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Mapping Netflix Rental Patterns in the U.S.

by Caleb Johnson on January 11, 2010 at 06:00 PM

Thanks to some data from the online movie-rental service and an interactive map from The New York Times, we have more insight into what our rental patterns say about us, our communities, neighborhoods, cities, and regions.

The Google-powered map shows the top 50 rentals in each ZIP code of 12 major U.S. metropolitan areas, which include New York City, Miami, the Bay Area, and Chicago. There's also an adjustable sliding bar on the page that you can select a specific title with and see how it rates in certain cities. Depending on how many Netflix customers rented that movie, the map will be shaded darker (for more rentals) or lighter (for fewer rentals). So what does all this data show? Well, as the Times points out, 'Mad Men: Season 1: Disc 1' is real popular in the Northeast, but not so popular on South Beach. Whereas 'Obsessed,' with Beyonce, saw lots of rentals in Atlanta and few rentals in the Pacific Northwest.

In case you were wondering, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' was the most rented Netflix DVD of 2009. Apparently no matter the region, we can all love an extremely long film adaptation of a short story. Hey, it sure beats watching 'Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen' again. [From: The New York Times via: Kottke.org]

Tags: data, google, madmen, maps, movies, netflix, pattern, streaming, top, trends

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