How many story types are there in the movies and which make the most money?
Researchers at the University of Birmingham have categorised the movies according to six emotional profiles or clusters, which were previously applied to novels.
These are: rags to riches – an ongoing emotional rise as seen in films such as “The Shawshank Redemption”; riches to rags – an ongoing emotional fall (“Psycho”); man in a hole – a fall followed by a rise (“The Godfather”); Icarus – a rise followed by a fall (“On the Waterfront“); Cinderella – a rise followed by a fall followed by a rise (“Babe”); and Oedipus, a fall followed by a rise followed by a fall (“All About My Mother”).
Apparently, the analysis showed that man in a hole movies with their happy-sad-happy trajectory were the most financially successful movies across all genres, costing an average of $40.5m to produce and earning an average of $54.9m.
You can learn more about this research here and, if you’re interested in seeing good movies, check out my film reviews here.