It’s often tricky to figure out what makes a movie good. Is it having an amazing look? Good dialogue? Expensive personnel? Well Warner Bros. is taking the next step in trying to predict film success with AI.

Plenty of movies have been successful or popular without any of those things. But now, Warner Bros. is trying to turn the business of making successful films on its head. They are making a deal with Cinelytic, an LA startup with Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools “to guide decision-making at the greenlight stage. ” 

Success with AI

If you’re already worried that AI is going to ruin movies relax. Cinelytic’s AI can only unpack a film, not write or direct one (although AI can edit a film).

“Artificial intelligence sounds scary. But right now, AI cannot make any creative decisions,” Tobias Queisser, Cinelytic CEO, told THR. “What it is good at is crunching numbers and breaking down huge data sets and showing patterns that would not be visible to humans. But for creative decision-making, you still need experience and gut instinct.”

According to Andrea Scarso, a Cinelytic customer, the AI really opens them up to “a conversation about different approaches,” to developing a film. Scarso has noticed that just a little input from the AI can have a “massive impact on the commercial performance.”

A user can punch in various data sets like aviators involved, budget, genre, and director through Face Time. The AI can tell you whether older women would like a rom-com directed by Quentin Tarentinio more than they would like a Micheal Bay action flick. In this case AI is very limited to being a complimentary tool. All the AI knows now is that Micheal Bay movies usually turn a profit with x budget while Tarantino may be able to make a cheaper movie if you change the genre. Still, Warner Bros is really exited about the potential behind using Cinelytic. 

“We make tough decisions every day that affect what — and how — we produce and deliver films to theaters around the world, and the more precise our data is, the better we will be able to engage our audiences,” said Tonis Kiis, the senior vice president of distribution at Warner Bros.

If you are a student or emerging professional in the arts, have you figured out how the future of work and your career are going to be impacted by artificial intelligence technologies?