Why do imdb ratings tend to have a bias towards newly released movies?

I don’t understand why this happens. Also, does anybody know a site that has less biased ratings for films. Thanks.

I know what you’re talking about. I loved The Dark Knight and all, but, it doesn’t deserve to be #5. It’s just 300, 000 teens giving it 10/10 in honor of Heath.

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6 Responses to Why do imdb ratings tend to have a bias towards newly released movies?

  1. rickdarkone says:

    People have high hopes

    I love Horror movies and Imdb graded Repo the genetic opera at 6.8 WTF??? and months before the first priview even came out

    That movie was OK but not a 6.8 this was based on people on the first page giving a perfect 10
    and Banks down there on the bottom is right people want to give a perfect 10 because someone who worked on the movie died….so every Elvis movie must be a 10 too….Right?
    References :

  2. Lauren G says:

    Not enough people have seen them yet to know that they suck.

    Try Rotten Tomatoes maybe.
    References :

  3. rejectedzipper says:

    It’s not really a bias, unless younger viewers are really into classic films and watch TCM regularly they have little knowledge of films "before their time".

    Even those of us that ARE film buffs have more interest in talkies although there are many works of genius from the silent period.

    That apparent bias will gradually even out as people get older and they look back on the "good old days of the 1990′s (!!)
    References :

  4. Don Robeo says:

    IMDB is probably the most well known place to look up movies, TV shows and actors…That said, everyone that participates in a project (movies, indie films, docu’s) goes to this site and votes it up to draw attention. The flip side of that is that haters do the same thing..e.g. Paris Hilton produced "The Hottie and the Nottie". Before it even came out the IMDB rating was so low and the comments were in the gutter and the majority of these people never seen the movie. Sad to say but ever web site is based on this formula, who you know and who you hate.
    References :

  5. Prish says:

    A while back, I tried to put in a comment at imdb. I got a message that I could not because my user name, etc. would not work because I had not purchased anything from Amazon.com recently. I guess one can only comment if one is a recent Amazon customer. Since Amazon sells movie dvds, that might be the missing link.

    I looked it up. Here are some interesting quotes from the wiki:

    "In April 1998, Amazon bought the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)."
    [then lots of other things happened through the years to:]
    "In July 2008, Amazon’s IMDb subsidiary purchased Box Office Mojo, a site that tracks movie sales in theaters."
    References :
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com

  6. Christine Banks says:

    I know what you’re talking about. I loved The Dark Knight and all, but, it doesn’t deserve to be #5. It’s just 300, 000 teens giving it 10/10 in honor of Heath.
    References :