Stephen Follows

It lives! My Horror Movie Report 2.0 is now available at horrormoviereport.com It's the ultimate data analysis of the horror genre - all 27,000 horror movies ever made.

Very interesting read about IMDb’s 1 and 10 star ratings. If you’re an indie filmmaker I’m sure your films have been review bombed. Happens all the time.👇🏻 open.substack.com/pub/stephenfol…

Our @filmmakerspod Christmas Special | QUIZ of the year | what will 2026 have in store for filmmakers!!! Listen here: pod.fo/e/36c35e #TheFilmmakersPodcast #podcast #filmmakers #directing @DirDomLenoir @philmblog @fizzandginger @LucindaRhodes @StephenFollows

Does media attention correlate with Oscar nominations and wins? A new study from @StephenFollows offers compelling evidence. ⬇️⬇️ puck.news/can-media-cove…

Hollywood spends a fortune chasing awards buzz. Does it work? @MattBelloni breaks down the numbers (and myths) behind awards season: puck.news/can-media-cove…

Full article ⤵️ stephenfollows.com/p/no-one-knows…

The most basic film statistic of how much a movie cost is disappearing, as budgets are now missing for over 95% of recent releases.

The full breakdown is here ⤵️ stephenfollows.com/p/are-movies-w…

There are nine producers on the average movie. Nine! But does all that producing power make the film any better?

Full article ⤵️ stephenfollows.com/p/does-thankin…

A while back, David Nicholas Wilkinson asked me whether offering “With Thanks” credits to crowdfunding backers could make a film look bad. To find out, I analysed 8,096 movies to see what the data said.

Listen to The Town ⤵️ podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/do-…

Read the full article ⤵️ stephenfollows.com/p/what-do-film…

Standing ovations are everywhere at festivals, but do they mean anything? I analysed the data, spoke with critics, and discussed it with @MattBelloni (@pucknews founding partner) on his awesome podcast, The Town.

New pod: Finally, some REAL DATA behind the insane rise in media coverage of film fest standing ovations. And does the applause eventually translate into dollars?? With researcher @StephenFollows. Listen! open.spotify.com/episode/1lKesm…

Full article ↓ stephenfollows.com/p/do-most-film…

Do most film festivals require premiere status? A question from @MarBelle, the Editor-in-Chief of @WeAreDN, made me curious to find out. I studied the rules of 10,549 film festivals to see how many still insist on a premiere and how many don’t.

Read the full story here ↓ stephenfollows.com/p/whats-the-bi…

Cinema leaders have long argued that pricing doesn’t matter, yet almost all public polls say otherwise. I looked at what the data tells us & talked with Vue's Tim Richards, who's reversed his position after realising that pricing wasn’t a side issue but the heart of the problem.

Full article ↓ stephenfollows.com/p/how-is-the-h…

Last Friday I joined @jason_blum and the @blumhouse team in New York for an event all about how we see and discuss horror, and why our thinking needs to evolve. To prepare for the event, I took a look how what’s changing in the horror genre, and what might be yet to come.