Utah loves film, especially horror — but not as much as California
Mar 9, 2023, 11:35 AM | Updated: 11:37 am
A New 'Lord of the Rings' movie series is in the works at Warner Bros. Elijah Wood, pictured here, starred as Frodo Baggins in the "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy. (New Line Cinema/Everett Collection)
(New Line Cinema/Everett Collection)
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah love movies, but not quite like Texas and California, at least according to a study.
The conclusion is based on the volume of searches per 100,000 people, conducted by Japan-101.com, using multiple movie and film genre related terms. Those searches revealed that not only do Utahns love the cinema, they also search horror movies the most. If that seems flawed, consider that the study says Utah has the highest interest of all states in musicals and animated movies.
That sounds like Utah.
California, that is the primary home of filmmaking in the U.S., if not the world, shows 1,296 monthly searches per 100,000 people, ahead of Texas’ 1,203 and The Beehive’s mark of 1,1880. The study cites Sundance as a possible motivator for Utah searches, but with all the out-of-state visitors and funds the winter independent film festival brings in, interest is high in other states too, probably including California.
Right behind Utah was Colorado and then Nevada, creating a block of western U.S. cities before New York jumped in at number six. Arizona followed at seven. However, other neighbors like New Mexico (17), Idaho (36) and Wyoming (39) didn’t share the interest with its western neighbors.
Movie-related searches per 100,000 people
- California 1,296.5
- Texas 1,203.3
- Utah 1,180.1
- Colorado 1,176.3
- Nevada 1,139.4
- New York 1,128.6
- Arizona 1,123.7
- Illinois 1,122.4
- Georgia 1,110.6
- Washington 1,103.4
Care to guess the the state with the fewest film searches per 100,000? South Dakota checks in at last, Mississippi was 49.
