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September 25, 2006

Netflix Neighbors

The cinetrix mentioned an LA Times slideshow on Netflix's "local favorites" feature, which lists the top DVD rental picks in a given zip code. The results offer an interesting glimpse of the tastes of your friends and neighbors, inspiring both Andy and the cinetrix to list the local favorites in their neighborhoods. And after seeing their lists, I couldn't resist checking out the local faves here in Fayetteville:

  1. 7 Seconds
  2. The Land Before Time
  3. My Boss's Daughter
  4. Why Did I Get Married?
  5. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie
  6. Code Breakers
  7. VeggieTales: Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler
  8. The Last Castle
  9. Men of Honor
  10. Bloodrayne
A little further down the list: A Beautiful Mind, The Cooler, and at least three of Tyler Perry's Madea movies. The unusual number of children's movies can probably be explained by the presence of Fort Bragg and and the large number of military families with young children. The Cooler is probably the "most surprising" film on the list. The 'hood around Catholic University (where I taught last year) is a little more interesting, with Our Brand is Crisis, The War Room, and All the President's Men cracking the top twelve for reasons I can't quite figure out. So what are the Netflix picks in your neighborhood?

Update: Just wanted to add the observation that the fact that Netflix tracks this information is a little creepy, as Mary Ann Johanson and this CNN article point out. What's interesting is that the CNN article seems to assert that taste is relatively uniform across the country (and across time), but I'm not so sure that the differeing results from city to city bear that out. Even if Crash is the "most popular" film in a number of cities they surveyed, that probably says as muchabout the marketing of that film (which I still regard as the most overrated film of the last five years) and the role of awards ceremonies in taste-making than anything else.

Posted by chuck at September 25, 2006 11:30 PM

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Comments

29306 is watching these:

1. Invasion: The Complete Series (6-Disc Series)
2. The Tooth Fairy
3. Bambi II
4. Population 436
5. Masters of Horror: Dario Argento: Jenifer
6. The Shaggy Dog
7. Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
8. Half Light
9. Loverboy
10. Leroy & Stitch

Posted by: George at September 26, 2006 8:09 AM

Bambi II was in my Top Twenty, too. Population 436 actually sounds pretty interesting.

Posted by: Chuck at September 26, 2006 9:15 AM

Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector is Pittsburgh Approved as well...

Posted by: A. Horbal at September 26, 2006 9:48 AM

Just went back and checked and Lary the Cable Guy turned in a solid 21st place here in the Sandhills.

Posted by: Chuck at September 26, 2006 9:55 AM

I'm still not watching it, though.

Posted by: A. Horbal at September 26, 2006 10:37 AM

Why not? ;-)

Posted by: Chuck at September 26, 2006 11:02 AM

I should have typed in the full title: "Bambi II: First Blood"

This time, it's personal.

Posted by: George at September 26, 2006 2:57 PM

Bambi (to Col. Flower): Sir, do we get to win, this time?

Posted by: Chuck at September 26, 2006 3:11 PM

In the mostly-working-class Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda, New York, the top 5 rentals are: V FOR VENDETTA, SCARY MOVIE 4, THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN, FIREWALL and GREY'S ANATOMY.

Posted by: girish at September 26, 2006 6:51 PM

V for Vendetta's not a bad top choice. I think I like it even more than my original review suggests.

Posted by: Chuck at September 26, 2006 8:23 PM

Top 5 in my old zip code:

1. CSA: Confederate States of America
2. Boston Legal: Season 1
3. Can't Buy Me Love
4. Dead Like Me: Season 2
5. Road to Perdition

My new zip code:

"There currently isn't enough data to show Local Favorites for this area. Please try another area."

Hmm. Same thing for the zip where a lot of profs and grad students live near me. I *knew* this was a weird place!

Posted by: Heidi at September 28, 2006 10:55 PM

Wow, that is odd about your new zip. So I guess there are a lot of Patrick Dempsey fans in your old zip code?

Posted by: Chuck at September 28, 2006 11:03 PM

My new zip is odd in other ways, too. Ok, I actually had to go google Patrick Dempsey to figure out who he is. It was encouraging to see CSA as no. 1.

Posted by: Heidi at September 29, 2006 1:13 PM

I think I've seen Can't Buy Me love at least one too many times on cable. That's one of those movies that most vividly reminds me of high school even though my high school was nothing like th eone depicted in the film.

Posted by: Chuck at September 29, 2006 2:15 PM

Like Heidi's, my zip (which surrounds a college) doesn't have enough subscribers to generate a list.

Just goes to show how marginal we are, because it seems like everyone we know well uses Netflix.

Posted by: JBJ [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 30, 2006 8:28 AM

I'm a little surprised by these gaps. I thought Netflix had pretty much taken over, but it makes sense that a zip code with a lot of students might not have many subscribers. I know that it's a pretty major expense for my film students if they choose to subscribe (and I even encourage them to share accounts).

Posted by: Chuck at September 30, 2006 9:44 AM

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