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Gerunds in the Movies

If you are like me then you have probably noticed an alarming rise in the use of gerunds in movie titles. You know gerunds, right? They're those funny little verbs acting as nouns at the beginning of sentences. They always end in "ing." For example: Swimming is my favorite activity or Bicycling really hurts my butt.

Pie Graph

Pie Graph

In 1950 only one in one thousand movies had a gerund in the title. Now a startling 4 out of 4 movies features a gerund in the title. Here's a pie graph to put this increase into perspective. See how much larger the blue part is! Alarming!

Movie studios have been using a formula for years now to name their films (i.e. Finding Forrester, Saving Private Ryan, Shrek). So what is the formula? I have constructed an easy equation to figure out what the title of the next movie will be. The formula is:

gerund + proper noun (usually a person's name)

In rare occasions there is an event in place of a person's name but usually it's just some dude's name. As if this wasn't enough I have also written a quick CGI program that actually goes forward in time and pulls a movie from the future.

So without further ado here is my finest creation:

Random Movie Title Generator

Random Movie Title Generator

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