How Do Film Fans Feel About Christian Bale?
We used Ranker Insights to see what Christian Bale’s fans think about the actor’s most popular films over his decades-long career
With an all-star cast and a critically beloved director, Amsterdam is one of 2022’s most anticipated movies among cinephiles. Directed and written by David O. Russell, the mind behind beloved 2010s movies like Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, the period piece crime thriller will feature a strong roster of A-listers like Margot Robbie, Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, Anna Taylor-Joy, and John David Washington. But among these stars, few have dedicated fan bases like Christian Bale.
In anticipation of Bale’s most recent movie, his third collaboration with Russell, we’re taking a look at the movies he’s produced over his decades-long career, from his breakout role as a child star in Empire of the Sun to his more recent turns in movies like The Big Short.
The chart below doesn’t feature every movie Bale has been in (many movies don’t have a statistically significant affinity with Bale’s fans), they feature most, if not all the films for which they are best known. The results can tell us whether Bale’s fans are more drawn to his Oscar-winning dramas or their blockbuster superhero flicks, as well as whether they’re more or less forgiving of a Christian Bale movie than the general moviegoing public.
Movies Voted on by Bale Fans: 21
Given how long the actor has been active in Hollywood, the total number of movies for which Bale’s fans have a statistical affinity is rather modest. It seems that fans of the Dark Knight star haven’t come out in droves to give us their opinion on Newsies, perhaps the most famous turn of Bale’s early career, or his last collaboration with Russell, American Hustle.
Average Movie’s Affinity Score: 291
While Bale’s fan base isn’t opinionated about all the actor’s movies, they tend to feel strongly positive about the ones they do know. Those who love Christian Bale are, on average, 3X more likely to love any given one of his films, with an average Affinity Score of 291. To put that in perspective, Meryl Streep fans have an average Affinity Score of 260 for her movies. The only actor we’ve seen with a fan base that feels more positively about his resume is Leonardo DiCaprio, whose movies have an average Affinity Score of 312 with the actor himself.
Time Span: 1991-2019 (28 years)
The range of Christian Bale movies for which the actor’s fans have an affinity stretches back to 1987, the first year of his career. However, these fans don’t seem to feel very strongly one way or the other about Mio in the Land of the Faraway, the first movie in Bale’s filmography which came out the same year as Empire of the Sun. The Bale fan base also hasn’t registered strong opinions about the star’s most recent flicks, including Ford v Ferrari and Thor: Love and Thunder.
Fan Favorite: Batman Begins (559)
It’s not shocking that the movie most likely to be beloved by Christian Bale’s fans would be one of the films in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. What’s more surprising is that the most favored film is the first one, Batman Begins — the sequel, The Dark Knight, is the movie that solidified the trilogy’s success, and yet it’s the third-most favorite of the franchise among fans of the Welsh-born A-lister.
Fan NoT-so-Favorite: Vice (35)
A political origin story with a very clear point of view, Vice was always bound to be a divisive movie, which explains why it’s the Bale vehicle least likely to be enjoyed by fans of the actor. Still, Christian Bale fans seem more forgiving of the movie than the average fan — Vice’s sentiment score on Insights is just 35% positive, with 1,218 of the total 1,879 votes cast for the movie across Ranker indicating negative opinions about the film.
