I'd be really interested on the financial aspects of a movie managing to insert itself in the cultural memory. This year has seen so many box office bombs that securing long term returns from rentals and streaming more and more seems like an obligatory business strategy. But, intriguingly, even movies trying to garner grass-roots cult status often fail at that and what movie 'makes it' is totally unpredictable. Are there more examples like 'Come and See', maybe more recently, and would they be detectable in this dataset?
Also, probably not feasible, but do outlets like letterboxd or Imdb allow for webscraping this kind of data?
Surprised not to see James Cameron films like Avatar, Terminator 2, or Titanic "Most Watched Films of All Time" chart. They still are some of the highest-grossing films. I doubt Memento is more watched than Avatar...
Nice post. The strangest cultural phenomenon in movies, for me is avatar. It’s released, becomes one of the biggest movies of all time, then it seemed to disappear, from the collective memory. Nobody seems to wear costumes from it, there are no conventions, there are no offshoots, it’s forgotten for decades and then a new one is released, and the whole cycle starts again.
Agreed. Avatar is a fascinating case study. I think it’s one of the only modern films that is marketed based on groundbreaking special effects and aesthetics. End result is that people see cool images, enjoy themselves, and then forget the movie.
I'd be really interested on the financial aspects of a movie managing to insert itself in the cultural memory. This year has seen so many box office bombs that securing long term returns from rentals and streaming more and more seems like an obligatory business strategy. But, intriguingly, even movies trying to garner grass-roots cult status often fail at that and what movie 'makes it' is totally unpredictable. Are there more examples like 'Come and See', maybe more recently, and would they be detectable in this dataset?
Also, probably not feasible, but do outlets like letterboxd or Imdb allow for webscraping this kind of data?
I understandably didn't recognize the two oldest movies on the "forgotten blockbusters" chart, so I looked them up:
• Hooper (1978), starring Burt Reynolds
• The End (1978), starring Burt Reynolds, directed by Burt Reynolds
Has anyone informed the SCP Foundation that Burt Reynolds has antimemetic properties?
Surprised not to see James Cameron films like Avatar, Terminator 2, or Titanic "Most Watched Films of All Time" chart. They still are some of the highest-grossing films. I doubt Memento is more watched than Avatar...
Nice post. The strangest cultural phenomenon in movies, for me is avatar. It’s released, becomes one of the biggest movies of all time, then it seemed to disappear, from the collective memory. Nobody seems to wear costumes from it, there are no conventions, there are no offshoots, it’s forgotten for decades and then a new one is released, and the whole cycle starts again.
Agreed. Avatar is a fascinating case study. I think it’s one of the only modern films that is marketed based on groundbreaking special effects and aesthetics. End result is that people see cool images, enjoy themselves, and then forget the movie.