In this section of the state of the film industry report, we examine how a filmmaker's marital status effects their likelihood to succeed in the film industry.

1. Part 5:
The Relationship Between
Marital Status and Filmmaking

2. Marital Status of Filmmakers
vs National Statistics
Filmmakers*
1%
10%
44%
46%
Single Married Divorced
Widowed
National Average**
6%
13%
50%
31%
Single Married Divorced
Widowed
*Filmmakers under 25 filtered from sample due to over-abundance and a low marriage rate
**Source: FlowingData.com, separated and divorced statistics combined for data matching

3. Filmmaker Marital Status vs
National Average
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Single Married Divorced Widowed
Filmmakers National Average

4. Analysis
• Filmmakers are less likely to get married, or
possibly more likely to get married later in life than
the national average
• Our survey skewed young, so that likely affected
both the single/never married and divorce rates
• More study would have to go into this topic than
time allows; we may publish a follow-up

5. Filmmaker Marital Status
by Age
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
<25 25-29 30-39 40-49 50+
Single Married Divorced Widowed

6. Household Income by Age
and Marital Status
$0
$25,000
$50,000
$75,000
$100,000
$125,000
<25 25-29 30-39 40-49 50+
Single Married Divorced
<25 25-29 30-39 40-49 50+
Single $40,019 $29,494 $50,636 $67,115 $45,972
Married $27,500 $74,118 $85,000 $99,787 $121,543
Divorced N/A $56,250 $77,857 $69,792 $77,667

7. Filmmaking Income by Age
and Marital Status
$0
$10,000
$20,000
$30,000
$40,000
$50,000
$60,000
$70,000
<24 25-29 30-39 40-49 50+
Single Married Divorced
<25 25-29 30-39 40-49 50+
Single $9,058 $22,134 $24,492 $30,500 $31,176
Married $33,750 $37,059 $40,663 $37,150 $37,734
Divorced N/A $56,250 $30,714 $21,346 $61,029

8. Analysis
• Married filmmakers tend to have a much higher household
income and seem to make more from filmmaking than their
single counterparts
• We speculate that the younger single filmmakers having a high
household income likely resulted from them living with their
parents
• There is a strong correlation between filmmakers getting married
and higher household income, and a moderate correlation with a
higher filmmaking income
• There were several smaller sample sizes that may have skewed
the data, namely that of divorced and widowed filmmakers

9. Marital Status by Film School Graduation and Gender
Graduates
8%
34%
58%
Single Married
Divorced Widowed
Prefer not to answer
9%
21%
70%
Drop-outs
2%
24%
74%
Single Married
Divorced Widowed
Prefer not to answer
10%
43%
48%
Other Ed
6%
38%
57%
Single Married
Divorced Widowed
Prefer not to answer
7%
34%
59%
INSIDE: WOMEN OUTSIDE: MEN

10. Marital Status by Age by Film School Status
Film School Graduates
<25
25-29
30-39
40-49
50+
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Single Married Divorced Widowed
Film School Drop-outs
>24
25-29
30-39
40-49
50+
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Never Attended Film School
>24
25-29
30-39
40-49
50+
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

11. Job Activity by Marital StatusPercentage of Time on Paid Work
9%
11%
9%
14%
56%
0-20% 20-40% 40-60%
60-80% 80-100%
19%
11%
12%
15%
43%
22%
10%
17% 17%
34%
Percentage of Income From Filmmaking
21%
9%
4%
6%
60%
0-20% 20-40% 40-60%
60-80% 80-100%
27%
5%
6%
13%
49%
29%
7%
7%
17%
39%
Outside Middle Inside
Single Married Divorced

12. Analysis
• There’s a strong correlation between men completing film school
and getting married. This correlation is inverted for women, with
70% of graduating women being single
• People who graduated film school are moderately more likely to
get married later than people who went to other sorts of schools.
Drop-outs are also more likely to get married later
• There were several smaller sample sizes that may have skewed
the data, particularly regarding drop-outs
• Marriage seems to have a positive effect on a filmmaker’s
likelihood to be on paid film work full time, and to have a
significant portion of their earnings come from film
• Many of these findings could be biased by the age of the groups.
More study is needed

13. Overview
• Business contacts aren’t the only relationships that
matter in the film industry
• Getting married appears to correlate with more
lifelong success
• Due to our younger demographic for this survey,
our findings may be biased
• More iterations of this study are needed to give
truly definitive answers