UK scientists have cracked the code to box office success, and you won’t believe the results! After combing through the emotional arcs of over 6,000 scripts and feeding the data through a bunch of algorithms (naturally), they found out that the most financially successful arc for a film is one in which a character faces a challenge and then overcomes said challenge. Shocking, I know.
This is what they refer to as the “man in a hole” arc. It works that you have a dude walking on the ground, everything’s cool, and then–oh shit! He falls into a hole. Now, he has to get out of the hole. So, he works hard, uses a rock to chisel some handholds in the earth, and then he climbs out. By the end of the movie, he’s back on the ground, walking on his merry way. Surefire box office success guaranteed.
Source: Destructoid Scientists use algorithms to determine the most financially successful movie formula