How to Measure the Power of Actors and Film Directors?

Abstract

Star power is considered to be one of the key drivers of motion picture success. The power of movie directors is another possible, yet controversial, determinant of movie success. However, measuring the power of actors and directors objectively is not an easy task. In this article, we give a detailed description of a fast method which is based on previous box office performance of movies with particular actors and directors. Our approach allows calculating movie star ratings of thousands of movies using a spreadsheet within several minutes. It is also shown empirically that the resulting measures are significant determinants of box office sales. The percentage contribution of each determinant is estimated using the Shapley value decomposition.