Most Popular Genres, 1995-2022:
Super-Hero Movies Are Most Popular, Documentaries Are Least Popular
By MOVIEGUIDE® Staff
Sources: MOVIEGUIDE® and The Numbers.
An analysis of the box office earnings of the major movie genres in North America shows that, between 1995 and 2022, the most popular film genre was the Super Hero movie, and the least favorite was Documentary movies.
The second and third most popular genres were Kids Fiction and Action Adventure, followed by Science Fiction movies.
Drama movies were the second least favorite, averaging only $6.47 million per movie, though movies that dramatized real events averaged $13.26 million and Historical Fiction movies averaged $12.38 million.
Super Hero movies averaged a whopping $160.08 million per movie.
Finally, American moviegoers prefer movies that were totally animated or had at least some animated scenes in them.
Animated movies averaged $68.83 million per movie in the United States and Canada, but live action movies averaged only $14.11 million. Movies that were totally animated, with no live action, averaged nearly $97.92 million.
The fact that animated movies and children’s movies do so well clearly shows that American moviegoers want family-friendly entertainment.
|
Rank |
Type/Kind |
Average B.O. |
|
1. |
$160,080,672 |
|
|
2. |
$57,060,122 |
|
|
3. |
Action Adventure |
$51,518,025 |
|
4. |
$40,631,924 |
|
|
5. |
$27,994,981 |
|
|
6. |
$21,359,121 |
|
|
7. |
$18,653,778 |
|
|
8. |
$16,804,071 |
|
|
9. |
$16,251,212 |
|
|
10. |
$13,835,643 |
|
|
11. |
$13,261,046 |
|
|
12. |
$12,882,986 |
|
|
13. |
$12,381,541 |
|
|
14. |
Black Comedy |
$10,294,358 |
|
15. |
$6,471,943 |
|
|
16. |
$1,037,052 |
