Does the IMDb STARmeter actually matter?

If you've looked for information about whether or not the STARmeter actually matters, chances are you've come across the opinion of a few Casting Directors, and in general, Casting Directors will say "no." But here's the thing: it doesn't actually matter what Casting Directors think about STARmeter.

That sounds crazy, right?

As an actor, a large part of your livelihood depends on getting in front of Casting Directors, getting auditions, and getting work as an actor! So if a CD says STARmeter doesn't matter, isn't that the end of the story? Actually, no.

The thing is Casting Directors have a job to do, and for their job, the STARmeter doesn't matter. They want to see if you can act. They want to see if you fit the role perfectly. They want to know if you're a professional that can handle themselves on set. If you are in the room with them for an audition, whatever rank you are on IMDb does not matter in the slightest, the only thing that matters is whether or not you're the right actor for the role.

But there's something really important in that last sentence - "if you're in the room with them for an audition." And this is the part where CD's do a disservice to actors that they are trying to help when they simply dismiss the STARmeter, because getting to be in the room with the CD for an audition comes down to many other factors that the CD honestly doesn't need to care about. In the CD's world, they post auditions, put out sides, and through some sort of filtration process end up with a selection of actors to audition and find a fit.

So how do you get in front of the Casting Director for that audition? Here are a few common ways:

• You already have a relationship with the CD, and they call you in
• Your agent submits you and the CD likes the submission, and brings you in
• Your manager submits you and the CD likes the submission, and brings you in
• The Director of the project knows/finds you and arranges for you to audition
• A Producer on the project knows/finds you and arranges for you to audition

And here's where it gets interesting - Producers, Agents, Managers, and in some cases Directors DO care about STARmeter. Because their jobs are different than Casting Directors' jobs, and the marketability, popularity, and following of an actor matters significantly more in the way they consider them.

In order to have your agent submit you for a role and get you actually considered, you need to have an agent. And that agent needs to be good enough and have the relationship necessary to get you in that room. And if the agent is credible, and has a roster of talented actors, you can bet that the majority of those actors have good ranks on IMDb. If you look up an agent and click to see their list of Clients, you'll find that they are not ordered alphabetically - they're ordered by IMDb rank.

So imagine your agent is looking at their roster. Everybody's in the top 80K or so on IMDb - except you. You're bouncing somewhere between 100k and 400k in STARmeter every week. What do you think the consequence of that is? For some agencies, you would just fall off their radar a bit. They might not even see you. And if they don't see you they're not thinking of you for the roles that you'd love to audition for. For other agencies, they actively "prune" their roster and get rid of actors that potentially drag down their image. Having done this for more than a decade, I've heard from actors many times who were panicking because their agent was threatening to drop them over their STARmeter unless they improved it.

So your STARmeter does matter for agents. Same goes for Managers.

With Directors, it might make a difference, but not necessarily. It depends on if the Director is wearing a few hats, including the "writer/producer" hats. The actual main job of the Director is to "direct" and to get the best performance out of their actors. But often times Directors are also connected to the marketability and commercial success of the project, and in those cases they are more likely to care about the popularity, following, and potentially IMDb rank of the people on their project.

Producers are actually the most likely to care about rank. Their whole purpose is to put all the pieces together to complete the project, but also sell it. They care a lot more about metrics and numbers than any of the others, and when you're putting a package together some of the easiest "proof" numbers are IMDb ranks. If those ranks are included in any kind of pitch or report, you better not be the one whose rank sticks out in a bad way.

Personal anecdote - I was in Los Angeles a few years ago at a wrap party for an independent film that I worked on. The director had invited industry friends - some big, some unknown, all just interesting people. I got to chatting with a guy who turned out to be a producer - it was kind of just small talk about the film we just finished, life in LA, that kind of thing. He didn't know me and I didn't know him, we were just talking. He was scrolling on his phone (which wasn't weird in this context) and suddenly he says "Wow, you've got a good rank."

So, while talking to me, he had looked me up on IMDb Pro. My understanding of this was he was trying to figure out if it was worth his time to keep talking to me - fortunately the metric that jumped out to him in a positive way was my IMDb rank. And we just kept talking.

So.

Does IMDb rank actually matter? Because it matters to some of the people who can have a big impact on your career, the answer is yes. Your rank will never get you a job - like I mentioned, once you're in the room with the Casting Director your rank doesn't matter at all, you need to be able to act and be the right fit for the role if you're going to get it. But getting in the room is a huge part of the battle, and for getting in the room, IMDb rank often has an impact.

Reaching and maintaining a great IMDb rank is never going to hurt you, but neglecting it and having a bad rank absolutely could.

Fortunately, this doesn't need to be just another thing you have to work hard to manage - Managed Rank can take care of it for you completely. We guarantee to get and keep your rank under 60k week after week, and we've been successfully managing people's IMDb STARmeter for more than a decade. See if you're eligible to join, and get the first week for free to see our service in action!