CinemaScore

CinemaScore

Company type	Private
Industry	Market research
Founded	1979
Founder	Ed Mintz
Headquarters	Las Vegas , United States
Area served	North America
Products	Audience film ratings, market research data
Website	cinemascore.com

CinemaScore is a U.S.-based market research organization located in Las Vegas, specializing in collecting audience feedback on films through letter-grade evaluations. The company publishes these ratings and utilizes the data to predict box office performance.

Background

Ed Mintz, who holds a mathematics degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and founded the dental billing software company Dentametics, established CinemaScore following his experience watching The Cheap Detective in 1978. Frustrated by critics' assessments, Mintz sought to leverage his expertise in mathematics and computing to gather opinions from general moviegoers. Drawing inspiration from a Yom Kippur donation card design, CinemaScore created survey cards distributed to cinema audiences.

The firm carries out exit polling where moviegoers rate films and share what attracted them to the screening. These findings are published in Entertainment Weekly. Additionally, CinemaScore assesses potential interest in video rentals, breaking down data by demographics such as age and gender for clients including Fox Video Corporation.

Polling operations began in 1979 after initial trials with Mintz's own dental company staff. Early results were disseminated through newspaper columns and radio broadcasts; however, after 20th Century Fox approached them in 1989, CinemaScore transitioned to selling data directly to studios. By the mid-1980s, AMC Theatres incorporated CinemaScore insights into their film selection processes. In 1999, the company launched a website hosting a database featuring close to 2,000 films alongside audience feedback. Brad Peppard managed CinemaScore Online between 1999 and 2002. Prior print exposure included the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Reno Gazette-Journal. The digital expansion introduced weekly email bulletins for film enthusiasts.

By 1999, CinemaScore evaluated roughly 140 movies each year, covering nearly all (98–99%) releases from major studios. Surveys were conducted among 400–500 patrons per film at three out of fifteen U.S. locations such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Dallas, Atlanta, Tampa, Phoenix, and Coral Springs.

During the summer of 2002, CinemaScore recorded the highest aggregate audience grades since 1995. That season witnessed 32 out of 34 movies receiving A or B ratings—the strongest ratio seen in ten years.

From July 2014 onwards, CinemaScore began sharing its results via Twitter. Public polling generally targets films opening on more than 1,500 screens; smaller releases may commission private surveys with confidential outcomes. Some private survey results have been publicly highlighted—for example, faith-based titles like Courageous and A Question of Faith, distributed by Pure Flix Entertainment, received "A+" ratings.

Rating

CinemaScore brands itself as "the industry leader in measuring movie appeal," deploying between 35 and 45 teams across 25 key cities throughout North America. Every Friday, personnel in five randomly selected cities gather responses from opening-day audiences using survey cards that request demographic details, a letter grade ("A" through "F"), purchase intentions, reasons for attendance, and alignment with promotional materials. Typically, about 400 responses per film are collected, yielding a response rate near 65% and a margin of error around 6%.

An aggregate grade ranging from "A+" down to "F" is calculated from the collected data; pluses and minuses indicate finer distinctions except for the "F" rating. Scores are further broken down by gender and age brackets (under 21, 21–34, and over 35). Studios receive comprehensive reports by late evening Pacific Time; letter grades are publicly released and frequently cited in marketing campaigns. Demographic insights enable studios to refine advertising strategies or make adjustments following a film’s debut.

In 1993, CinemaScore pollster Dede Gilmore observed that most films earn at least a B-plus grade, reflecting lenient audience attitudes combined with elevated expectations. An opening audience "C" grade signals poor reception. Founder Ed Mintz explained that A grades denote strong audience appeal; B grades suggest moderate success; while C or lower indicate significant shortcomings. Horror films generally receive lower scores; however, The Conjuring’s "A−" rating was an exception.

Earning an "A+" often correlates with box office success. Between 1982 and 2011, approximately two films per year achieved this top rating—several of which were Best Picture winners. From 2000 through January 2020, fifty-three films garnered an "A+", totaling about ninety by mid-2020.

Financially speaking, movies rated "A+" or "A" generate roughly 4.8 and 3.6 times their opening weekend revenue respectively; those graded C average about 2.5 times their initial earnings. Prominent actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Cruise can enhance revenue multiples even when a film receives lower grades.

As of 2020, only twenty-two films have been assigned an "F." While many are horror titles, numerous F-rated movies fall under what is called "Misleading Auteurism," where marketing misrepresents auteur-driven projects featuring challenging themes that disappoint audiences. Examples include Steven Soderbergh's Solaris, Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softly, and Darren Aronofsky's mother!.

Martin Scorsese has criticized CinemaScore and comparable market research companies for emphasizing commercial success metrics at the expense of artistic merit—arguing that filmmakers become content providers catering to risk-averse viewers. Ed Mintz defended CinemaScore’s approach by noting that polling enthusiastic opening-night audiences accurately captures core viewer expectations.

CinemaScore’s box office predictions have been described as "surprisingly precise," successfully forecasting hits like The Hangover as well as failures such as Land of the Lost. Industry perspectives vary: some executives value its audience insight and essential role in marketing; others favor competitors like PostTrak for more comprehensive analysis.

Beyond evaluating films, CinemaScore has also conducted surveys related to product placements, campaigns for Anheuser-Busch, and Las Vegas casinos.

List of Films Rated "A+"

As of now, American viewers surveyed by CinemaScore have awarded an A+ rating to a total of 128 films.

Number	Movie Title	Filmmaker	Release Year
1	Kramer vs. Kramer	Robert Benton	1979
2	The Black Stallion	Carroll Ballard
3	The Empire Strikes Back	Irvin Kershner	1980
4	Fame	Alan Parker
5	Ordinary People	Robert Redford
6	The Elephant Man	David Lynch
7	The Jazz Singer	Richard Fleischer
8	Raiders of the Lost Ark	Steven Spielberg	1981
9	Superman II	Richard Lester
10	This Is Elvis	Malcolm Leo
		Andrew Solt
11	On Golden Pond	Mark Rydell
12	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	Steven Spielberg	1982
13	Gandhi	Richard Attenborough
14	Rocky III	Sylvester Stallone

Among directors, two have appeared four times on this list: Jon Erwin, who collaborated thrice with his brother Andrew in 2015, 2018, and 2021, and once with Brent McCorkle in 2023; and Alex Kendrick, with entries in 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2024. Three filmmakers have earned three spots each: Steven Spielberg (1981, 1982, 1993), Rob Reiner (1987, 1989, 1992), and Andrew Erwin (2015, 2018, 2021). Directors with two films on the list include James Cameron, Robert Zemeckis, Pete Docter, Malcolm D. Lee, Peter Berg, Brad Bird, George Tillman Jr., and Jon Gunn.

From 2011 through 2024, faith-based or conservative-targeted movies accounted for 19 out of the 59 films (approximately 32%) that achieved an A+ CinemaScore. In the year 2023 alone, eight productions attained this highest rating; six were designed for right-leaning audiences while two were concert films spotlighting Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.

List of Films Rated "F"

To date, CinemaScore polling has identified 23 films that received an F grade from American audiences.

23

No.	Film Title	Director	Year Released
1	Homework	James Beshears	1982
2	Bolero	John Derek	1984
3	Eye of the Beholder	Stephan Elliott	1999
4	Dr. T and the Women	Robert Altman	2000
5	Lost Souls	Janusz Kamiński
6	Lucky Numbers	Nora Ephron
7	Darkness	Jaume Balagueró	2002
8	Fear Dot Com	William Malone
9	Solaris	Steven Soderbergh
10	In the Cut	Jane Campion	2003
11	Alone in the Dark	Uwe Boll	2005
12	Wolf Creek	Greg McLean
13	Bug	William Friedkin	2006
14	The Wicker Man	Neil LaBute
15	I Know Who Killed Me	Chris Sivertson	2007
16	Disaster Movie	Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer	2008
17	The Box	Richard Kelly	2009
18	Silent House	Chris Kentis Laura Lau	2011
19	Killing Them Softly	Andrew Dominik	2012
20	The Devil Inside	William Brent Bell
21	mother!	Darren Aronofsky	2017
22	The Grudge	Nicolas Pesce	2020
The Turning	Floria Sigismondi	} External links