The shape of the histogram for movie ratings reveals a lot. For example, a movie may have a "U" shaped distribution which indicates a polarized audiences (versus a "^" shaped distribution that reflects a consensus). I love watching movies that are polarizing. A visualization of this would be helpful, while the ability to search on a particular shape would be even more so. I'd build this if I had access to the data / API.
Posted 7 years ago
Emperor, Champion
Dan Dassow, Champion
Hi Dave Black,
Although it would be interesting to search the titles by the shape of the distribution of their ratings, this is probably too complicated to be meaningfully implemented. The standard deviation of the distribution of the ratings will provide much of what you suggest and would be much easier to implement. A large standard deviation would indicate a "U" shaped distribution. A relatively small standard deviation would indicate a "V" shaped distribution. A standard deviation of zero would indicate complete agreement.
Until / unless IMDb includes the standard deviation of the ratings, you may find this list I created over a year ago of interest.
Polarizing Films
http://www.imdb.com/list/p5BdMpNPyxA/
The users of IMDb strongly disagree on the ratings for these films. The
standard deviation of the votes is an indication of the strength of this
disagreement, the larger the standard deviation, the stronger the
disagreement. This list ranks these films in decreasing order of the
standard deviation of the votes.
You will notice that the films on this list all have the "U" shape you describe.
For instance: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0845424/ratings
Although it would be interesting to search the titles by the shape of the distribution of their ratings, this is probably too complicated to be meaningfully implemented. The standard deviation of the distribution of the ratings will provide much of what you suggest and would be much easier to implement. A large standard deviation would indicate a "U" shaped distribution. A relatively small standard deviation would indicate a "V" shaped distribution. A standard deviation of zero would indicate complete agreement.
Until / unless IMDb includes the standard deviation of the ratings, you may find this list I created over a year ago of interest.
Polarizing Films
http://www.imdb.com/list/p5BdMpNPyxA/
The users of IMDb strongly disagree on the ratings for these films. The
standard deviation of the votes is an indication of the strength of this
disagreement, the larger the standard deviation, the stronger the
disagreement. This list ranks these films in decreasing order of the
standard deviation of the votes.
You will notice that the films on this list all have the "U" shape you describe.
For instance: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0845424/ratings
(Edited)
Doh! I didn't realize that clicking on the "from xxxx users" takes me to a breakdown including standard deviations. This is exactly what I was looking for.
