Fox Is Using Google's Machine Learning to Predict What Movies You'll Like | Movies - Motherboard

Data scientists at 20th Century Fox and Google Cloud have developed machine-learning software that can analyze movie trailers and predict how likely people are to see those movies in theaters.

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Photo: Google

Data scientists at 20th Century Fox and Google Cloud have developed machine-learning software that can analyze movie trailers and predict how likely people are to see those movies in theaters.

A recent preprint research paper breaks down how the program, named Merlin, can now recognize objects and patterns in a trailer to understand movie scenes. Merlin can scan trailers and spot objects like "man with beard," "gun," "car," and decide whether the movie is an action flick or a crime drama based on the context in which those objects appear. 

"A trailer with a long close-up shot of a character is more likely for a drama movie," the study's authors write, "whereas a trailer with quick but frequent shots is more likely for an action movie."...

Merlin uses its method of categorizing movies and historical data of a moviegoer's preferences to predict whether they will buy a ticket for the next big summer action movie, Man With Beard And Gun And Car.

Beginning with 2017's The Greatest Showman, 20th Century Fox has been using Merlin's predictions to decide which movies to make and how best to market them, according to a Google blog post.
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Source: Motherboard