IMDb Starmeter Rankings: A Sydney Sweeney Case Study Into What Matters for You
Happy New Year, friends!
January 1, 2026. New year, new you, new me, new career power.
âDoes My IMDb Starmeter Ranking Matter in 2026?â
A very popular question I get asked when I meet up with performing arts talent is the value of your IMDb Starmeter.
Some agents swear by it. Letâs examine the truth.
So does it matter? That depends on who you ask, and your goals.
Is your goal to be a serious actor or an influencer? IMDb with podcasts credits counting non-journalism/performing arts podcasts and all this new media is now loaded with influencers. Some actors and actresses who used to be real acting talent now feel like their lives have changed. Theyâd rather take care of the household and earn easier money. Thatâs OK. No judging you goes on here in my journal pages.
IMDb Starmeters rank, from what I was always told:
How many people are clicking directly on your IMDb profile. Some people falsely inflate this with outside hits. I never have. Most people donât think itâs worth it.
How popular this week in IMDb clicks only, not box office, not rentals, not media, creative projects you are a part of were.
The varying number based on an ever changing number itself. This can change weekly because IMDb.com itself doesnât have the same number of visitors on a consistent basis.
The unknown. Everyone person says this.
What kind of talent agent loves IMDb Starmeter rankings? Someone who:
Wants to peddle your career more Carlâs Jr. babe eating a burger in slow mo than serious actress.
Sells sensuality as a method of casting you for on camera or voice acting work.
Pushes you for reality television, where scandal makes a reality star.
Thinks your career thrives on tabloid showmances.
Anyone caring about those things is not turning you into a Meryl Streep here. Or a brilliant below the line creative.
Case Study: 2026 Sydney Sweeney vs. Actual Hollywood Legends
Sydney Sweeney, beautiful as she may be, and I loved her on Euphoria as Cassie the few times Iâve caught that show before I knew anything about her life off camera, is being Googled at this moment for:
Unfair objectification.
With her consent, more objectification, being in on the joke. Wearing a sheer dress and pushup outfits with all the Home Depot industrial tape in the store. Ouch, imagining those burns from the sticky dress tape.
Registering as a Republican Party voter.
Silence on controversies of the moment involving her denim ad.
How she isnât nominated for a Golden Globe for her recent boxing biopic, Christy, which her male fans apparently did not go out to see.
Selling her bath water and if the double standard of men vs. women doing it matters. A fair argument, Iâll add.
Creepy doxxing of her Florida home. I donât care about your political beliefs, donât do that to people.
However you feel about her as a human being, we can all agree that none of those things get you booked work or make you go from tabloid star to movie star.
Sydneyâs ranking right now? #8.
Tom Cruise is currently ranked #47. He is a great example of how an IMDb Starmeter is not always an indicator of reality. A movie star doing his own stunt work, producing his own films, having real planes flown in a movie.
Steven Spielberg: #105. He changed the business methods of Hollywood forever. Invented the summer blockbuster. His films earned trillions if not more collectively. Merchandise around the movies is its own franchise.
Emma Stone: #120. Nominated for a Golden Globe. Oscar winner. Lead actress of many years.
Taylor Swift: #875. This, with multiple Disney+ films out within the last month and the bestselling concert tour of all time. Swifties who canât breathe without her. Grammy awards, record setting. Billionaire status. Taylor is ranked not handfuls, hundreds, of IMDb spots lower than Sydney Sweeney.
George Lucas: #3,599. Star Wars, anyone? Indiana Jones? He has a career to wish for on your next birthday cake candles, but he ranks lower than Sydney Sweeney and many years between jobs working actresses coming off 2000âs and 2010âs TV hits.
Paul N. J. Ottosson, Oscar-winning sound designer: #38,200. Ranked beneath people with one line TV roles as Waitress #4 and some influencers.
Guillaume Rocheron, two time Oscar-winning visual effects designer. #241,200. Your former classmate dabbling in local acting may have a higher Starmeter from Instagram followers.
You could go further arguing that net worth and power are irrelevant of Starmeter rankings. George Lucas. He cries on his golden multi-billion dollar pillow every night thinking how his Starmeter ranking isnât in the top 100 right now. Wishful thinking I look back on my youth like, âYeah, I have a few Lucas-worthy film franchises myself!â đ°
A while back, The New York Times in the sexist heyday of Megan Fox wrote, âFox, who is 23, understood instinctively that noise plus naked equals celebrity.â 2009 was a bad year for young women, wasnât it?
My choice of a case study in Miss Sweeney was not to make fun of her or have a presumed political identity put upon me. I wrote a childrenâs book ages ago called The Pollution Monster Attacks Hawaii! and eat veggie daily. MAGA donât want near me. đ€Ł
And itâs not beginning down the Lewis Carroll-ian rabbit hole of why are so many men in corporate and Hollywood power circles secret Trump fans but pretending not to be, and men like Jerry Bruckheimer permitted to openly give piles of money to Trump without career repercussions as Miss Sweeney deals with everything negative raining on her? Clint Eastwood was a Republican elected official. Do you have to be a man for it to be OK?
Itâs that when you are a woman in the press for something, and people picking on your looks or everything about you unrelated to your career moves and talent or lack thereof, and again, so many untalented men exist like nothingâ
Your IMDb Starmeter goes up.
My own Starmeter goes up and down with this method.
When I had social media, more people clicked. Voila. Higher Starmeter. Coasted along between #50,000-150,000.
Did a PR stunt with a website. Shot up to about #35,000, I recall.
Get my name in the media. Bump.
Slow news week, or month? No social media? Iâm around #300,000-500,000 with more going on professionally now. With higher numbers and being on social media, I had the Sydney Sweeney light special at The Billie Eilish âDiner:â men lurking around who donât want to support my work or hire me, people networking with me hoping I get them hired somehow through connections of some sort, the hate watchers hoping I slip up, and people writing mean âfanâ mail. Or the doxxers and harassers.
An IMDb Starmeter ranking is not all itâs cracked up to be. Egg belongs on your face if you honestly believe anyone who says itâs all that matters in life.
Someone can be clicking on your personal website or diary. It wonât log interest.
Are you someoneâs mistress in the tabloids with one IMDb credit? You might find yourself in the glory of the top 100 on IMDb for a week.
People had careers before IMDbPro and will afterwards. Yours is no different.
Good luck on making it in film and TV, friends! Donât give up. This world is brutal to many. You win by sticking it out longer. Be like the joke about the end of the world with cockroaches and Cher.
xoxo,
Nic
