Check Out WatchGuide

Last week, I had the great pleasure of being contacted by WatchGuide, an independent German film & series community (online since 2022, 1,600+ reviews, one editorial 0-10 "Watcher score" per title), where the authors link to this blog (and the site even sent me a nifty badge; on the right sidebar!). 

I've had a great time digging into some of the Watchguide movie data since then, and thought the audience here might enjoy the experience too.

According to Frank at WatchGuide, "German film fans have long memories. The world moves on from a film - we keep rewatching it until it becomes a classic. The data really does say: the older it gets, the more we love it."

Specifically, Watchguide matched 785 of titles to their global TMDB audience score, keeping only titles with at least 500 audience votes. 

What they found out is that Germany and the world mostly agree on assessments of movies (correlation 0.709) But they differ in ONE direction: the older the film, the more German critics rate it above the world. And the cult era is where the gap explodes.

THE PATTERN (average gap, WatchGuide minus world)

- 1960s: +1.48

- 1970s: +1.32

- 1980s: +1.32

- 2000s: +0.85

- 2020s: +0.78

Overall: Watchguide average is 8.32 vs the world's 7.29 (+1.04 across the whole sample).

CULT-ERA TITLES GERMANS RATE WAY ABOVE THE WORLD (WatchGuide vs TMDB audience)

- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974): 9.7 vs 7.3 (+2.4)

- Mad Max (1979): 9.2 vs 6.7 (+2.5)

- Tron (1982): 9.3 vs 6.7 (+2.6)

- Cujo (1983): 8.7 vs 6.1 (+2.6)

- Pet Sematary (1989): 9.2 vs 6.6 (+2.6)

- It (1990, TV): 9.5 vs 6.9 (+2.6)

- On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969): 9.2 vs 6.6 (+2.6)

- From Russia with Love (1963): 9.6 vs 7.1 (+2.5)

- Paranormal Activity (2007): 8.7 vs 6.0 (+2.7)

...AND WHAT GERMANS DON'T GET (the reverse, for balance)

- The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007): 3.5 vs 6.5 (-3.0)

- Justice League (2017): 4.2 vs 6.1 (-1.9)

- Rocky V (1990): 4.2 vs 5.8 (-1.6)

A FUN FOOTNOTE

Anime is the one corner where Germany and the world almost perfectly agree (+0.28 average gap). Horror as a whole sits at +0.93 - so it is the CLASSICS that spike, not the genre.

LINK

- The study itself (source link for the figures): https://watchguide.net/critics-vs-audience/

So, if you're interested in digging further, let WatchGuide be your guide!