Show Time: A Statistical Recap of Filmsplosion 2019

Well, it’s been more than a week since Filmsplosion 2019 came out. Did you get a chance to listen to the whole thing yet? If not, don’t read the rest of this post, as we’ll be looking at all the Nerds’ Top 10 lists.

So, in putting this together, I basically assigned every movie a scored based on where it was on a Nerd’s list. If it was their #1 film, I gave it 10 points; if #2, 9 points; and so on until our #10 films received 1 point each. If it was one of eight films that appeared on more than one list, then it has a combined score.

Now, we’ll get to which of those eight movies had the highest average score, but first, we’ll look at the movies that scored the highest overall. If it has an asterisk (*) next to it, it means that it’s a combined score.

So, here are your HIGHEST SCORED MOVIES of the Reel Nerds 2019 Filmsplosion:

  1. Jojo Rabbit* (41)
  2. Avengers: Endgame* (38)
  3. TIE – Knives Out* and Toy Story 4* (20)
  4. Shazam!* (17)
  5. The Irishman* (16)
  6. Parasite* (14)
  7. Us (10)
  8. TIE – Dolemite is My Name, Marriage Story and Spider-Man: Far From Home (9)
  9. TIE – In the Heart of Gold and Joker (7)
  10. TIE – The Amazing Jonathan Documentary, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Always Be My Maybe, Captain Marvel* (6)

So, this list includes all of our eight repeat films. Now, Jojo Rabbi has the highest total score, because it appeared five of the six Nerds’ lists. But, if we look at these eight films’ average scores (total score divided by number of lists it appeared on), it looks a little different.

So, THE AVERAGE SCORES for our eight repeat films are:

  1. Avengers: Endgame (9.5)
  2. Shazam! (8.5)
  3. Jojo Rabbit (8.2)
  4. The Irishman (8)
  5. Parasite (7)
  6. TIE – Knives Out and Toy Story 4 (6.7)
  7. Captain Marvel (3)

Personally, I think it’s bullshit that Shazam! has a higher score than Jojo Rabbit, considering that the former is a passable superhero film at best and the latter is one of the best movies of the year… but that’s just how I feel about it. As Brad reiterated during the episode, our Filmsplosion lists are about which films of the year are our favorites, not which ones are the best.

And, in case you’re wondering, here are THE HIGHEST SCORED SINGLE-APPEARANCE MOVIES:

  1. Us (10)
  2. TIE – Dolemite is My Name, Marriage Story and Spider-Man: Far From Home (9)

Also of note is that six of the Top 10 Highest Grossing Films of 2019, as of Jan. 13, appeared on our lists: Avengers: Endgame (highest-grossing of the year), Spider-Man: Far From Home, Captain Marvel, Toy Story 4, Joker, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. And, of those, only three were on more than one list, and they are bolded.

I find it very interesting, although not unsurprising, that the likes of The Lion King (2019’s second-highest grossing film worldwide), Frozen II, Aladdin and Hobbs & Shaw weren’t on anyone’s lists. And, overall, there seems to be a clear difference between what general audiences like and what the Nerds like. Even looking at the next ten highest-grossing movies worldwide in 2019 (#11-20), only one is on anyone’s list — How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Are we turning into snobs?

Perhaps, but I will say that the next 10 highest-grossing movies (#21-30) worldwide includes five of our selections — Alita: Battle Angel, Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood, Shazam!, Knives Out, and Us.

So, of the top 30 highest-grossing movies worldwide, 14 appear on our list. And, even if we look at the domestic list, it’s also 14 even if some of the movies are different from list to list.

But, something to ponder.

One more thing I wanted to examine is how our selected films break down by genre. How many action movies do we have? How many dramas? Super-hero flicks? etc.

So, for this assessment, I went by each film’s most basic genre. Our choices are: animation, action, comedy, documentary, drama, and horror.

I’m also making superhero/comic book its own category because they really are becoming a genre unto themselves, much like Westerns did in the 50s and 60s.

I’m generalizing which category it’s in based on my own experience in either seeing the movie or watching the trailer, and most were pretty straightforward to categorize. There were a few cases where I was uncertain which genre a given movie fell into. Jojo Rabbit is one example: Is it a drama? A comedy?

In those cases, I went by which genre was listed first on its IMDB page. (FYI: Jojo Rabbit’s IMDB page reads: Comedy/Drama/War. Thus, I labeled as a comedy for this exercise.)

So, without further ado, let’s look at the BREAKDOWN OF THE FILMSPLOSION LISTS BY GENRE:

  1. Drama (13 movies)
  2. Comedy (10)
  3. Superhero/comic book (7)
  4. TIE – Action and documentary (5)
  5. Animation (3)
  6. Horror (2)

Thanks to Brad, I put all the Nerds’ Filmsplosion lists below so you can see for yourselves which genre I categorized each movie as (or which one IMDB listed first).

You’ll note that I called Fast Color a drama despite it being about women with superpowers, and if you see the movie, I think you’ll understand why. It doesn’t tackle the subject matter of having superpowers the way that DC and Marvel movies do. Not that that’s a bad thing, but Shazam!, for instance, is much more of a typical superhero/comic book film than Fast Color is. And, while I hesitated whether it was really a drama, I did check the IMDB page, and drama was listed first. Thus, I felt my choice was solidified.

Give the lists a look, in case you forgot what everyone picked. I also think looking over everyone’s lists by genre is very interesting, as you can see some Nerds lean more on one genre than others. Again, not a bad thing — just something to take note of.

Zach

  1. Us – horror
  2. Dolemite is My Name – comedy
  3. The Irishman – drama
  4. Jojo Rabbit – comedy
  5. Knives Out – comedy
  6. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood – comedy
  7. Parasite – drama
  8. Nightmare Cinema – horror
  9. Apollo 11 – documentary
  10. Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy Blache – documentary

Henry

  1. Parasite – drama
  2. Marriage Story – drama
  3. The Irishman – drama
  4. At the Heart of Gold – documentary
  5. The Amazing Jonathan Documentary – action, LOL jk
  6. Waves – drama
  7. The Farewell – comedy
  8. Portrait of a Lady on Fire – drama
  9. Honey Boy – drama
  10. Hustlers – comedy

Brad

  1. Avengers: Endgame – superhero
  2. Shazam! – superhero
  3. Jojo Rabbit – comedy
  4. Toy Story 4 – animation
  5. The Peanut Butter Falcon – drama
  6. Ford v. Ferrari – action
  7. El Camino – action
  8. The Bouncer – action
  9. Sword of Trust – comedy
  10. What We Left Behind – documentary

James

  1. Avengers: Endgame – superhero
  2. Jojo Rabbit – comedy
  3. Shazam! – superhero
  4. Knives Out – comedy
  5. Toy Story 4 – animation
  6. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part – animation
  7. Downton Abbey – drama
  8. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – action
  9. Mike Burbiglia: The New One – comedy
  10. Alita: Battle Angel – action

Ryan

  1. Avengers: Endgame – superhero
  2. Spider-Man: Far From Home – superhero
  3. Jojo Rabbit – comedy
  4. Joker – superhero
  5. Toy Story 4 – animation
  6. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood – drama
  7. Captain Marvel – superhero
  8. Uncut Gems – drama
  9. Batman vs. TMNT – superhero
  10. Little Monsters – comedy

Corinne

  1. (nothing)
  2. Jojo Rabbit – comedy
  3. Avengers: Endgame – superhero
  4. Knives Out – comedy
  5. Always Be My Maybe – comedy
  6. Official Secrets – drama
  7. Little Women – drama
  8. Fast Color – drama
  9. Captain Marvel – superhero
  10. How to Train Your Dragon 3 – animation

Well, that’s all I had, folks. Hope you enjoyed this statistical breakdown of the 2019 Filmsplosion episode! 🙂