Paradoxically, the age group at which men perform best in terms of ROI (51–55) is also when those actors start getting dramatically fewer roles. In case you are wondering why the ROI for actresses skyrockets when they are in their seventies, look no further than Judi Dench and Emmanuelle Riva. Their respective Oscar nominated roles in “Philomena” and “Amour” pretty much overwhelmed what is a minuscule data set by that age.

Slated’s ROI analysis by age shows that the evaluation methods used by the film industry’s gatekeepers routinely miss the mark in terms of capitalizing on the ebbs and flows of film career cycles. Computer-driven statistical analysis, however, does a much better job at anticipating those peak years and fallow periods — a correlation that underlines how data can be leveraged to stay in sync with audiences by spotlighting age-groups that actually perform best in the marketplace.

If you look at the ROI for both directors and producers at different ages, and compare that to Slated’s corresponding Financial Scores for those ages, you can see that they echo one another fairly consistently. Note: SLATED’s Financial Score, a number from 1–100, indicates a project’s financial prospects. The calculation is based on an assessment of a project’s costs in light of its revenue projections. A Financial Score of “80” roughly equates to an expected ROI of “2.0”.

This age-related film data is thrown into sharper relief when you look at who are buying most of today’s cinema tickets . There is a discernible generation gap between the age demographics of movie audiences and those of the filmmakers and creative teams that entertain them.

The MPAA defines a frequent moviegoer as someone who sees a movie at a cinema once a month or more. If you constructed an average spending pyramid for these avid film fans, as tracked by the MPAA during the years 2010–2015, you would see that 66.2% of tickets sold went to frequent moviegoers under the age of 40. A full 43.4% were twenty-four or younger. Now compare that pyramid with how the film industry allocated its spending over the same period. 66.4% of production budgets was spent on creative talents OVER the age of forty.