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An Examination of Creativity in Motion Picture

Molly Muldoon Advisor: Professor Robert Baumann Department of Economics College of the Holy Cross Fall 2012

Abstract: Over the past 25 years, the movie industry has expanded and the number of movies released each year has roughly tripled. At the same time, average movie revenues have remained fairly constant, and during several years, revenues even declined. How can one explain the steady increase in the number of movies released while revenues were constant and even decreasing? I hypothesize that there must be more movies being released based on previously released material (less originality), or perhaps the quality of the films being released has been decreasing. The purpose of this study is to provide some potential explanations for the drastic expansion of the movie industry.

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I. Introduction

Movie critics despair over the lack of creativity in Hollywood. Last year there were twenty-seven movie sequels released which is higher than in any previous year to date (Ebert 2011). The top seven box office films of 2011 in the U.S. were all movie sequels, which is unprecedented in box office history (Cieply 2011). In addition, several other movies released were based on major books. The past year in film is part of a continuing trend. In the past fifteen years, the strong performance and box office presence of movie sequels and other films based on previous material have been on the rise.

The goal of this study is examine the creativity of the movie industry. Creativity is the “divergent thinking to conceive new ideas” (Heunks 1998), and in this study, creativity will be measured by the originality of film. A film will be considered a creative work if it is not based on any previously released material such as a book, television show, comic book, or remake. A film will not be considered creative in this paper if it is based on any type of previously released material.

Preliminary work has shown that over the past 25 years, the number of movies released per year has roughly tripled, and the average revenues per movie have remained fairly constant1. Between the years 2001 and 2006, the number of movies released increased by about 41% while average revenues fell by about 33% (See Figures 1 and 2).

How does one reconcile this rapid expansion of the movie industry while revenues were simultaneously declining? After looking at the number of employed screenwriters

(defined as members of the Writers Guild of America) over these 25 years, one can see

1 Preliminary work data are taken from the Box Office Mojo and Writer’s Guild of America West websites. Muldoon 3 that the number of screenwriters remains fairly constant and increases by about 6% between 2001 and 2006 (See Figure 3). This small increase in the number of employed screenwriters does not begin to explain the drastic expansion of the movie industry.

Therefore, there must be other factors driving this expansion despite falling movie revenues.

Data in this study confirm that over the past 15 years, there has been a drastic decline in Hollywood’s creativity as illustrated in Table 1. In 1996, roughly 58.45% of films released were original, compared to 53.94% in 2006, and 51.36% in 2011. While it is clear that over the past two decades there has been a sizeable decrease in the creativity of films released, it is less apparent why the decrease occurred. The goal of this study is to provide some potential explanations for the decline in creativity.

There are many factors that may influence the creativity of films. Perhaps movie producers rely more heavily on previous success in times of financial hardship. During a recession, movie producers may prefer the lower risk of previously established material.

Previous work finds that sequels on average earn more box office revenue than other films (Terry Butler and De’Armond, 2005 and Walls, 2008). Another factor may be competition between movie studios. If one studio produces a movie that captures high box office revenues and that causes a sensation, other studios may attempt to replicate the success of that studio. Other factors that may influence the originality of a film are its budget, the influence of critic reviews, and characteristics of the film such as the rating and the genre. Also, the size of the studio, or more specifically the number of screenwriters employed may influence the level of creativity. In years where many screenwriters are producing screenplays, there may be an increase in innovative ideas, Muldoon 4 and during years with fewer screenwriters one might expect that creativity of films would decrease. On the other hand, perhaps the movie industry is truly unpredictable and there is simply no recipe for innovation. Regarding the movie business, screenwriter William

Goldman notes, “With all due respect, nobody knows anything” (De Vany and Walls

1999).

While it is clear that less original movies are being released than fifteen years ago, it is less obvious whether the decline in originality has impacted the quality of films. In this study, critic and audience reviews are used as proxies for the quality of a movie. I assume a high proportion of favorable reviews suggests a higher film quality, while a low proportion of favorable reviews suggests a lower film quality. I find that the perceived quality of a film is only slightly influenced by the originality of the film. Interestingly, both critic reviews and audience reviews were slightly higher for movies that were based on previous material. Favorable critic reviews averaged 48.95% and 49.17% for original movies and unoriginal movies respectively. Favorable audience reviews averaged

59.79% and 60.20% for original movies and unoriginal movies respectively.

I find that unoriginal movies earn approximately 17.4% more at the box office than original movies, holding other observable characteristics constant. More specifically, the effect of a sequel and remake on gross revenue is about $6.97 million and $8.89 million, respectively, for a movie with average revenues. I also find that there is not a decline in movie quality between 1996 and 2011 as measured by critic and audience reviews. Instead, movie quality actually increases as movies in 2011 received statistically significant higher reviews than movies released in 2006 and 2001. The Muldoon 5 results of this study suggest that the decline in movie originality must be driven by a profit incentive and not by decreasing quality in film.

II. Literature Review

The existing literature does not examine the creative component of the movie industry. Instead, the movie industry literature examines the variables that influence a movie’s revenue and profits, and the risk and the lack of predictability that is characteristic of the movie industry. In addition, the literature finds that movie sequels, along with several other factors, are a vital element to the movie industry. Terry, Butler and De’Armond (2005) examines several determinants of box office performance. These variables include critic reviews, award nominations, sequels, budget, release exposure and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating. They define the sequel variable as “a movie derived from previous material” (145). This study finds that the number of theaters showing a movie, the critic reviews, the movie budget, and the film being a movie sequel all have positive and statistically significant effects on box office revenue. They find that sequels earn about $36 million more at the box office than movies that are not sequels. They also hypothesize that the main reason sequels are produced is because there is already an assumed audience for a sequel to a successful film.

In a similar study, Walls (2008) looks at movie profits as a function of the film budget, the number of screens the film is released on, whether or not the film is a sequel, whether or not the film has a major star, the genre, the rating, and the year produced.

While being a sequel does not guarantee a movie success, Walls finds that sequels have Muldoon 6 higher profits than non-sequels by approximately $880,000. Through his non-parametric analysis, he finds that sequels have positive expected profitability and mean profitability.

Assuming that movie producers strive to maximize box office revenues in order to maximize profits, the articles by Terry, Butler and De’Armond (2005) and Walls (2008) suggest that producing more movies that are based on previous material (non-creative movies) is a safer way to ensure steady revenues.

In a similar approach, Ravid (2003) examines the risk and the lack of predictability of the movie business and how movie producers attempt to guarantee revenues. He examines several “puzzles” of the movie industry, one of these being

“deviation from profit or value maximization.” He suggests that this deviation can be explained as an attempt to reduce risk by risk-averse studio executives. He also notes that higher ratings correspond with higher revenues. As a result, producers strive to reproduce the formula used for successful films, which explains why movie sequels and imitative films tend to receive higher film ratings. According to Ravid, producing sequels may be viewed as “corporate hedging behavior” (40).

Economic theory suggests that consumers enjoy and prefer variety. However, this is not clear when looking at the increasing numbers of unoriginal movies and the revenue earned by each. Previous literature suggests that movies based on previous material have higher profits than original films. The literature also suggests that other factors are important to a film’s success such as the naming strategy, advertising, the number of theaters showing a film, and the movie budget. Because the movie business is risky, evidence indicates that producers try to minimize risk by reproducing films similar to those which have been successful in the past. Muldoon 7

III. Data Sources

I use a fifteen-year time span between 1996 and 2011. Because a large amount of the data was collected by hand, I use data from 1996, 2001, 2006, and 2011 rather than each year. This produces a total of 878 movies.

The existing literature highlights several variables that influence movie revenue, including the rating and genre of the film, the release date of the film, the budget, the critic reviews, the number of theaters and a dummy variable for whether or not the film is an original work. In addition to the variables suggested by the literature, this study includes ratings provided by the audience and critics, dummy variables for the year the film is released, and the studio that releases the film. Most importantly, this study includes variables to capture the originality of the film. The first variable that captures the originality of the film is a dummy variable “original.” Original movies are films that are not based on any previous material. The second method that captures the originality

(or unoriginality) of the film specifies dummy variables for each type of unoriginal movie. Dummy variables are created for sequels, remakes, movies based on books, movies based on plays, movies based on television shows, and movies based comic books. These variables determine whether the effect of an unoriginal film depends on the type of source material. In other words, a sequel and a movie based on a book may have a different or more significant effect on revenues or reviews. Information regarding the originality of the film is obtained from the Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB and Wikipedia websites. Muldoon 8

Similar to Terry, Butler and De’Armond (2005), I use data from Box Office Mojo

(boxofficemojo.com), the Rotten Tomatoes website (rottentomatoes.com), the- numbers.com, and Movies.com. Data on the opening and eventual total number of theaters a movie was released on, the opening and total revenue of a movie, the date of the movie’s release, and the movie’s production studio are from Box Office Mojo. Data on MPAA ratings, genre, critic reviews, and audience reviews are from Rotten Tomatoes.

The critic and audience reviews appear as percentages of favorable reviews and serve as proxies in this study for the quality of a film. Since data on movie budgets is not available for each movie, budget data are collected from Box Office Mojo and the- numbers.com. If budget data are available for a given movie from both sources, the two budgets are averaged

I create several other dummy variables. First, I generate dummy variables for the quarter and year of the movie’s release. Dummy variables are also generated for the six most common movie genres, the rating of the movie, and the top five producing studios.

IV. Results

There are six different regression models in this study. Because one of my hypotheses about the decline in movie originality rests on the assumption that movie studios are profit driven and that unoriginal movies earn higher box office revenues, the first two regression models examine the determinants of box office performance. These two models are modified versions of the model used by Terry, Butler and De’Armond

(2005) which utilizes a log linear model of revenue as a function of a movie’s critic reviews, release date, budget, number of award nominations, and whether or not the Muldoon 9 movie is rated R, rated G, a sequel, an action film, and whether or not the movie was released within seven days of a major holiday.

The first two models in this study are log-linear ordinary least squares regressions

(see Table 3 for regression results). Both models have the natural log of revenue as the independent variable, and the dependent variables capture the impact of critic ratings, audience ratings, MPAA rating, genre, producing studio, originality, budget, and the quarter and year in which the movie was released. These two regression models are the same except that the first model includes a single variable to capture whether or not the movie is original, while the second model includes more specific variables to capture the type of source material. These variables allow for varying revenue effects of the source material. For example, a sequel may boost a movie’s revenue more than being based on a play, etc.

The results of these two models suggest that unoriginal movies earn approximately 17.4% more at the box office than original movies, which is a statistically significant estimate at 5%. When broken down into more specific categories, the results suggest that a movie based on a book, television show, or play increases revenue, although these figures are not statistically significant. Movies based on comic books earned lower box office revenues than original movies, although this finding is not statistically significant. Remakes and sequels both earn higher box office revenues than original films. For a movie that is a sequel, the average gross revenue is about $64.6 million. Given a coefficient of 0.291, $18.8 million of the revenue is attributable to the movie being a sequel. For a movie that is a remake, the average gross revenue is Muldoon 10 approximately $33.1 million. Given a coefficient of 0.371, $12.3 million of the revenue is attributable to the movie being a sequel.

The results of these two models also suggest that while critic ratings do not significantly impact a movie’s revenue, audience ratings are an important factor; a one percentage point increase in the favorable audience reviews lead to a 2.6% increase in box office revenue. The results also indicate that rated movies earn statistically significant higher box office revenues than the omitted category of unrated movies, perhaps because rated movies have wider releases than unrated movies in general. In this study, the top six most common genres (drama, comedy, action, foreign, horror and family) are included in the regression2. The results suggest that dramas with average revenues earn about $11.2 million less than movies of omitted genres, comedies with average revenues earn about $8.29 more than movies of omitted genres, and horror films with average revenues earn about $19 million more than movies of omitted genres.

Finally, movies produced by four of the top five studios earn statistically significantly higher revenues than other studios.

Because my other hypothesis regarding the decline in movie originality over the last 15 years rests on a change in the perceived quality of movies, the third and fourth models in this study examine the impact of originality on audience reviews as measured by the percentage of favorable reviews (see Table 4 for regression results). Both models are linear ordinary least squares regressions. While the results suggest that originality in general does not impact audience reviews, movie sequels in particular receive about 4.9

2 Many genre categories are omitted because there were too few movies in these categories to be included in the regression. Some of the omitted genre categories include adventure, animation, concert, crime, documentary, fantasy, musical, romance, science fiction, thriller, and western. Muldoon 11 percentage point higher favorable audience reviews than unoriginal movies, which is statistically significant at 5%. The results also indicate that a movie’s budget and ratings do not prove to be statistically significant predictors of the audience reviews. Dramas and foreign films earn about 5.78 and 20 percentage point higher favorable audience reviews, respectively, than movies of omitted genres. While the producing studio does not seem to significantly impact audience reviews, movies produced by Sony receive less favorable audience reviews than movies produced by omitted studios by about 4.6 percentage points. Movies released in the first three quarters of the year receive statistically lower percentages of favorable audience reviews than movies released in in the last quarter.

The last two regressions estimated in this study examine the factors that influence critic reviews (see Table 5 for regression results). Both models are linear ordinary least squares regressions with the percentage of favorable critic reviews as the dependent variable. The results indicate that critic reviews are not influenced by a movie’s originality. Neither the variable to capture originality in general, nor the more specific variables to capture the material upon which unoriginal movies are based prove to be statistically significant. While critics seem indifferent to comedies, action films, and family movies, the percentage of favorable critic reviews are about 7.3 percentage points higher for dramas, 29.8 percentage points higher for foreign films, and about 11.5 percentage points lower for horror films than for films of omitted genres. As seen in audience ratings estimations, movies produced by Fox and Sony receive less favorable critic ratings than movies produced by omitted studios, and movies released in the first three quarters of the year received lower percentages of favorable reviews than movies Muldoon 12 released in the fourth quarter. Movies with higher budgets, earn a statistically significant increase in favorable critic reviews, although at a trivial amount.

While the revenue estimations returned r-squared values of about 51%, the audience ratings estimations had r-squared values of about 16% and the critic ratings estimations had r-squared values of about 17%. The interpretation of these results, suggests that about 51% of the variance in total revenues earned by a movie can be explained by the variables in this study, while only 16% and 17% of the variance in audience ratings and critic ratings respectively can be explained by this study. These low r-squared values indicate that a lot about the movie industry is unknown or hard to measure even though several individual estimates are statistically significant. There is clearly no simple formula to determine what movies will bring in large box office revenues or to generate positive audience and critic perceptions of a movie.

V. Conclusion

Over the past 25 years the movie industry has expanded and the number of movies released each year has roughly tripled, while at the same time, average revenues have remained relatively constant. There are two main explanations for a large expansion concurrent with fairly constant revenues. One possibility is a large decrease in movie originality, and the second possibility is a large decrease in movie quality. While the results of this study do not find a large decline in movie quality, data in this study suggests a drastic decline in movie originality.

While the exact reasons of the decline in originality remain unclear, this study provides some potential explanations. The decline in originality may be a product of Muldoon 13 movie producers striving to maximize profits, and the results of this study confirm there is a profit incentive to produce unoriginal movies. I find unoriginal movies earn approximately 17.4% more at the box office than original movies. More specifically, the effect of a sequel on gross revenues is about $6.97 million for a movie with average revenues, and the effect of a remake on gross revenues is about $8.89 million for a movie with average revenues. Since unoriginal movies seem to bring in higher box office revenues, studios certainly may be exhibiting profit-maximizing behavior by producing more unoriginal films.

Another main hypothesis is that unoriginal movies have built in audiences and given the uncertainty of box office receipts for an original movie, producers may prefer the lower risk of previously established material. First, the results of this study indicate that audience ratings are an important determinant of box office revenues. A one percent increase in the percentage of favorable audience reviews increases revenues by about

2.6%. Studios that want to secure high box office revenues should consider audience perception. The results of the third and fourth regressions in this study, which examine the determinants of audience perception of a film, suggest that the audience like sequels.

Movie sequels receive about 4.9 percentage point more favorable reviews than original movies. The release of more unoriginal films and movie sequels in the past 15 years may be explained by movie producers altering their strategies to meet the demand of movie consumers.

While the audience has a clear preference for unoriginal movies, the results of this study conclude that critics are indifferent to originality of a film. The results also indicate that the quality of film has not decreased over the past 15 years as measured by reviews Muldoon 14 despite the decline in originality. Critic reviews are actually statistically significantly higher for movies released in 2011, than movies released in 2006 and 2001, indicating a possible increase in quality of film, if critic reviews are an accurate proxy for movie quality.

Since the results imply that there has not been a decline in movie quality since

1996, declining movie quality cannot be the explanation for the drastic expansion of the movie industry. Instead, the results of this suggest that the expansion must be a result of declining movie originality. Because unoriginal movies earn higher revenues, and because the audience seems to prefer unoriginal movies, studios seeking to secure high revenues and built in audiences have no incentive to take a risk and produce an original movie.

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References

Cieply, M. (2011, Dec 28). “Familiarity breeds Hollywood sequels.” The New York Times.

De Vany, A., & Walls, W. D. (1999). “Uncertainty in the movie industry: Does star power reduce the terror of the box office?” Journal of Cultural Economics, 23(4), 285-315.

Ebert, R. (2011, May 15). “Summer movie special: Sequel madness.” The Daily Beast

Heunks, F. J. (1998). “Innovation, creativity, and success.” Small Business Economics, 10, 263-272.

Ravid, S. A. (2003). “Are they all crazy of just risk averse? Some puzzles and possible solutions.” Contributions to Economic Analysis, 260, 33-47.

Terry, N., Butler, M., & De'Armond, D. (2005). “The determinants of domestic box office performance in the motion picture industry.” Southwestern Economic Review, 32(1), 137-148.

Walls, W. D. (1998). “Screen wars, star wars, and sequels.” Empirical Economics, 37(2), 447-461.

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Table 1: Original Data

Year #Original Films Total #Films Percentage Original 1996 128 219 58.45 2001 115 198 58.08 2006 130 241 53.94 2011 113 220 51.36

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Table 2: Summary Statistics

Variable Mean Standard Deviation Total Gross 37,300,000 53,800,000 Total Theaters 1808.659 1178.138 Critic 49.046 28.018 Audience 59.973 17.825 G-rating 0.399 PG-rating 0.142 PG13-rating 0.344 R-rating 0.405 Drama 0.241 Comedy 0.200 Action 0.101 Foreign 0.069 Horror 0.057 Family 0.052 Buena Vista 0.083 Warner Bros 0.089 Sony 0.081 Fox 0.076 Universal 0.067 Original 0.554 Book 0.177 Sequel 0.089 TV Show 0.015 Remake 0.057 Play 0.024 Comic Book 0.019 Budget 40,600,000 38,800,000 Quarter 1 0.208 Quarter 2 0.233 Quarter 3 0.262 Quarter 4 0.296 1996 0.249 2001 0.226 2006 0.274 2011 0.251

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Table 3: Log-Linear Regression Results, Total Gross Revenue Robust Standard Errors in Parentheses *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01

Variables (1) Ln(Total Gross Rev) (2) Ln(Total Gross Rev) Critic 0.002 0.003 (0.002) (0.002) Audience 0.026*** 0.026*** (0.004) (0.004) G-rating 2.530*** 2.563*** (0.911) (0.926) PG-rating 2.142** 2.177** (0.898) (0.914) PG13-rating 2.252** 2.272** (0.894) (0.910) R-rating 1.887** 1.897** (0.887) (0.901) Drama -0.477*** -0.470*** (0.162) (0.165) Comedy 0.358*** 0.346*** (0.126) (0.126) Action 0.006 0.024 (0.138) (0.141) Foreign -0.002 -0.036 (0.579) (0.586) Horror 0.850*** 0.794*** (0.208) (0.212) Family 0.478** 0.477** (0.184) (0.186) Buena Vista 0.226 0.214 (0.171) (0.175) Warner Bros 0.485*** 0.484*** (0.117) (0.119) Sony 0.469*** 0.506*** (0.127) (0.128) Fox 0.572*** 0.584*** (0.132) (0.132) Universal 0.598*** 0.597*** (0.119) (0.120) Original -0.174** (0.088) Book 0.102 (0.118) Sequel 0.291** (0.139) Muldoon 19

TV Show 0.142 (0.299) Remake 0.371*** (0.137) Play 0.168 (0.318) Comic Book -0.237 (0.243) Budget 1.80x10-8*** 1.79x10-8*** (1.48x10-9) (1.50x10-9) Quarter 1 0.281** 0.289** (0.129) (0.129) Quarter 2 0.021 0.029 (0.123) (0.125) Quarter 3 0.174 0.176 (0.124) (0.126) 1996 0.240* 0.231 (0.139) (0.143) 2001 -0.117 -0.105 (0.134) (0.135) 2006 -0.320*** -0.324*** (0.123) (0.124) Constant 12.278*** 12.096*** (0.888) (0.912) Observations 581 581 R-Squared 0.5074 0.5111

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Table 4: Linear Regression Results, Audience Ratings Robust Standard Errors in Parentheses *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01

Variables (1) Audience (2) Audience G-rating -4.876 -2.725 (6.218) (6.311) PG-rating -4.352 -3.151 (5.354) (5.671) PG13-rating -2.421 -1.102 (5.204) (5.501) R-rating -0.218 0.981 (5.096) (5.394) Drama 5.867*** 5.788*** (2.019) (2.030) Comedy -1.401 -1.556 (2.005) (2.035) Action -0.709 -0.907 (2.328) (2.335) Foreign 20.789*** 20.081*** (5.431) (5.656) Horror -6.701** -6.518** (2.793) (2.830) Family -3.965 -3.778 (3.087) (3.174) Buena Vista 4.143* 4.424* (2.507) (2.502) Warner Bros -1.638 -1.242 (2.115) (2.131) Sony -4.570** -4.503* (2.296) (2.358) Fox -1.527 -1.573 (2.311) (2.338) Universal -3.290 -3.088 (2.591) (2.567) Budget 3.04x10-8 2.40x10-8 (1.93x10-8) (2.00x10-8) Quarter 1 -7.229*** -6.947*** (1.891) (1.906) Quarter 2 -4.008** -4.149** (1.856) (1.862) Quarter 3 -5.146*** -4.887*** (1.773) (1.781) Original -1.478 (1.363) Muldoon 21

Book 0.763 (1.756) Sequel 4.852** (2.258) TV Show -7.035 (5.270) Remake -3.693 (2.874) Play 5.649 (4.124) Comic Book 1.020 (5.377) 1996 -0.183 0.131 (2.409) (2.430) 2001 2.201 2.125 (1.912) (1.925) 2006 8.028*** 8.048*** (1.788) (1.790) Constant 69.743*** 61.417*** (5.416) (5.826) Observations 585 585 R-Squared 0.1563 0.1693

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Table 5: Linear Regression Results, Critic Ratings Robust Standard Errors in Parentheses *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01

Variables (1) Critic (2) Critic G-rating -11.317 -11.957 (11.729) (11.575) PG-rating -17.338* -18.069* (10.220) (10.068) PG13-rating -17.808* -18.494* (9.774) (9.599) R-rating -4.626 -5.057 (9.622) (9.429) Drama 7.010** 7.266** (3.181) (3.215) Comedy -2.758 -2.649 (3.151) (3.198) Action -5.715 -5.624 (3.537) (3.593) Foreign 29.728*** 29.793*** (7.226) (7.277) Horror -13.685*** -11.479** (4.548) (4.645) Family 3.570 4.303 (6.180) (6.230) Buena Vista -3.088 -3.286 (3.982) (4.041) Warner Bros -4.132 -4.183 (3.453) (3.453) Sony -10.265*** -10.953*** (3.713) (3.735) Fox -8.208** -7.828** (3.797) (3.826) Universal -4.039 -4.059 (3.794) (3.845) Original -1.566 (2.236) Book -0.391 (2.931) Sequel -3.883 (3.737) TV Show 2.785 (6.745) Remake -5.446 (4.024) Muldoon 23

Play 8.971 (6.311) Comic Book 4.772 (7.853) Budget 7.47x10-8** 8.99x10-8*** (3.36x10-8) (3.37x10-8) Quarter 1 -11.141*** -10.982*** (3.085) (3.104) Quarter 2 -6.250** -6.148* (3.097) (3.124) Quarter 3 -6.806** -6.420** (2.798) (2.817) 1996 -1.010 -1.570 (3.530) (3.570) 2001 -8.464*** -8.972*** (2.971) (2.993) 2006 -5.627* -5.816** (2.898) (2.928) Constant 71.427*** 70.960*** (10.393) (10.240) Observations 581 581 R-Squared 0.1630 0.1843

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Figure 1: Number of Movies Released Each Year

700 600 500 400 300 200 100 Number Of Movies 0 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 Year

Figure 2: Average Revenue Per Movie in a Given Year

25000000 20000000 15000000 10000000 5000000 Average Revenue 0 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 Year

Figure 3: Number of Employed Screenwriter Guild Members in Each Year

2500 2000 Employed 1500 1000

Number of Screenwriters 500 0 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 Year