Anyone can make a good, profitable movie.
There are lots of movies with big budgets that earn a lot of money at the box office. You may recognize some of them: People love watching movies. That's why it takes true commitment, however, to make a terrible film.
A film so bad that it loses hundreds of millions of dollars. A film that no one would ever think about watching. A film so bad that it's hard to believe it could even exists. We took on the challenge of creating this film. Using data from over 1000 films on IMDB, we sought to uncover exactly what makes bad movies bad. Here is how to make the Worst Movie Ever, step by step. |
Step 1: Choose a GenreChoosing your film's genre is an important step to making it terrible. Certain genres have been known to be more popular with audiences, resulting in higher profits. Let's first observe which genres have the lowest average profit.
Average Profit per GenreWe can see that the genres with the lowest profit on average are War, Animation, Sci-Fi, Action, and Drama. When you hover over the bubbles, you can see that the worst genre is War. The average profit from War films is actually NEGATIVE, not a profit at all but a loss! The net loss is on average, 5 million dollars.
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Step 3: Hire a DirectorDirectors can be abusive, they can be demanding, but most of all, they are a surefire way to completely destroy a film's potential. Running with 20th Century Fox, if we take their 10 highest budgeted directors, we can trickle down to find yours truly.... Akiva Schaffer has proven to be the worst director to have worked with 20th Century Fox, the worst production studio. Ever seen Awesometown or Hot Rod? We hope not.
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Step 4: Cast Actors
One of the most important decision in making a terrible film is casting the worst actors possible.
Nicolas Cage has acted both in films that were unpopular (Stolen, 2012) and unprofitable (Windtalkers, 2002). This makes him a perfect choice for the lead role. Ryan Reynolds acted in two films that were among the least-profitable. Ellen Burstyn and Mark Margolis have each acted in two of the lowest-rated films. Since they repeatedly appear in bad films, they should be the supporting cast. |
Step 5: Film the MovieAspect ratio refers to the ratio between a frame's width and height. Filmmakers can choose which one to use to tell their story.
For example, notice how one frame from Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 would look with two different aspect ratios Let's see if certain aspect ratios tend to be more profitable
It looks like the worst possible aspect ratio is 1.78:1. It's a middle-of-the-road option, but just isn't profitable. It may be too wide to fit on many narrow screen devices, but is not wide enough to look good in the movie theatre.
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CreditsProject by Ivy Gong, Siddhartha Datta, Nikita Gupta, and Carmel Suchard.
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