Do Movie Budgets Predict Success?
Every studio would love to produce a movie that sells millions of tickets. Does spending a lot to make a movie result in greater ticket sales?
Choose Your Data:
Animated Movies Nominated for the Academy Award 2010–2013**
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| Movie Name | Cost (in millions) | Revenue (in millions) |
|---|
Animated Movie Cost Compared to Revenue 2010-2013**
Review data and click “Graph It!” on the left.
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*Click into cells to edit data.
Discussion Question:
Based on the line of best fit, how much revenue would you expect from a movie that cost $160 million to make?
Discussion Question:
Do you think the line of best fit would be a good predictor of the revenue a movie that cost $400 million would make?
Answer:
It is hard to say with certainty how well a movie costing $400 million would do. Given that $400 million is almost 50% greater than $270 million (the greatest cost in the sample), students should be wary of making a prediction based on the line of best fit. Lines of best fit are a useful tool, but should not be followed blindly well beyond the maximum data point in the sample without considering the real-world context of the data.