TORONTO -- In terms of getting social media buzz out of the Toronto International Film Festival, it helps to go early. Having Robert Downey Jr. in your film doesn't hurt, either.
Downey Jr.'s drama The Judge, which opened at the festival on Sept. 4, not only enjoyed the most social media volume overall, but got the biggest bounce from pre-festival levels to midweek, according to data provided to Mashable by social listening and analytics firm Fizziology.
Benedict Cumberbatch's turn as Alan Turing, British breaker of wartime Nazi encryption device Enigma, drove the conversation around The Imitation Game, which had the second-most overall volume from conversations on Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms in the span between Sept. 4 and Sept. 9.
[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/bill.murray.jpg" caption="Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy come out of a Toronto downpour for the premiere of "St. Vincent."" credit="Getty Images/Jason Merritt" alt=""St. Vincent" Premiere - 2014 Toronto International Film Festival"]
Despite a ton of attention on Bill Murray (and not just on Bill Murray Day), his film St. Vincent was sixth overall, though it ranked No. 2 among percentage-increase from pre-fest to midweek, just behind The Judge -- a good sign for The Weinstein Company awards hopeful.
Coming in third in pre- to mid-fest bounce was The Theory of Everything, which featured a jaw-dropping performance by Eddie Redmayne as the cosmologist Stephen Hawking, tracing his body's descent into motor neurone disease while he continues to develop his theories of space, time and black holes.
Here are the top 10 Toronto films in terms of overall social media volume, according to Fizziology:
The Judge , starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall
The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch
The Theory of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones
Men, Women & Children, Jason Reitman's ensemble
Tusk, a Kevin Smith film starring Justin Long
St. Vincent, starring Bill Murray
Maps to the Stars , staring Julianne Moore
Nightcrawler, starring Jake Gyllenhaal
Foxcatcher, starring Steve Carrell and Channing Tatum
Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon
Fizziology did not include This Is Where I Leave You, The Equalizer, and The Drop because they are so close to release that their volume is distorted by active marketing campaigns.