1. Who We Are 9. Real-Time, Dynamic Information
2. The Publications Covered 10. PRESS
3. Covering Movie Reviews Online 11. FAQs
4. A Complete List of Publications 12. Research on Movie Reviews
5. The Review Ratings 13. About the Founder, Editor & Publisher, David A. Gross
6. Review Mixture 14. About the Software Engineer, James A. Knauer
7. Coverage, Volume, and Length 15. About the Assistant Editor, Nelle Gretzinger
8. Review Timing 16. Contact Us, re. Editorial, Advertising, Press
1. Who We Are
MovieReviewIntelligence.com was launched in June 2009. The goal is to provide the most accurate and complete picture of movie reviews possible.
The purpose is to give moviegoers, filmmakers, marketers, critics and editors a professional standard for measuring and understanding movie reviews.
MovieReviewIntelligence.com is dedicated to showing exactly what the critics are saying. The site makes every effort to cover all movies -- big, small, mainstream, indie, foreign and documentary. The critics included are selected because they represent the body of film criticism that moviegoers see and read everyday.
The founder, editor and publisher of MovieReviewIntelligence.com is David A. Gross, a movie marketing executive, consultant, and researcher with 25 years of experience in the movie business. "This is the best site to rely on as a moviegoer," Gross says. "It's the site I would have liked to have had as an executive at the studios."
MovieReviewIntelligence.com is an independent web publication. The site is not affiliated with a movie studio or other entertainment company.
Based on ten years of research, what sets MovieReviewIntelligence.com apart from other movie review web sites is its thoroughness, accuracy and faithfulness to the critics.
2. The Publications Covered
MovieReviewIntelligence.com analyzes movie reviews from more than 70 U.S. and Toronto newspapers, magazines, alternative weeklies, web sites, NPR, and "At the Movies." These are the reviews that the public sees and reads every day; this is what counts in the real world.
Two of the publications covered -- the Associated Press and Voice Media (Village Voice, LA Weekly) -- represent multiple publications because their reviews are printed in many different newspapers and alternative weeklies. The Associated Press's reviews are published in scores of newspapers and web sites across the U.S., and Voice Media/Village Voice/LA Weekly represent more than 16 alternative weekly newspapers in leading U.S. city-markets. This is taken into account in the statistical model built to analyze the reviews.
The publications covered by the site, in total, represent the key national media, as well as the top 25 local markets in the U.S. plus Toronto. The top 25 markets represent approximately 50% of the U.S. population and 60% of U.S. moviegoers. Altogether, the publications and programs reach an audience of well over 150 million.
The publications are weighted according to the size of their readership/audience and they are organized into eight categories that align with moviegoers’ tastes and parallel how movies are released, as follows:
Broad National Press
Local Newspapers
Alternative/Indie
Highbrow Press
Movie Industry
New York/Los Angeles/Chicago/Toronto
Cities 4 to 11 (by size)
Cities 12 to 25 (by size)
In addition to the overall weighting that each publication receives according to the size of its readership/audience, there are two categories that receive special weighting:
1) NY/LA/Chicago/Toronto: In this subgroup, each city's publications are weighted within each city, and then the cities are weighted according to their size, so that New York’s preponderance of newspapers does not distort the overall mix.
2) Movie Industry Press: In this subgroup, each of the five publications is given equal weight so that Daily Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and Cinema 24/7 are on equal footing with the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
The goal is to create the most accurate picture of movie reviews possible. The keys to doing this are:
1) covering more than 70 of the most representative publications, programs and web sites;
2) organizing the reviews in proportion to their readership/audience;
3) covering the top 25 local markets;
4) covering the alternative/indie weeklies in the top markets;
5) analyzing the key different types of publications and reviews.
What makes this site unique is the way it looks at the full range of reviews according to how moviegoers are seeing and hearing them. Using this analytic approach we can say with some confidence, "These are a movie's reviews in the real moviegoing market."
3. Covering Movie Reviews Online
Covering movie reviews online is central to this web site. Four of the publications covered here are leading online-only movie web sites (RogerEbert.com, AVClub.com, Cinema24/7.com and ReelViews.net). All of the print publications and critics included here are industry-leaders online as well as in print. The newspapers alone attract over 185 million unique visitors per month to their sites and are included in the list of top web sites of any kind (2008 figures). Online traffic is taken into consideration in the weighting model used to analyze these figures.
4. A Complete List of Publications
For a complete list of the publications covered and an explanation of why they were selected and how they fit into the categories described above, please click here.
5. The Review Ratings
In 76% of the publications covered, the reviews are graded by the critics themselves, using both A through F scales (with +s and -s), and star rating scales (4 and 5 stars with half stars). Critics at one of the publications, the San Francisco Chronicle, use a 5-point scale that features an icon of a little man in his theater seat expressing his opinion: standing clapping, seated clapping, seated not clapping, seated sleeping, and an empty chair. We track that too.
Reviews in 24% of the publications do not come with a grade. Here, MovieReviewIntelligence.com analyzes each review and assigns a letter grade with +s and -s. Grading these reviews is the most important thing we do. Two analysts grade each review and analysts are asked to refrain from seeing a movie in advance of grading its reviews. The goal is to be as objective as possible. It is about the critic's opinion, not ours.
To generate the "Positive Reviews" ratings, the grades and ratings are translated proportionately to a 100-point percentage scale and then weighted according to the approach discussed above.
Currently, the average "Positive Reviews" rating is currently 53.3%.
Note to critics: If you do not agree with the grade accorded one of your reviews, please contact us as soon as possible either by phone (310) 828-0976, or by email editor@MovieReviewIntelligence.com, so that we may adjust it accordingly.
6. Review Mixture
The review mixture shown in these tables is the degree of variance among a movie’s reviews and is shown as a number that represents the average percentage point difference between each of a movie's reviews.
Currently, the average "Review Mixture" is currently 17.9 percentage point difference.
7. Coverage, Volume, and Length
The coverage figures shown in these tables indicate the percentage of total readership where a review is present. In other words, if reviews for a specific movie appeared in every publication, that would represent 100% coverage. Currently, the average "Coverage" figure is 65.6%.
The volume figures shown in these tables are the total amount of words in all of a film's reviews. Currently, the average "Volume" figure is 19,891 words.
The length figures shown in these tables are the average length of each film's individual reviews. Currently, the average "Length" figure is 483 words.
8. Review Timing
The review timing shown in these tables is the average of when a movie's reviews are published, or in the case of NPR and "At the Movies," first broadcast. Currently, the average "Review Timing" is 20.4 hours after opening.
9. Real-Time, Dynamic Information
MovieReviewIntelligence.com collects reviews 24 hours a day, as quickly as possible. Averages are updated on an ongoing basis. For certain movies, figures may change as reviews are published over time, particularly in the case of a movie that is released in a gradual fashion.
We do our best to post new information immediately. We cover a vast number of reviews and it is possible that, in spite of our best efforts, we will miss something or make a mistake. In these instances, we appreciate your feedback.
10. PRESS
For written background material; feature articles written about MovieReviewIntelligence.com; as well as a list of blogs and indexes that cover the site, please click here.
11. FAQs
For questions we hear from readers, colleagues and friends and their answers, please click here.
12. Research on Movie Reviews
Proprietary research conducted for MovieReviewIntelligence.com by MarketCast, a Los Angeles-based market research company that specializes in movies, shows that 81% of moviegoers follow reviews. This represents 71,485,980 moviegoers who follow reviews. There is more to the research. To read more, please click here.
13. About the Founder, Editor & Publisher, David A. Gross
The founder, editor and publisher of MovieReviewIntelligence.com is David A. Gross.
Gross has 25 years of movie marketing experience, both domestic and international, as an executive, consultant and researcher, based in Los Angeles, London and New York. Gross has held executive marketing positions at 20th Century Fox, the National Research Group (NRG), the Walt Disney Studios, MGM/UA and HBO.
As vice-president of international marketing at 20th Century Fox, Gross founded, built and supervised the studio’s state-of-the-art international marketing department. During that time, the studio went from last place to its first international box-office crown in modern history.
Prior to 20th Century Fox, Gross was managing director of the London office of the National Research Group, the leading market research-based adviser to the American studios on movie marketing and distribution strategies throughout the world.
Gross became interested in movie reviews at Fox. After a movie opened in several overseas markets, the head of publicity would bring a 2” or 3” stack of clippings and say, “Here are the reviews.” Because Gross spent the early part of his career in movie market research, it was natural for him to think, “Is there a way to summarize this meaningfully, numerically?” After leaving Fox, Gross started doing research on the topic. He would work on it for a couple of months, then put it down, pick it up and work on it for a couple of months, then put it down. During these years he developed the publication model, the statistical weighting schemes, and the computer algorithms on which the web site is based. In the meantime, the tools for gathering the information – data collection – improved as the internet matured. In early 2008, Gross decided there were enough resources to turn the research into a Web site, which is MovieReviewIntelligence.com. With input from film marketing executives, market researchers, statisticians, computer programmers, writers/editors and lots of moviegoers, the site was launched in June 2009.
Gross is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and has a bachelor’s degree in Classics from Brown University.
14. About the Software Engineer, James A. Knauer
The software engineer of MovieReviewIntelligence.com is James A. Knauer.
Knauer has been a software developer since 1983. Knauer started out managing large-scale multi-protocol data network installations for Michigan state governmental agencies, including the Michigan House of Representatives, the Senate, the Supreme Courts, the Office of the Attorney General, and several school districts.
In 1996, Knauer founded Myne Corporation, a cooperative of colleagues using the Internet to explore and develop solutions for web hosting, design and development, database administration, data network design and management, accounting, bookkeeping, merchant services, and computer hardware diagnosis and repair.
Knauer’s work has spanned countless fields and different types of business. MovieReviewIntelligence.com is a database driven application with front-end client usability, which is Knauer’s specialty.
Knauer has a Computer Science degree from Michigan Technological University and is a Certified Network Engineer. For additional information about Mr. Knauer's skills and experience, visit jk.myne.com.
15. About the Assistant Editor, Nelle Gretzinger
The assistant editor of MovieReviewIntelligence.com is Nelle Gretzinger.
Gretzinger has over 15 years experience as a writer and editor based in New York City. Her work has been published in Time Out New York, in the forthcoming Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology from publisher Wiley-Blackwell, and in Edible Brooklyn. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Geoffrey Roberts Award, a travel and food bursary. Gretzinger lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Graphic Design: Lee Bearson
Interns: Kristal Bailey, Ashley Challinor, Filisha Kapadia
16. Contact Us, Regarding Editorial, Advertising, Press
