Although I’ve fallen off the film viewing wagon, I’m always intrigued by movies with “all-star” casts. For example, Pulp Fiction has Travolta, Jackson, Thurman, Willis, Roth, Plummer, Rhames, Walken, Buscemi, Keitel, and of course Tarantino as actors. I’ve never seriously sat down and tried to quantify what this meant, but 10 “big time” stars seems like a reasonable threshold.
Then of course, the question is what’s “big time”? And there is the sticking point.
Today I had the brilliant idea that you could, relatively easily, define “top billing” based upon IMDB movie data. If an actor is listed as say one of the top 5 for their gender in the credits (for a few years?) call them an All-Star. Still a little squishy but firmer. Then you can quantitatively evaluate each film, rank, and decide.
Interesting challenge, and I wonder how it could apply to major league sports teams?