elitist areas. Examples: Seven Pounds, Body of Lies, State of Play

1 comment:

Celeste said...

Check out the "Role Models" on the Seattle map. There's one tiny zipcode that loves it's comedy.