Data story ·
The colours of cinema: films got warmer, not bluer
We broke 1,496 films down into their colours, frame by frame. The result: in the 1960s, warm colours shaped 12 % of screen time; in the 2020s it is 32 %. Cool blues and teals stayed almost the same (6 % and 10 %), and the share of nearly colourless frames fell from 70 % to 43 %. So films have not become bluer, they have become warmer.
How we measured
From each film we take four frames per second, without opening titles and end credits. Each frame is broken down into its five main colours. A moment counts as warm when coloured areas cover at least 15 % of the frame and reds, oranges, yellows or magentas dominate, and as cool when teals and blues dominate. A moment is nearly colourless when its average colour is practically grey; black-and-white films count entirely.
It is the same analysis our posters are made from. So the numbers are not an estimate but the average over several million analysed frames.
Each decade as colour stripes
Each film is a stripe in its most characteristic colour, sorted from grey through warm to cool. Two things stand out: the grey block on the left gets shorter decade by decade, and the widest coloured area is in the browns, ochres and oranges.
| Decade | films | Warm | Cool | Nearly colourless |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| before 1960 | 38 | 15 % | 7 % | 74 % |
| 1960s | 42 | 12 % | 6 % | 70 % |
| 1970s | 44 | 19 % | 8 % | 62 % |
| 1980s | 122 | 23 % | 8 % | 56 % |
| 1990s | 196 | 26 % | 10 % | 51 % |
| 2000s | 322 | 31 % | 10 % | 44 % |
| 2010s | 390 | 31 % | 11 % | 43 % |
| 2020s | 342 | 32 % | 10 % | 43 % |
Warmer, not bluer
It is often said that modern films all look “teal and orange”. In our data only half of that is true: warm tones have grown strongly, from 12 % to 32 % of screen time. Cool tones, on the other hand, have stayed at around a tenth for decades.
The biggest jump is between the 1990s and the 2000s. That coincides with the move to digital colour grading, where the colours of a whole film are set on a computer. Our numbers alone cannot prove that this is the cause, but the timing fits.
Animation is the most colourful genre, War the least
In Animation, 71 % of screen time is clearly colourful, in War only 26 %. On average Horror is the darkest genre and Animation the brightest. Animated and family films also have the largest share of cool tones: sky, water, snow.
| Genre | films | Warm | Cool | Nearly colourless |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animation | 208 | 46 % | 25 % | 23 % |
| Family | 300 | 44 % | 19 % | 29 % |
| Fantasy | 272 | 35 % | 14 % | 37 % |
| Comedy | 427 | 37 % | 11 % | 40 % |
| Adventure | 536 | 31 % | 14 % | 42 % |
| Romance | 176 | 34 % | 7 % | 44 % |
| Action | 547 | 24 % | 11 % | 50 % |
| Science Fiction | 338 | 23 % | 12 % | 51 % |
| Crime | 221 | 26 % | 7 % | 52 % |
| Drama | 479 | 26 % | 6 % | 53 % |
| Horror | 118 | 24 % | 7 % | 54 % |
| Thriller | 377 | 22 % | 8 % | 54 % |
| Mystery | 110 | 21 % | 7 % | 56 % |
| History | 67 | 21 % | 7 % | 56 % |
| War | 63 | 20 % | 6 % | 57 % |
What the numbers don't say
The 1,496 films are a large film collection, not a random sample of all films. Older decades have fewer films, and those are mostly classics. Restorations and new scans can change the colours of old films. And “warm” does not mean “vivid”: much of the warm time is muted browns and skin tones.
For the main finding that is still enough: the difference between the 1960s and today is large, and it moves in the same direction decade after decade.
And your favourite film?
Every film page in our catalogue shows the film's colours: whether it is warm or cool, its main colours and its most colourful moment. As a poster it becomes a picture for your wall, from €24.