If you look at the grades of the movies on IMDb, most of the popular movies fall between 6 and 7.5. If it’s above that, it’s likely a good movie, if it’s below that, it’s likely a very poor one.
Sure, there are certain specificities to this: comedies don’t get good grades on IMDb, you’ll rarely see a comedy having a good grade.
Also, action-movies, more recently, especially if they have some special effects, tend to get high grades.
I prefer watching movies with a grade above 7, but don’t always do so.
Also, for the movies in IMDb Top 250, I prefer to see them again as time goes by. It’s one thing to see the Godfather when you’re 20, and another thing to see it again 20 years later.
When I grade a movie, I tend to give it a minimum 8, 10 if it’s highly good, a 9 if it impressed me somehow. Recently, I haven’t given grades below 8, and even if I do, not less than 7. I think that the movie creators deserver a bit of appreciation, even if I don’t agree with the ideas in a movie 100%.
I follow a similar principle on Goodreads, where I give most books 3/4 stars, and to the top books 5 stars.
