What started as a horse race when Benjamin Button hit the IMDb Top 250 chart on the 27th has quickly developed into a neck-and-neck skirmish between Button and Slumdog. Nothing to hang your hat on, but just another indication of the widely dispersed passions people are feeling for their favorites this year.
For comparison, this past February, the day before the Oscars, No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood were at #22 and #23 on the chart. Juno was in the 80s. Atonement had made a brief appearance but slipped off. Michael Clayton never showed up on the chart at all.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Ratatouille, and The Bourne Ultimatum, were spread out in the top third of the chart, each sitting pretty in double-digit territory, but that didn’t do them much good in the BP sweepstakes. Into the Wild was nowhere in sight in February, but after its DVD release — and people around the country actually got to see it — it’s risen to #142.
36 Responses for "IMDb Chart Trends"
My question is: what were the Swedes thinking NOT submitting “Let the Right One In” as their official submission?
I think Buton will slide when more people see it, I see Slumdog only moving up once everyone gets to see it (after nominations, that is).
That said, the IMDb is not the Academy and should be taken with a giant grain of salt, as evidenced by The Dark Knight being at #4.
Just because lots of internet nerds loved TDK doesn’t make it as good a film as The Godfather.
The fact that ‘Gran Torino’ is on there completely voids this list of any relevance.
“The fact that ‘Gran Torino’ is on there completely voids this list of any relevance.”
I agree Gran Torino anywhere near the Top 250 is as silly as TDK being exalted as the 4th best movie in human history.
And yet, people can’t stop talking about Clint Eastwood walking away with another Oscar this year.
Fact is, it’s been very hard for a movie to be nominated for Best Picture if it doesn’t have enough popular oomph to splash down somewhere on this chart. And the nominated movies that don’t make the list during the month when voting takes place stand no chance of winning. (I’m lookin’ at you, Frost/Nixon.)
Wow Shane, you really hit the nail on the head. Well done!
4 out of 5 of our Best Picture nominees will come from this list. Maybe all 5. Any movie nominated that’s not on this list will be the joke nominee of the season.
If you don’t think that’s worth noting, then go read about what Michael Mustodamus has to say.
Currently on the IMDB Top 250, Harvey is #176 and Milk is #175.
Gran Torino anywhere near the IMDb top 250 is a big fat joke. What kind of drugs are those people into? Easily Eastwood’s worst since Blood Work. It’d be a crime if he stole Rourke’s Oscar. I can’t even start thinking of that without getting sick.
Well, I really hope all the 5 nominees come from this list. That’d mean Frost/Nixon is out – and that’d be great! I also hope The Wrestler can sneak in. Best picture of 2008, IMHO at least.
“Just because lots of internet nerds loved TDK doesn’t make it as good a film as The Godfather.”
Somebody always has to ‘go there.’ You do know that awards are arbitrary, right? None of it actually means anything. No one film can be ‘better’ than any other film. Not tangibly, at least.
A film can only be measured against what it, as a piece of art, set out to accomplish. No two films (hopefully) are ever trying to accomplish the exact same thing, therefore they can never be measured (fairly) against each other.
The only real way to compare two pieces of art is to examine how well they meet their creators’ vision. You can look at In Bruges and say “Martin McDonagh could not have improved on this at all. 10/10!” and you can look at ‘Indiana Jones 4′ and say “Spielberg/Lucas could have improved _____ and _____ and even ____.” which could lead you to the conclusion that In Bruges is ‘better’ than Indy… but you’d still be wrong. No one movie will ever be better at being a movie than any other movie. It’s still fun, though, to pretend that our subjective tastes actually mean something (fun for me, at least).
IMDB is horrendous, but I wouldn’t mind if Wall E and Dark Knight traded spots. More and more people are seeing Benjamin Button and it’s continuing to rise up in the IMDB chart. People need to face the fact that audiences are actually loving this film despite initial turnoff of the premise. I think Slumdog deserves Dark Knight’s spot too.
The thought of a Slumdog Millionaire and Benjamin Button rivalry ala NCFOM and TWBB really excites me. A Wall E and Dark Knight fight will be great as well.
In my own preferences, the perfect lineup would be Wall E, Benjamin, Dark Knight, Slumdog, with Milk or The Wrestler taking fifth spot.
i feel like Doubt will break into the 250 soon, if only briefly (like atonement), more and more people are seeing it.
I hope you’re right, JAB. I’ve been wishing that would happen. Everybody I know who’s seen Doubt came away more impressed than they expected to be. I’d survey all the people I know who’ve seen Frost/Nixon, but that’s only about 2 people. W. barely broke even; who’s the audience for an evening with Nixon?
Two shockers associated with Gran Torino (#208):
What I find to be disgustingly jaw-dropping is that “The Exorcist”(#207) is only one spot ahead of Gran Torino.
Even more shocking to me is that “Network” is only #233- 25 slots BELOW Gran Torino.
Yuck.
Don’t be too disgusted, Joel. I feel Gran Torino is parked illegally on this chart and will soon be towed.
Ryan, you’re always good for a few IMDB stats (one of my unfortunate addictions).
Unfortunately I don’t see a Wall-E/Dark Knight stand off anytime soon since Wall-E has dropped tremendously from where it once was (at one point up at #6, I believe) while TDK has stayed up at #4 for a while now (and was, at one point, #1).
Hopefully Ben Button is able to trump Slumdog and In Bruges and (especially) Let the Right One In (DAMN THOSE SWEDES FOR NOT SUBMITTING IT!) will be able to move up a bit as time passes.
WALL-E’s been very steady in the #20s-30s since late July/early August or so. It doesn’t have the votes TDK had so when the Top 1000 voters downvoted it it was hit harder.
I was wrapped up in a couple of other topics, and forgot to define my main point about this 4-day trend, Daniel.
It’s been pretty clear for weeks that TDK and WALL-E have stabilized, as you say. What interests me more is the movement in the middle of this pack, as 3 or 4 AD favorites jockey for position and start to climb the ranks as they go into wider release. Especially fun to see CCoBB land right in the middle of Slumdog’s terrain, and the way they each seem to have inspired their fans to show a burst of support.
When two movies vie so closely, it seems to energize their fan bases. The way The Godfather and The Shawshank Redemption have over 300,000 votes while most films in the top 50 have half that many or less.
This is why I think NCfOM and TWBB appeared to be handcuffed together as they rose on parallel paths to their peak positions a few months ago. (They fell at the same rate too, for many weeks, until No Country found a stronger foothold and held on while Blood continued to slip.)
So I’m most curious to see how Slumdog and Benji Button push each other’s fans to crank them higher. I see them both topping out between TDK and WALL-E before Oscar night — though maybe that’s too optimistic.
I know it’s in another language, but it can be translated… I recently found this perfect analysis of Oscar contenders, analised by category, per awards and top 10 lists, ringindo in scales and thus evaluating points to each movie or name.
It’s great to post, if you could find a possible translation…
http://blogdovinicius.wordpress.com/oscar-2009/
Everything but the top 4 will be gone by this time next year…except for In Bruges. I feel it has a very strong fan base, and most people who see it really are impressed.
The Wrestler should not be on this list. The entire love fest for that film is beginning to feel like a charade. This is worse than Juno or Crash because there were other people confirming their general suckiness. I feel like I’m the only person who sees the Wrestler for the tripe that it is. What the hell is everyone seeing that I am not?
Wally, that analysis was awesome… it nailed pretty much everything im expecting to be nominated
The IMBD list isn’t worth anything except showing what fanboys and fangirls with computers like best. Hence, “The Dark Knight” shows up at number 4. And as someone else pointed out, and “old movie” by IMBD’s standards is from 1994.
Sonny, that’s exactly what I thought! So, if Sasha or Ryan get interested, i’ll translate the whole thing, so it can be posted here. I really think it’s useful, and very smart.
Ciao!
I still really want to see the Wrestler so I can know whether its position is justified or not, but it really isn’t something I’m all that interested in (if Rourke wins Best Actor I’ll be forced to see it, though).
)
Oh and the first Daniel (#8) to post in this section who said The Wrestler was the best of the year obviously wasn’t me as I just said I haven’t seen the wrestler (but the other was me!
Sonny, that’s exactly what I think. So, if Sasha or Ryan are interested, I can translate the whole thing so it can be posted here. I really think it’s useful…and smart!
Ciao!
Interesting chart, Ryan. I don’t know if this adds much to the discussion, but I looked up the Metacritic user ratings for a bunch of movies, and they’re kinda surprising. Some run parallel to the critics’ ratings, some run opposite. Some BP winners have high user ratings, some low. Gladiator scored low with critics in its year, but high with users; Traffic in the middle for both; Crouching Tiger high with critics and low with users. Weird.
2008 User Ratings:
(some – Frozen River, I’ve Loved You So Long, Rev. Road – only have 10 or 20, others like Dark Knight have several hundred)
Frozen River – 9.5 (14)
Gran Torino – 9.1
Wall-E – 9.0
Dark Knight – 8.9
Slumdog Millionaire – 8.9
Wrestler – 8.5
Changeling – 8.3
I’ve Loved You So Long – 8.1 (8)
Milk – 8.1
Frost/Nixon – 8.0
Visitor – 8.0
Doubt – 7.5
Vicky Cristina – 7.5
Benjamin Button – 7.1
Revolutionary Road – 7.1 (21)
Tropic Thunder – 6.5
Reader – 6.2
Happy Go Lucky – 5.7
Rachel Getting Married – 5.4
2007:
Atonement – 7.2
There Will Be Blood – 7.1
Michael Clayton – 7.0
Juno – 6.9
No Country for Old Men – 6.9
La Vie en Rose – 8.1
Sweeney Todd – 7.3
2006:
Letters from Iwo Jima – 8.1
Departed – 7.7
Little Miss Sunshine – 7.4
Queen – 6.0
Babel – 5.4
Dreamgirls – 7.2
2005:
Brokeback Mountain – 8.2
Capote – 8.0
GNAGL – 7.4
Munich – 7.0
Crash – 6.7
2004:
Million Dollar Baby – 7.8
Aviator – 6.8
Sideways – 6.1
2000-2003:
ROTK – 8.6
The Pianist – 8.6
Chicago – 7.9
Moulin Rouge – 9.0
A Beautiful Mind – 6.5
Gladiator – 8.5
Traffic – 8.0
CTHD – 7.0
OK completely off topic but I want feedback.
I was on Amazon yesterday and saw that the top 6 in DVD were this:
1. The Dark Knight
2. How I Met Your Mother Season 3
3. Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog
4. How I Met Your Mother Season 1
5. Wall-E
6. How I Met Your Mother Season 2
And then it came to me…NEIL PATRICK HARRIS FOR THE RIDDLER!
Think about it. He’s a perfect fit for a neurotic weird but also charming fellow with a lot of wit and his jokes require a great delivery which The Neil has.
Anyway, wondered what you all thought?
I agree Ryan Hoffman…how do we make THAT happen?
NPH has great comedic timing and would be great in the movie.
Here’s the update through 12/31/08. All films are holding steady or rising. Big jump for The Wrestler and Gran Torino.
4 (-) – The Dark Knight
34 (-) – Wall-E
68 (+5) – Slumdog Millionaire
70 (+4) – Benjamin Button
78 (+31) – The Wrestler
172 (+3) – Milk
192 (+16) – Gran Torino
224 (+2) – Let the Right One In
234 (+1) – In Bruges
Most impressive is the Wrestler, as with such a limited amount of votes is much higher than Slumdog when it had a similar vote total.
Here’s the rankings as of today (1/1/09):
4 (-) – The Dark Knight
34 (-) – Wall-E
57 (+11) – Slumdog Millionaire
63 (+7) – Benjamin Button
75 (+3) – The Wrestler
170 (+2) – Milk
188 (+4) – Gran Torino
221 (+3) – Let the Right One In
232 (+2) – In Bruges
Slumdog and Benjamin Button making their moves. Everyone else also rise.
And because I have OCD, here’s the update for today (1/2/09):
4 (-) – The Dark Knight
34 (-) – Wall-E
52 (+5) – Slumdog Millionaire
61 (+2) – Benjamin Button
75 (-) – The Wrestler
173 (-3) – Milk
184 (+4) – Gran Torino
212 (+9) – Let the Right One In
230 (+2) – In Bruges
Slumdog Millionaire and Let the Right One In made the biggest moves with Milk sliding a bit.
Dark Knight gets knock down a peg, Slumdog Millionaire chugging along nicely to the top, and Gran Torino makes a big jump.
5 (-1) – The Dark Knight
34 (-) – Wall-E
46 (+6) – Slumdog Millionaire
61 (-) – Benjamin Button
72 (+3) – The Wrestler
171 (+2) – Milk 171
172 (+12) – Gran Torino
208 (+4) – Let the Right One In
228 (+2) – In Bruges
I didn’t see you at the OCD support group, Ryan.
Marla Singer was asking about you.
Here’s today’s update chart, for January 4th.
Strange little baby steps of one notch up or down for several titles.
Slumdog moves past WALL-E!
#5 The Dark Knight
#35 Slumdog Millionaire
#36 WALL-E
#55 The Wrestler
#71 Benjamin Button
#98 Gran Torino
#181 Milk
#193 Let the Right One In
#226 In Bruges
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