12 Comments on "No Guarantee of Quality"


  1. Really interesting: especially the dip in the mid-80s and mid-00s. I wonder if the surge of video in the 80s and new generation video game consoles in the mid-00s caused the drift — studios lost audiences so focused more on either pure blockbusters or niche/more arty films?


  2. What does the Y axis represent? Units, in other words movies? Dollars earned by each category?


  3. I did not create the chart, but I believe that the height of each bar is frequency. If you look carefully, the height of the “Best Picture Nominees” + “Both” is more or less constant. Maybe the “Best Picture Nominees” should be relabeled “Not High Grossing BP Nominees”.


  4. Interesting! How is the data affected by the increase in the number of best picture nominees?


  5. Nice graphic, it’s very simple to see the change in the ‘overlap’ over the years and I get the idea. I’m a graphics designer, perhaps that’s why I’m not focused on finding the units for Y…altho, no Best picture films around 2004-2008 made top grossing?


  6. While I agree that labeling the Y axis as ‘count of movies’ would help, I disagree that it not informative. I think that it is clear and useful once you understand what it is displaying.

    An interesting enhancement would be animating it, allowing users to selectively enlarge a selected year so they can view the names of the movies involved.


  7. In response to all those confused by the chart:
    The post is entitled “No Guarantee of Quality.” You were forewarned!


  8. Definitely shows that entertainment does not have to equate to what we would call “cinematic quality” – although it really does not have to…

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