Data Story
The Casting Call
A call sheet + gravity board that asks whether star power pulls audience response like physics.
filmimdbtmdbcastaudiencestar-power
Dataset scope
991
films1922–2023
yearsTop 5
billedIMDB + TMDB
sourcesStar-meter is a proxy. The chart is designed to surface the weird cases: low-gravity breakouts, and high-gravity disappointments.
Loading casting call
Hypothesis
Higher cast gravity predicts higher popularity and vote volume, but low-gravity breakouts reveal discovery narratives.
Question: Is cast star-meter a better predictor of audience response than billing order alone?
Method: Compute cast gravity from top-billed star-meter weighted by billing order, then compare against popularity and votes by decade.
Prediction: High gravity clusters tend to have higher popularity/vote volume, with notable low-gravity breakouts.
Test: Compare top/bottom quartiles of cast gravity and inspect the residual outliers.
Narrative Arc
Act I
The call sheet assembles, names pinned in billing order.
Act II
Star-meter glow builds into a gravity score; the board fills with points.
Act III
Outliers step forward: loud applause without famous casts — or famous casts with quiet rooms.
Datasets
- imdb.film_cast
- imdb.people
- tmdb.movies
- 01_casting_call.json
Limitations
- Star-meter values can be noisy across time and scraping cadence.
- Popularity is not stable across eras or regions.
- Billing order doesn’t capture performance or screen time.