Controversial and Volatile Flicks: Concurrent Dissension and Temporal Instability in Film Critic Assessments

Abstract

Prior research has shown that the aesthetic assessments by film critics display a high level of concurrent consensus and temporal stability. However, neither the consensus nor the stability is so great as to preclude evaluative disagreements and reassessments (e.g., sleepers and faders). This investigation was designed to identify the predictors of these concurrent and temporal departures from critical congruence. The potential predictors were variables that emerged in previous research on the determinants of cinematic creativity: (a) financial data, such as production budget and box office performance; (b) movie awards and nominations in the major categories (viz. picture and the dramatic, visual, technical, and music clusters of honors); and (c) film attributes, such as the MPAA rating, running time, and screenplay characteristics like sequels, remakes, and adaptations (from plays, novels, nonfiction, etc.). Both simultaneous and stepwise regression analyses indicated that the cinematic exceptions to critical consensus and stability were predictable. However, because the predictors only accounted for between 10% and 15% of the variance and were not the same for dissent and instability, the departures cannot be said to contaminate the critics' evaluations in any systematic manner.

Notes

¹Preliminary analyses indicated that films lacking budget data are not randomly selected from the larger sample. Instead, they tend to receive fewer and lower critical evaluations, garner few, if any, movie awards or nominations, and earn little, if anything, in the box office. Thus, the omitted cases represented the most marginal films in the available pool. So, the only restriction on the substantive results is that they apply to the films that film critics, industry professionals, and moviegoers are most likely to have seen and appreciated (or deprecated in the case of the Razzie winners).

Note. Here b is the unstandardized partial regression coefficient and β the standardized partial regression coefficient.

p < .05. ∗p < .01. ∗∗p < .001.

Note. Here b is the unstandardized partial regression coefficient and β the standardized partial regression coefficient.

p < .05. ∗p < .01. ∗∗p < .001.

Note. The relation between Metacritic and movie-guide ratings was b = 0.029 and β = .72 for simultaneous model and b = 0.025 and β = .63 for the stepwise model (both p < 001).

p < .05. ∗p < .01. ∗∗p < .001.