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FORTUNE.COM // JULY 2019
AS MUCH AS MANY OF US LOVE to bash Hollywood, moviemakers do tell us something about
our collective psyche—if not with their specific films, then with the types of movies they
keep putting into production. That’s what Fortune discovered when we broke down each
year’s crop of films by genre, as defined by IMDb. The lonesome, yearning Westerns of the
1920s gave way to musicals and war sagas in the ’40s, film noir in the ’50s, skin flicks in
the ’80s, and high-power action movies in the ’90s. So what does Tinseltown’s output say
about us now? Both thrillers and horror flicks reached their production peak during the
past two years. Something out there, it seems, has got us running scared. —CLIFTON LEAF
SCREEN
SHO T S
GENRE
MOVIES PRODUCED GLOBALLY IN EACH GENRE,
AS A SHARE OF ALL MOVIES MADE THAT YEAR
SHARE
IN
2018
46.3%
23.3
12.3
10.9
9.3
8.1
6.0
5.1
4.9
4.7
4.2
4.2
3.5
3.2
2.8
1.2
0.5
0.5
RATATOUILLE
ONE HOT NIGHT OF PASSION
THE IMITATION GAME
THE MIRACLE MAN
OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL
THE ADDAMS FAMILY
SPELLBOUND
INDEPENDENCE DAY
THIS IS THE ARMY
THE VANISHING AMERICAN
BATMAN
RETURNS
ROAD TO MOROCCO
HONKY
TONK
POSSESSED
GOING MY WAY
IT
SARATOGA
SEARCHING
SOURCE: IMDB; DOES NOT INCLUDE DOCUMENTARY FILMS AND OTHER CONTENT SUCH AS NEWS, GRAPHIC BY NICOLAS RAPP
TALK SHOWS, REALITY TV, AND SHORT MOVIES; PERCENTAGES ADD UP TO MORE THAN 100% BECAUSE
MOVIES ARE LABELED WITH MULTIPLE CATEGORIES. SOME SMALL CATEGORIES ARE NOT SHOWN.
