Between the depressing state of last year's mainstream releases and that spectacular Mark Harris piece on the death of storytelling in Hollywood, movie fans have every right to be down in the dumps. While we all complain and moan about how movies seem to be getting worse with every passing year, only The Moki Blog was crazy and/or smart enough to build a complex chart (see it after the jump) examining this phenomenon in ridiculous detail.

The chart takes the 20 most popular films of each year for the past 20 years and reflects the film's box office (how large the circle is on the chart), critical reception (the color of the circle) and how polarizing the film was to audiences at large (the circle's placement on the vertical axis). The result? Yep, movies do seem to be getting steadily worse.

Whether or not the final chart is scientifically sound is a debate we'll leave to the smartest among us, but in the meantime feel free to strap on your lab coat, break out your thinking cap and dramatically whip off your glasses to show how serious the situation is as you look over these findings.

A few stray observations after the jump...



1. In addition to reflecting the declining quality of popular cinema, the chart also depicts how film fans have developed a true "love it or hate it" mentality, leaving nothing to the middle ground. While films in the early 1990s seem tightly clustered, the films of the last couple of years sprawl all over the chart. As Hollywood becomes afraid of medium budgeted, middle-of-the-road films, sensible reactions from audiences become more and more rare.

2. The only truly deplored film that isn't in any way polarizing is 1997's 'Batman and Robin', a movie totally worthy of such a dubious honor. Meanwhile, the first truly polarizing movie prior to 2008 was 1999's 'The Blair Witch Project.' The least polarizing film of the past two decades? 'The Shawshank Redemption', because no one hates 'The Shawshank Redemption.'

3. Small-budgeted films seem to be better received and less polarizing to audiences, while massive blockbusters with built-in fanbases tend to earn both extreme support and extreme opposition. The two least polarizing blockbusters were 'The Dark Knight' and 'Toy Story 3.'

What do you see in the chart? Make use of our hand dandy comments section and let us know!