It seems that you are making a confusion between the origin country and the production countries.

As visible here, the production countries are effectively United Kingdom, United States and Turkey.

But the first general public release (not counting the festivals) took place in the United States (October 21) before the United Kingdom (November 18) and Turkey (December 28). Consequently, the origin country is the United States.

Thanks for the swift response.

Is that really how TMDB defines a movie's country of origin?
It seems rather out of step with how the industry defines a country of origin (I say this from expeince as I was just at a conference where Aftersun was listed a US film based on this data)

I sort of understand the logic in how the origin country of that specifc data point is arrived at, but that seems an extremly odd choice for defining a film's country of origin.

I understand that country of origin can have multiple definitions e.g.: where the production companies are based, where it was created/ filmed, the juristiction of the IP is held in

But I have never come across the definition that it is just whatever country it happend to be shown in a cinema first.

If we apply that logic to a big release such as Iron Man 3 should have a country of origin of Indonesia/ New Zealand as it was on general release there on 04/18/2014 two weeks before the USA which is currently listed as the country of origin Or Star Wars: the Force Awakens should have an origin country of UAE. It was on general release there on 12/15/2015, but the listed country of origin is USA which didn't have a general release until 12/18/2015.

But OK if that is TMDB's definition then fine, I would suggest it could probably do with a review though.

@meltwaterfalls said:

But I have never come across the definition that it is just whatever country it happend to be shown in a cinema first.

It seems that you missed a point in my answer. I have only looked at the release dates in the 3 production countries.

The country of origin is the production country where it is released first.

If we apply that logic to a big release such as Iron Man 3 should have a country of origin of Indonesia/ New Zealand as it was on general release there on 04/18/2014 two weeks before the USA which is currently listed as the country of origin

No. Neither Indonesia, nor New Zealand are part of the production countries.

Or Star Wars: the Force Awakens should have an origin country of UAE. It was on general release there on 12/15/2015, but the listed country of origin is USA which didn't have a general release until 12/18/2015.

No, as UAE is not a production country.

Ah OK, yep I hadn't picked up on the point that the Country of Origin related to just those productions countries cinematic release.

So on TMDB a film can only have one country of origin?

And that is; whichever production country happens to have had a first general cinematic release?

Sorry for being picky, just that we were reviewing TMDB as a source, after seeing it at a conference.

If that is the definition, then we know it isn't useful for our purposes.

Also really sorry how can I navigate to a page that shows me the production countries, I just can not navigate to it without opening up Edit Page

@meltwaterfalls said:

So on TMDB a film can only have one country of origin?

There maybe multiple countries, if it is released on the same day in them.

And that is; whichever production country happens to have had a first general cinematic release?

The one(s) who get the first general public release (not necessary in movie theaters).

Also really sorry how can I navigate to a page that shows me the production countries, I just can not navigate to it without opening up Edit Page

Edit -> Production information

Edit -> Production information

So there is no way to get that information as a casual user, you can only as an editor if you seek it out. That probably explains the route of my confusion, as to why UK wasn't anywhere to be seen on the page for a UK produced film.

Thanks for clarifying on the multiple countries of origin, fingers crossed that distributors get their timings right I guess.

Thanks for your time, it is really useful how this is arrive at and that this isn't what we would regard as a country of origin.

Is there anywhere that this definition of country of origin is classified/ a discussion on it, it just feels rather out of step with common usage, so I would like to get a bit more information on how this definition was arrived at.

@meltwaterfalls said:

Edit -> Production information

So there is no way to get that information as a casual user, you can only as an editor if you seek it out. That probably explains the route of my confusion, as to why UK wasn't anywhere to be seen on the page for a UK produced film.

Every users can access the edit pages.

Is there anywhere that this definition of country of origin is classified/ a discussion on it, it just feels rather out of step with common usage, so I would like to get a bit more information on how this definition was arrived at.

The field is defined here for the TV series where it was historically present.

The definition of this field is not yet writtent in our rules for movies as it was just added recently,

Thanks so much for your time and patience

I will have a look at that one.

Thanks again