Skip to main content
edited tags
Link
Patrick Hoefler
  • 5.8k
  • 4
  • 32
  • 47
Notice removed Draw attention by philshem
Bounty Ended with A.L's answer chosen by philshem
Tweeted twitter.com/#!/StackOpenData/status/474126888009338880
Notice added Draw attention by philshem
Bounty Started worth 50 reputation by philshem
Source Link

Total screen time and first on-screen appearance by actors in films

I'm looking for a data set that contains total screen time and first on-screen appearance (mm:ss) by actors and actresses in Hollywood films. I'm most interested in these data points for actors and actresses in Oscar-nominated roles, but I'd be able to parse those records out of a larger data set if one is available.

I've seen several articles that report records for the shortest Oscar-winning or Oscar-nominated performance, but I can't find any that cite where the data comes from. Examples:

  • Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for Silence of the Lambs, but only appeared on-screen for 16 minutes.
  • Beatrice Straight won an Oscar for her role in Network. She only appeared on-screen for 5 minutes and 40 seconds.
  • Judy Dench won for Shakespeare in Love but only appeared on-screen for about 8 minutes.

I don't know if these are official records or not, since I can't find specific references to data. If official records are kept, then I'd like to know if the data is available.


In my search, I did find a recent article, The Gender Gap in Screen Time, that shows that actresses get significantly less screen-time than their male counterparts in Hollywood films. That article cites the Cinemetrics database, but I don't think historical data for performers screen times are kept there. I think the author of the NYT article may have used the tools available at that site to compile times for Oscar nominees for the past two years only. Those are the only two years that the author gives examples from in the article, and I cannot find the data on the cited web page.