How film genre popularity has changed since 1910
Bo McCready measured genre popularity in a simple way: for each year, what share of all the films released carry a given genre tag on IMDb [1]. On that measure, the biggest changes over the last century are clear. Westerns, musicals and war films were a big part of film making before 1960 and are now a small fraction of releases. Horror, thrillers and documentaries have gone the other way and were at or near their highest share ever by 2021.
The figures below are approximate readings from his chart, so treat them as rough guides rather than exact counts.
| Genre | When it peaked | Approximate peak share of releases | Approximate share around 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comedy | Late 1930s | About 37% | About 22% |
| Romance | Late 1920s | About 28% | About 8% |
| Documentary | 2010s | About 26% | About 23% |
| Crime | Mid to late 1940s | About 16% | About 6% |
| Action | Around 1990 | About 17% | About 10% |
| Musicals | 1929 | About 14% | Under 1% |
| War | Early 1940s | About 13% | Under 1% |
| Western | Mid 1920s to 1940s | About 12% | Under 1% |
| Horror | Around 2020 | About 11% | About 11% |
| Thriller | 2010s | About 11% | About 10% |
| Fantasy | Around 1990 | About 4.5% | About 2.5% |
| Sci fi | Around 1990 | About 3.5% | About 2.5% |
A film can have more than one genre tag, so the shares add up to more than 100% in any year. Drama is left out on purpose. McCready explained in his post that so many films carry a drama tag that it would swamp the others [1].
Westerns, musicals and war films, the genres that faded
Musicals show the sharpest spike of any genre. They jump to about 14% of releases around 1929, straight after sound arrived. The Jazz Singer premiered on 6 October 1927, and by 1929 sound films had become standard [3]. Studios rushed out films that showed off the new technology with songs, and MGM’s The Broadway Melody, billed as the first “All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing” feature, won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1929 [4]. The boom faded quickly, but the 1930s to early 1950s are still seen as the golden age of the film musical [4]. Today musicals are well under 1% of releases.
Westerns stayed popular much longer. They were a big part of silent cinema, came back strongly in the late 1930s and kept rising to a peak in the 1950s, and the period from 1940 to 1960 has been called the golden age of the Western [5]. On the IMDb measure they fall away after the 1960s, after the genre had also moved on to television, where adult western series such as Gunsmoke started in 1955 [5]. They are close to zero now.
War films follow real wars. Their share jumps to about 13% in the early 1940s, during the Second World War, with smaller rises in the 1910s and the 1960s.
Horror, thriller and documentary, the genres that grew
Horror was a small genre for most of the 20th century. It starts to climb in the 1970s and reached its highest share, about 11% of releases, at the very end of the period, around 2020. Thrillers grew steadily from close to nothing in the early decades to about 11% in the 2010s.
Documentaries show the biggest rise of all. They were a tiny share of releases for most of the century, then climbed steeply after about 2000 to around a quarter of all films on IMDb in the 2010s. Lightweight digital cameras, computer editing and a big drop in equipment prices have made documentaries much cheaper to make [6], so far more of them get made and listed.
Comedy, romance and crime
Comedy has been the most common of these genres for almost the whole period. It peaked at roughly 37% of releases around the late 1930s and has stayed at about a fifth to a third of releases ever since.
Romance was at its height in the late 1920s, at close to 30% of releases, and has slowly declined to under 10%. Crime peaked in the mid to late 1940s at about 16%, the classic period of American film noir, which is usually dated to the 1940s and 1950s [7]. It is about 6% today.
Action, sci fi and fantasy
Action, sci fi and fantasy all peaked around 1990 on McCready’s chart. Action reached about 17% of releases, and also had an earlier spike in the mid 1920s. Sci fi and fantasy are small genres by number of films, never more than about 3.5% and 4.5% of releases, and both have stayed close to those levels since the 1980s.
Most common is not the same as most watched
This way of measuring popularity counts how often a genre is made, not how many people watch it. That makes a big difference. A handful of very expensive superhero and action films can take a large share of cinema ticket sales without being numerous, while documentaries and low budget horror films are made in large numbers and many are seen by few people. Commenters on McCready’s post made the same point about superhero films [1].
Keep in mind too that IMDb covers films from all over the world, that its listings for the early decades are less complete, and that genre tags are applied after the fact. McCready also gave each genre its own scale, so you should compare a genre with itself over time rather than one genre against another [1]. His interactive version lets you switch to a shared scale and see the films behind each year [2].
Questions about film genre popularity
What is the most popular film genre?
By number of films, drama is the most common genre, so common that McCready left it out of his chart [1]. Of the 12 genres he tracked, comedy is the most common in almost every year since 1910, at about a fifth of releases today.
What are the most popular movie genres by decade?
Romance and musicals stand out in the late 1920s, comedy and westerns in the 1930s, war and crime in the 1940s, westerns again in the 1950s, action, sci fi and fantasy around 1990, and horror, thriller and documentary in the 2010s.
When were westerns most popular?
From the 1920s to the 1950s. The period from 1940 to 1960 is often called the golden age of the Western [5]. They fall away quickly after the 1960s.
Why did musicals become popular in 1929?
Sound had just arrived. After The Jazz Singer in 1927, studios made a wave of musicals to show off sound, and The Broadway Melody won Best Picture for 1929 [3][4].
How has horror changed over the years?
It has grown from a small genre into one of the more common ones. On the IMDb measure it rose from the 1970s and reached its highest share of releases, about 11%, around 2020.
Sources
- Bo McCready (u/BoMcCready), Film Genre Popularity 1910-2021 [OC], r/dataisbeautiful, January 2022. The creator’s post, with his notes on the IMDb source, the interactive version and why drama is excluded.
- Bo McCready, Film Genre Popularity 1910-2021, interactive version, Tableau Public.
- Wikipedia, Sound film.
- Wikipedia, Musical film.
- Wikipedia, Western (genre).
- Wikipedia, Documentary film.
- Wikipedia, Film noir.
Last reviewed 8 November 2026
