On the redesigned New York Times website that debuted this week, there's a little section called Most Popular Movies. Maybe it was there on the old site but if it was, I never noticed it. But I noticed it just now and it says…
Most Popular Movies, also known as TimesPulse, calculates the most popular movies among NYTimes.com readers, based on the cumulative number of reviews read, movie details pages viewed and trailers accessed.
Know what the top movie is at this moment? The one that is reported as the most popular among the readers of that website? United 93.
Know what's odd about that? It isn't out yet. It doesn't come out until April 28.
But it's already the most popular movie among NYTimes.com readers.
Apparently, this is a measure of how many people access the trailer, which is online for viewing over there, or search for info on the film. This is not the same thing as being popular. It's called being curious, especially after reports that when the Coming Attractions are shown in some theaters, audience members get unsettled and emotional. United 93 is being written about elsewhere in the Times so that's generating inquiries, too.
A couple of the other movies on the "most popular" list aren't out yet. One that is — it came out in 1968 — is the Lucille Ball-Henry Fonda movie, Yours, Mine and Ours. It's currently #22 with NYTimes.com readers…though I'm guessing that just means that a couple of people were looking for info on the recent remake with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo. That, however, is not what it says in The New York Times. They list the '68 version directed by Melville Shavelson.
Beware of online surveys. They know not what they do.