Are IMDb ratings dropping?

I hope so because it seems too many movies score into the 7.x/10 ranges or higher.

but just as a general guideline for wide opinion based on IMDb scores I interpret them like this...

4.x/10 and lower = crap
5.x/10 = generally negative opinions
6.x/10 = mixed-opinions (but might be slightly more negative or positive depending on which half of the 6's it's on)
7.x/10 = generally positive opinions
7.5+ = the more praised movies.

in my mind the vast majority of movies should be high 6's at best for the average. but seems like there is plenty of mostly forgettable movies crack the 7.0/10+ range.

but with that said... just a observation I noticed, at least for me, is that if a movie's average score is not at least a 6.x/10 or higher my chances of thinking it's anything special drop off a lot because out of the 188 movies in My Favorite Movies only six movies that I scored a 7/10 or higher have a 5.9/10 or lower average rating. or there is only 17 movies I scored a 7/10 or higher that have a 6.4/10 or less average rating.



I sure hope people would be more critical because the easy majority of name/semi-name movies are nothing special and I tend to judge 'average movie' as a 5/10 and then scales up and down fairly evenly from there.

or look at it this way... only movies good enough to be among My Favorite Movies do I give a 7/10 or higher score which is only 188 movies out of the 2,225+ total movies I have seen. NOTE: I don't restrict ratings either as I simply rate movies based on my all around enjoyment of watching them and being the vast majority of movies are nothing special my ratings tend to reflect this.

another thing... I think as a general rule that the more movies a person see's the higher their standards become. because, at least for me, years ago I tended to score movies a bit too high but after you have seen plenty of movies you start to get much better at scoring them and filtering out the junk from the gems. but I think it was Sep 2014 when I changed my basic scoring system from "6/10 and lower = Thumbs Down and a 7/10 and higher = Thumbs Up" to "5/10 and lower = Thumbs Down and a 6/10 and higher = Thumbs Up" as that gave me more room in the positive score ranges as too many average-ish movies etc where bunched together on the 7/10 score when some movies were clearly better than others etc but now that I can use a 6/10 as a positive score it helps separate the stuff better. basically my current system is just straight up better since it uses the 1 through 10 rating system much better with a 5/10 being middle-of-the-road/average and then scales up and down fairly evenly from there. NOTE: most movies I see get a 5/10 as they are usually okay enough for a viewing but ultimately have no re-watch value and re-watch value is paramount in determining whether a movie score a 6/10 or higher (i.e. will re-watch) or a 5/10 or lower (i.e. won't re-watch) as, like I always say, a movies true worth is whether I want to re-watch it from time-to-time as the years pass or not as I never understood those people who score a movie fairly highly only to rarely or never re-watch a movie as it makes no sense as the true gems are movies people should, and do, re-watch from time-to-time as the years pass.



Maybe it's just me, but does it seem like we are getting more-and-more generic/low budget/no-name/lower quality movies being made?

p.s. just for me personally... it's getting more difficult to find movies I score a 7/10 or higher lately which looking at 2016 to date only four movies I scored a 7/10 or higher. just for measure... just comparing 2015 vs 2016/2017/2018 combined, 2015 easily comes out ahead overall as it's got 8 movies I score a 7/10 or higher vs 2016/2017/2018's 4 movies combined (NOTE: 2018 could still give me a bit more before it's finished though).

hell, even comparing my weakest year of the current decade outside of 2016/2017/2018, which is 2014, against 2016/2017/2018 combined, it's pretty close either way between 2014 vs 2016/2017/2018.