Introduction to Pick the Next Box Office Hit

Hi! I'm Michael.

In this unit you will use data analytics to choose the movie you think will be the next big box office hit.

You'll select the genre, director, budget, and cast of characters for your movie.

You'll create movie posters, and a website to test them with your audience.

Finally, you will pitch your movie choice by presenting it to the class.

"Data analytics" is the use of data and statistics to identify trends or patterns in the world.

Lots of businesses use analytics to make better decisions.

Sports teams use analytics to determine which player will perform best at a certain position.

Doctors collect information to improve patient care and to detect disease.

And clothing designers use data to identify and predict fashion trends.

For example, in 2016, bomber jackets and military-inspired clothing began to trend.

More and more people searched for bomber jacket, military look, flight, army, and other related terms on the internet as they were shopping.

By examining and visualizing the search data, designers could see which styles were most successful and where the styles were trending.

Then, they could produce more of the styles consumers want.

But even though analytics can give people guidance for making a decision, there are no magic formulas to make those decisions for you.

Instead, you have to combine analytics and your own intuition.

In this unit, you and two group members will imagine that you are film producers.

A film producer is responsible for coordinating many of the aspects of making a movie, including making decisions about which movie to make.

You and your team will review a list of movie ideas and make comments about what elements will make a successful movie.

Then, you will compare notes with your group members to make a list of movies you think would be worth producing.

Next, you will use data about recently-released movies to identify patterns and analyze trends.

Which movies, genres, directors, and actors have produced successful movies?

Which films have not been successful?

To do this, you will graph the profitability of movies based on their genre, directors, actors, and budgets.

After analyzing the data, your group will choose one movie to produce.

Then, your group will create and test three posters to advertise the movie you selected.

Finally, you will compile a movie proposal to pitch the movie to an imaginary board of directors.

In these activities, you will use data to help you justify your choices and make better decisions about profitable movies.

Now that you have an idea of what you will do in this unit, move on to the next video to get started on the first activity!