70% of people who received one acting credit on a movie never received a second. Only 1% received more than 30.
Power laws in the wild
A lot do a little and a little do a lot – and a reminder that averages can be meaningless.
The US accounts for one third of all the world’s airports, with over 15,000 to it’s name, but the vast majority of countries have fewer than 100.
60% all school book challenges in the 2021-2022 school year came from just 11 people, with sexual content being the main reason behind the challenges.
Forget the million copy bestseller – less than 2% of books manage to sell more than 50,000 copies.
99% of UK businesses have fewer than 250 employees, and 75% have no employees whatsoever.
Residents of Notting Hill, west London, received more in capital gains than the combined population of Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle. More broadly, the top 0.1% of UK adults received 86.4% of gains (FYI this is money received from selling an investment for more than the purchase price).
30% of Americans don’t drink at all, while the top 10% have 74 drinks per week.
Political disinformation is frequently blamed for election results, but its impact is highly concentrated. Researchers examined Twitter behaviour during the 2016 US election and concluded that “only 1% of individuals accounted for 80% of fake news source exposures… who were conservative leaning, older, and highly engaged with political news.” In fake news reached a tiny minority of users, most of whom probably had their minds made up before going on Twitter.
In the U.S Air Force during WWII, less than 1% of fighter pilots were responsible for 40% of the planes shot down
Between 1999 and 2018, half of all movies released in US cinemas cost under $18 million to make. At the other end of the scale, a rare few cost over $350 million, such as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Avengers: Endgame. So the answer to the question – how much does a film cost to make? – is that it depends.
15% of people take 70% of all flights, and over half don’t fly at all.
If you want to reduce it, target the superusers. The top 10 percent of US motorists drive 30,000 miles or more a year and use an estimated 32 percent of all gasoline – more than the bottom 60 percent of US drivers combined.
Half the world’s GDP comes from 4% of its land mass.
At Heathrow airport, 80% of noise complaints come from just 10 people.
Netflix shows are not made equal. As the company’s recent viewing report states, “the top 1 percent of titles accounted for about 22.32 billion hours of viewing, almost 24 percent of the total. The top 10 percent brought in 68 percent of all viewing – 64.16 billion hours.”