JusWondering… Is It Better To Be First Or Last?
This will be a simple study. I’ll play it as a game of percentages whether a film is good or not, based upon reviews via Rotten Tomatoes. Then I’ll make up some way to decide which is better – to be first… or last?
Let’s start with the “firsts,” first…
- First Daughter – bad at 9%
- First Sunday – bad at 14%
- At First Sight – bad at 34%
- The First Wives Club – bad at 42%
- 50 First Dates – bad at 44%
- First Knight – bad at 44%
- Murder in the First – bad at 52%
- First Blood – good at 86%
- Star Trek: First Contact – good at 92%
Two out of nine films were considered good. That means 22% of titles that include the word “first” are good. One in about five is not a blue ribbon winner.
Last but not lease, here a the “lasts”…
- I Know What You Did Last Summer – bad at 34%
- The Last Action Hero – bad at 39%
- The Last House on the Left (remake) – bad at 42%
- The Last Boy Scout – bad at 43%
- The Last Unicorn – bad at 50%
- The Last Castle – bad at 52%
- Save the Last Dance – bad at 53%
- X-Men: The Last Stand – bad at 57%
- The Last House on the Left (original) – good at 63%
- The Last Samurai – good at 65%
- The Last Station – good at 71%
- The Last Temptation of Christ – good at 83%
- The Last King of Scotland – good at 87%
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – good at 89%
- The Last Emperor – good at 91%
- The Last of the Mohicans– good at 97%
- The Last Picture Show – good at 100%
- Last Night – N/A
- The Last Airbender – N/A
Nine of seventeen films that have been reviewed (Last Night and The Last Airbender aren’t out yet) were given good reviews. This means that a little more than every other movie using “last” in the title (53% of them) are bound to be good.
So to answer the question nobody was asking but me, my new script called Last of the Firsts has a 75% chance at being good! Or does that mean it has a 125% chance of being bad?
No matter what, it still has to be better than First Daughter…