There's certainly a high correlation, but I wouldn't expect anyone to be surprised. A similar thing happens with foreign films, we don't hear much about the man

There's certainly a high correlation, but I wouldn't expect anyone to be surprised. A similar thing happens with foreign films, we don't hear much about the many bad ones, or transient ones that were only so-so. If it had some popularity and sufficient supposed quality for there to either be international marketing or word-of-mouth, the odds of it being better than typical are high. Other examples are cult-classics which survive because they're exceptionally bad.