A leading producer and movie data researcher in the U.K. has come to a conclusion that many have believed for quite some time: Ben Affleck is the saddest man in Hollywood. It could be all of those pesky Batman rumors that just won't go away or it could very well be from the Sad Affleck meme that went viral last year while the actor was out promoting Batman v Superman with Henry Cavill. As it turns out, Affleck probably isn't sad at all really, but his face seems show off more sadness when compared to other A-list Hollywood stars.

Market Watch reports that U.K. researcher, Stephen Follows, set out to analyze movie posters to evaluate high-profile actors' emotions. The incredibly important research was conducted using Microsoft's Azure Emotion engine and Follows selected 64 high-profile actors for his study based on their fame and had them analyzed by Azure, tracking seven emotions (anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise). He then calculated the median value for each star and compared it to all actors that were featured on movie posters, not just the 64 he had chosen.

When Follows had completed his research, he found that out of the Hollywood stars who have appeared on movie posters this century, Ben Affleck came out on top as the saddest, followed by Ryan Gosling and Bruce Willis. Angelina Jolie was the saddest-looking female star, coming in sixth overall. But, it's not all gloomy for Affleck as it seems. Apparently, the star exhibited a lower than average sad rating when compared to all actors on posters that weren't limited to the A-list. Maybe money and fame can truly buy happiness after all.

Affleck has plenty to be excited about these days as the long awaited (and much talked about) Justice League movie is set to come out on November 17th, 2017. The actor was seen at San Diego Comic-Con promoting the movie with fellow stars and even signed some autographs for fans afterwards. But many are speculating that Affleck will announce that he is stepping down from the standalone Batman movie after Justice League has been released and made some cash at the box office. All signs currently point in that direction as nobody will officially confirm nor deny Affleck's future as the Caped Crusader.

Regardless, Ben Affleck has a good sense of humor about all of the rumors surrounding him. As a disguise at Comic-Con, Affleck was seen wearing an Oscar the Grouch t-shirt that many believed to be a joke, playing off of his perceived emotions lately. Affleck also is very aware of the sad Affleck meme and has since learned to speak interviews while promoting movies to make sure he doesn't become a meme again... but we might end up with an adjective instead of a meme this time around, like, "hey, you hear that dude got Affleck'd from that show?" It is still way too early to speculate such things, but in the meantime, we can all take solace in knowing that though Ben Affleck is scientifically proven to have the saddest high-profile face, he's lower than average when compared to all other actors and probably a lot happier than us.