At the moment it's 2nd behind Corpse Bride with 14.4% which actually is pretty reasonable but I would prefer if it could close the gap a bit atleast.

[ edited by Djungelurban on 2005-08-22 12:57 ]

Djungelurban | August 22, 14:46 CET

I've logged on and voted.

Now stands at 15.9%

[ edited by The Do That Girl on 2005-08-22 13:36 ]

The Do That Girl | August 22, 15:35 CET

Please bear in mind that we had an almost identical poll posted here 10 days ago. Similar polls of this nature in the future will not add much to the discussion and will more than likely be deleted.

Simon | August 22, 15:42 CET

Well, yeah. Only the thing is, IMdb, pretty big site you know and winning a poll there means A LOT of publicity for the movie. Winning a poll on Coming Soon on the other hand does not. The power of IMdb is really unchallenged on the web as far as movies goes and a good result (and more importantly the user rating) on IMdb could very easily mean a million or two. For example, the good user rating on IMdb for Red-Eye was the decider for me whether or not I'm gonna go on that movie and the same goes for The Island (opens this Friday in Sweden).

Djungelurban | August 22, 16:10 CET

I agree Djungelurban, Simon. This is not YAP ("yet another poll" ;) ). This is a imdb poll, THE poll to "win" in my opinion...

Le Comité | August 22, 16:14 CET

I'm surprised that there is some group of people who are actually looking forward to 'Corpse Bride', I mean I'm sure it'll be cute, but is there some huge fandom of 'Nightmare Before Christmas' I'm unaware of? At any rate I will compulsively vote on any polls put up, but I'm a little strange that way.

[ edited by embers on 2005-08-22 14:49 ]

embers | August 22, 16:49 CET

I voted and spread the word to other Firefly/Serenity message boards.

Zoic_Fan | August 22, 16:51 CET

Agreed, Djungelurban. User rating is just as important as how many raw votes "Serenity" gets

They said in a recent Whedon-y Podcast that IMDb results are secretly "weighted" so that Pro users (mostly those in the industry) see a different set of results, a set of results in which some users' votes count more than others.

How can you be a user whose vote is weighted more heavily? Go and rate dozens, scores, hundreds of movies, so that you are an active user who has opinions on a wide range of movies. Don't just rate your favorite movies, they like to see you vote all the way from 1 to 10 on a bunch of movies, good and bad.

This helps them distinguish real users from sock puppet users (users created only in order to vote in one single poll, for instance).

chickenbird | August 22, 16:54 CET

Yes embers, there is a huge fandom of 'Nightmare Before Christmas' that you're unaware of. It actually is my most looked forward to movie of September. Right behind our girl, of course.

KypTheMovieGeek | August 22, 17:00 CET

Polls polls polls. I didn't realise IMDB actually weighted their PRO results which actually makes it far more valid for me that a set of results that came about from the usual war cry of "let's all go over to this website and vote for Serenity". Does anyone here have a Pro account? It would be interesting to see what their version of the results (unless under the terms and conditions of being a member is that you can't reveal the result - don't want to get anyone into trouble).

Serenity does remind me of a election campaign.

Keeping the fans in the loop = mobilising your core vote

Trailers and TV spots = party political broadcasts

Making sure non Firefly fans or non genre fans are aware that it's far more than just a sci-fi movie = appealing to undecided or moderate voters

Box office returns for the opening weekend = the election result.

Simon | August 22, 17:30 CET

Serenity is in front now with 21.5%, Corpse Bride is second with 21.1%

wsdevries | August 22, 17:31 CET

Yup, that movie has a HUGE cult following. It's been 12 years since the movie came out and new merchandise from that movie continues to come out and still manages to sell well. Everything from action figures to candles to socks to purses to napkin holders. You name an item and chances are they have made some sort of "Nightmare Before Christmas" version of it.

Matt_Fabb | August 22, 17:41 CET

Voted, but part of me did feel bad for MirrorMask when I saw how few votes it had gotten.

Odysseus | August 22, 17:50 CET

I had Pro a while back for a few weeks (mostly cause wanted to check if there were any nifty features that weren't available to us) and I didn't find that the ratings display on IMdbPro and those on the regular IMdb was any different. There were loads of features and you could list and rank pretty much everything in any way you felt like which was interesting but not overly useful. It was basically just... again I say nifty. And most importantly, everything that was a feature in the regular IMdb was also in IMdb Pro and it was the same info. Atleast, that's how I remembered it, it was quite a while back so I could be wrong or they could have changed it.

Regardless, the important bit is that the rating and the vote victory is seen by people in general cause that will spark interest. Later today Serenity will receive it's first rating since it's premiering today in Scotland. The votes will most certainly be those that the screeny attendees has cast and since the audience for the most part consisted of fans the rating will go way up. Something along the lines of an 8.6 rating from 500 voters is perhaps likely. This rating will probably stagnate there for a good long until the US premiere. What will happen now is that about 27 million unique visitors will check out IMdb in the upcoming month. And I'm sure that a huge chunk of those visitors will check out the upcoming releases. And if they do that they will notice that one of the movies, namely Serenity, has an amazing rating. This will catch the eye of virtually every single person visiting the Serenity page and they will think about if it looks like something they could be interested in. So, ultimately it's not that important what the Pro results are since most people doesn't use it.
Oh my... that was lengthy... Sorry 'bout that.

Djungelurban | August 22, 17:53 CET

Perhaps I should have said "industry insiders" instead of "Pro users" because some of the advanced features may only literally be available to Hollywood insiders. I don't know, I'm only reporting what I heard on the Podcast (with a somewhat pathetic memory).

chickenbird | August 22, 17:56 CET

So did I, but Neil Gaiman has quite the fan following and with the movie costing Jim Henson Studios only $4 million, I think it will do okay and quickly turn a profit.

Matt_Fabb | August 22, 18:08 CET

FYI, previous months' "most anticipated film" polls have garnered ten to eleven thousand votes, and this poll currently has over four thousand participants. So look for the competition to continue for some time. Just because "Serenity" has now passed "Corpse Bride" doesn't mean it's in the bag.

chickenbird | August 22, 18:41 CET

Still #1 at 23.5% with 1,182 votes, followed closely by Corpse Bride with 21.1% and 1063 votes. (Happily, no other film in the poll comes close.)

Robogeek | August 22, 19:27 CET

I just realized that IMDb is finally accepting offical user comments for Serenity! These comments are approved by the editors, unlike the stupid message boards. So write an intelligent review and help boost Serenity! This is just as important as votiing.

chickenbird | August 22, 19:44 CET

I have a pro account. Serenity is currently 103 in the "MovieMeter" (which is basically down to how many hits it has). I don't get any breakdown on the poll, but serenity is now 23.6% with a whopping 1737 votes. Woo!

Mort | August 22, 22:12 CET

It seems to me that IMDB should restrict visitors to one vote apiece, but on a whim I tried voting twice and succeeded. My first vote, of course, went to Serenity, but I cast my second for MirrorMask because I felt bad that it had so few votes.

com4tador | August 22, 22:21 CET

I think when you voted a second time you aren't getting a second vote, instead your vote is just being reassigned to a different movie. So until the poll is closed you can move your vote around to different movies as much as you want. I'm not positive but I think this is how the poll works.

[ edited by Matt_Fabb on 2005-08-22 20:53 ]

Matt_Fabb | August 22, 22:30 CET

You're right, Matt_Fabb. Thanks for the observation; I just switched my vote back to Serenity.

com4tador | August 22, 22:49 CET

Just to clarify on the "Pro IMDB" -- they offer a paid subscription service with that name. I think that's what they're talking about. And never fear, for I voted, and I vote there all the time. So, for what it's worth, you got me...

bobster | August 22, 23:56 CET

I've changed the link to the results page. As you can see Serenity won with a slim lead over Corpse Bride.

Simon | August 23, 12:39 CET