Movies 101: How to use the IMDb rating system to decide which Movie or TV Show or Game is actually worth your time

As responsibilities increase, we all are left with lesser and lesser time for Entertainment as seen in the Time Distribution for Working People article. Here's a breakdown of IMDb ratings which will help you decide which movies/tv shows/games you should actually watch depending on how much flexibility you can allow in your time investment.

IMDb RATING GUIDELINES TO FOLLOW-

1. Bottom Tier (Bad Rating)-
   • Movies rated < 6.5
   • TV Shows rated < 7.0 
   • Games rated < 7.0
     
     
   The average of the min and max rating that can be given to any movie/tv show/game is: (1+10)/2=5.5. Its very very unlikely that you would enjoy movies/tv shows/games in these rating windows because their content is too cliched/monotonous/unprofessional and the experience is probably gonna be a waste of time (This is true 99% of the times as there are always personal exceptions to any rule).
   
   



2. Middle Tier (OK Rating)-
   
• Movies rated between 6.5 - 7.9
• TV Shows rated between 7.0 - 8.4 
• Games rated between 7.0 - 8.4
  
  
This is the most tricky rating gap for movie/tv shows/games and qualifies (mostly) as a way of killing time. Subjectively, you may enjoy ~25% of the of all the movie/tv shows/games within these rating windows, if the the movie/tv show is strictly:

1. of the genre you love to watch
2. based on an issue/topic you are interested in
3. involves an artist you admire watching
4. related to your demographic of race/culture/gender
   
   
   
   
3. Top Tier (Good Rating)-
   
• Movies rated 8.0+
• TV Shows rated 8.5+
• Games rated 8.5+
The media in these rating windows is great in many ways and qualifies as a way to Irrespective of whether you like it or not, every movie/tv show/game in this rating window is actually good. You may not enjoy 10% of these movies/tv shows/games, but your negative opinion about them is subjective to you and probably due to something you may inherently hate/despise/disrespect, shown in the movie/tv show/game.

Notes -

1. Remember to click on the "number of votes" link, located under the IMDb rating of the media, to see a detailed info on the rating distribution for the Movie by different age groups, as the rating windows used in this article are age specific.
2. Sometimes you will need to personally adjust the ratings for movies/tv shows/games whose major voting demographic is overly biased negatively/positively towards the theme of the movie/tv show/game.
3. For movies/tv shows/games from the 20th century (released before the year 2000), your enjoyment is subjective to the level of your development as a connoisseur/pundit of
   movies/tv shows/games.
4. The younger demographic tends to overrate movies/tv shows/games due to their relative inexperience in life, so if you find yourself in lack of good content, adjust your chosen rating window(s) by a unit of 0.5 to be able to discover more content.
5. It takes a few months for a newly released (movie/tv show/game)'s rating to stabilize, so wait till the hyped-inflated rating settles down to its base value.
6. Your personal preferences for each type of media, depend on how much time you are willing to invest in experimenting with that type of media, Example: Personally, you may have a lower rating cut off to consider a movie "Top Tier" because you inherently enjoy gaming.