Stereotyping Transformers

Good old Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. An explosiony summer movie that’s (supposedly) short on plot, not as good as the first, but full of action. Too much action too loud, from the reviews I’ve read. Its IMDB rating is 6.4, well down from the 7.4 that the first movie got.

I thought it would be interesting to look at IMDB’s voting statistics for the new Transformers, just to see how badly skewed the votes were towards teenage boys. You know, because a movie filled with explosions and Megan Fox and little else sure has its target demographic painted on Megan Fox’s breasts for everyone to see, right? Well, it turns out I was completely wrong about that.

Teenagers liked the movie the best, that’s true. Kids under 18 gave it an average of 7.4, and the ratings fall off as age goes up, down to 5.5 for people 45 and over.

But I was absolutely wrong about boys liking it better. Teenage girls liked the movie the best, giving it an average score of 7.9. There were many more teenage boys who rated the movie than teenage girls (2,094 versus 517) but a pretty sizable difference in rating.

And to keep up the surprises, women liked the movie better than men throughout every age group. In the 18-29 group it had a 0.2 improvement among women; between 30 and 44 it was up 0.3; and for 45 and over it was up by 0.4. Overall, across all ages, men gave it a 6.4 average, and women gave it a 6.7. Almost ten times as many men voted on it than women, though.

Looking back at the first movie’s ratings, it has the exact same bias. Across all age groups, women liked the movie more than men. Very weird, I absolutely wouldn’t have predicted that.

That made me check out some other recent releases to see how they matched up between the genders, to see if my stereotyped expectations were met or not.

Bruno: men liked it better, 0.3 difference

Public Enemies: women liked it better, 0.1 difference

The Hangover: women liked it better, 0.2 difference. Didn’t see that coming either. In the age breakdown, women under 45 liked it better than men; over 45, men liked it better than women.

I Love You, Beth Cooper: women liked it better, 0.6 difference. Girls under 18 loved it, giving it a 7.4. Naturally, everyone else hated it.

Up: women liked it better, 0.3 difference. Interestingly, people 45 and over liked it the least, giving it an 8.2 average (8.8 overall). Women over 45 only gave it a 7.3. They were the demographic group who liked it the least.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3: women liked it better, 0.1 difference

X-Men Origins: Wolverine: women liked it better, 0.6 difference. Wow.

Fast & Furious: women liked it better, 0.7 difference. Wha???

Paul Blart: Mall Cop: women liked it better, 0.5 difference

Angels & Demons: women liked it better, 0.5 difference

Knowing: tied

Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience: women liked it better (shocked!), 2.5 difference. That’s a 1.1 average from men, and a 3.5 average from women. Even teenage girls only gave it a 5.1. The weirdest thing is that while men 18-29 gave it the lowest average score possible, 1.0, there were 6,000 men in that age group who voted on it. I have a hard time believing 6,000 young men saw the movie, let alone voted for it on IMDB.

I Love You, Man: women liked it better, 0.2 difference

He’s Just Not That Into You: women liked it better, 0.9 difference

Coraline: women liked it better, 0.1 difference

Watchmen: men liked it better, 0.3 difference

Well, I think the lesson to take away from this might not be that Transformers defies gender expectations, but rather that women rate movies higher than men. Bruno and Watchmen were the only recent releases I checked where men rated them higher. I could come up with theories about that — men are less offended by violence (Watchmen) and offensive humor (Bruno)? — but those would just be random, uneducated guesses.

Ok. The end.