A Statistical Analysis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies Ratings
December 30, 2022
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Context (What is the Marvel Cinematic Universe?)
Superhero movies have been a staple in the film industry for decades, dating back to the early Superman and Batman films of the 1950s and 60s. However, it was not until the release of Iron Man in 2008 that superhero movies experienced a significant surge in popularity (Boucher 2019). This surge can be attributed to the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a film franchise that intertwines multiple superhero films through shared characters, storylines, and continuity (Langmann 2022).
The MCU is grouped into phases, with each phase featuring a collection of interconnected films that build towards a larger narrative. Currently, four phases have been released: Phase One, which spans from 2008 to 2012, Phase Two, from 2013 to 2015, Phase Three, from 2016 to 2019, and Phase Four, from 2021 to 2022. It is worth noting that Phase Four of the MCU marked a milestone in the franchise, with the incorporation of several series on the Disney+ streaming platform in which intertwined stories with the films are developed (Marvel 2019).
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a major financial success, with the films in the franchise grossing over $25 billion at the global box office as of November 2022 (Clark 2022). The success of the MCU has not only propelled the careers of the actors involved, but has also had a significant impact on the film industry as a whole.
However, Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has faced some controversy regarding the quality of its films, with some critics arguing that the films released in Phase Four have not lived up to the high standards set by the previous phases. A recent example is the 2022 TV series “She-Hulk”, which has received mixed reviews. While some praise its unique approach and feminist themes, others criticize its lack of cohesion and character development. Common complaints include an uneven narrative and shallow characters. However, the film also receives praise for its strong, independent female characters and celebration of female empowerment (Milheim 2022).
There have also been calls for boycotts of Phase Four films by some fans who feel that the franchise has strayed too far from its roots and is no longer representing the characters and storylines that they love (Dressler 2022). Moreover, Phase 4 has had an irregular performamce, mainly because of the pandemic preventing the public from attending cinemas (Hathaway 2022).
This problematic was analyzed by the content creator Álvaro Wasabi in his video essay Fase 4 de Marvel: ¿Tan Mala Como Dicen? Análisis de Audiencias y Mi Opinión (2022), which has served as inspiration for this report. In it, the author analyzes in a superficial way the mean ratings for the MCU products up to the summer of 2022. Although it does not use advanced statistical tools, its methods and conclusions serve as a reasonable starting point.
All in all, the goal of this work is to analyze the perception of both the general public and film critics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in as objective a manner as possible, using the statistical tools seen in this course. With this in mind, the rest of the document is structured as follows: subsections 1.2 and 1.3 will properly define the problem in terms of Objectives and Resources. Section 2 will be devoted for experimentation, starting with data preparation and visual analysis in subsections 2.1 and 2.2, and following with parameter estimation, hypothesis tests and trend analysis in subsections 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5. Finally, conclusions are presented in section 3.
1.2 Objectives
As stated in the previous subsection, the goal of this essay is to objectively analyze the perception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films by both the general public and critics, using statistical methods. In particular, an answer for the following questions will be searched for:
- Are there significant differences between film critic and general public ratings?
- Are there significant differences between different phase ratings?
- Can the phases be ordered by rating with a particular level of confidence?
- Has there been a boycott to some of the movies?
- Is there any trend on the ratings (increasing or decreasing)?
1.3 Resources
In order to achieve the objectives stated in the previous paragraph, a need for statistical data arises. In particular, a sample ratings for all movies and TV shows belonging to the MCU franchise, both from the general public and professional critics, was manually collected into a dataset, following the nuance proposed in the video essay and updating it with the latest projects. The general public ratings were extracted from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), which is a website that provides information about films, television programs, and video games. It allows any registered user to rate movies on a scale of 1 to 10, with these ratings being collected and used to calculate the overall rating of a film.
On the other hand, educated reviews were extracted from Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator website that collects and compiles movie analysis from professional critics. The website assigns a percentage rating to each film based on the number of positive reviews it receives. A Rotten Tomatoes professional critic is as a critic or writer who regularly reviews movies for a media outlet (newspaper, magazine, website, television, or radio) that is in the Tomatometer-approved Critic list (Tomatoes, n.d.). This list includes a wide variety of media outlets and individuals, including newspapers, magazines, websites, and television and radio programs. In order to be included in the Tomatometer-approved Critic list, a media outlet or individual must meet certain criteria, such as having a significant track record of movie reviews and a consistent editorial process for reviewing films. Rotten Tomatoes also considers the reputation and credibility of the media outlet or individual in determining their eligibility for inclusion on the list.
The experiments have been carried out using the programming language R and the RStudio IDE. In particular, this report has been crafted using R Markdown, a document formatting language that allows users to create dynamic documents that contain text, code, and data visualizations. It also supports embedding R code and outputting directly into the document, and exporting it into PDF and HTML among others. This essay has been published as a web-app and is accessible at this link.