ccording to a group of Italian researchers who analyzed 47,000 films across 26 genres, the most influential movie ever made is . . . The Wizard of Oz. No surprise there, as the fantasy blockbuster starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, a girl who gets whisked away to a magical realm, has long been considered a game changer in Hollywood. Now there’s a neat bit of data to back it up.
The data was collected by a group of researchers from the University of Turin, whose study was published in Applied Network Science. They were aiming to measure the success and significance of certain films, based on metrics other than box-office success and critical reviews. So they focused on data that shows references to films in subsequent movies, looking through citations available on IMDb. They analyzed 47,000 films from around the world, noting release years, genres, and countries of production in order to cull further trends and patterns. That said, the group notes in their findings that IMDb is “highly biased toward European and North American movies and personalities,” which had an impact on the results.
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