There is a perception in some quarters that hiring a first-time director is too risky, but is that perception justified?
Film data hound Stephen Follows teamed up with Bruce Nash from The Numbers to take a look at the data to find out.
They focused on 3,217 narrative (ie non-documentary) feature films released between 1999 and 2018 which had just one director. For each film, they have detailed estimates of their financial performance, allowing us to make a reasonable assessment of the project’s overall profitability.