When should star power and eWOM be responsible for the box office performance? - An empirical study based on signaling theory

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 102591
Author(s):  
Liu Fan ◽  
Xiaoping Zhang ◽  
Laxmisha Rai
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Song

China’s cinema market has been growing dramatically in recent years. Hollywood exports revenue-sharing movies to China to receive additional box-office revenues. Although globalization accelerates Hollywood movies’ domination in most global film markets, that is not the case in China. Hollywood studios encounter cultural and political complications in China’s cinema market. This research reviews the interplay of Hollywood globalization and the complexity of China’s cinema market, applies a relationship management perspective in analyzing Hollywood studios’ China-focused endeavors, identifies and discusses five key relations, and analyzes why and how Hollywood studios have strategically managed the key relations to boost their revenue-sharing movies’ box-office performance in China.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 594-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Chen Hung ◽  
Chong Guan

Purpose Consumers often search for movie information and purchase tickets on the go. A synopsis is often provided by producers and theatres in mobile apps and websites. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, little research has investigated whether the synopsis has an impact on a movie’s box office. This research uses computerized text analysis in examining the influence of linguistic cues of a synopsis on the movie’s financial performance. This paper aims to show that language choice in a synopsis is a significant factor in predicting box office performance. Design/methodology/approach A total usable sample of 5973 movies was collected using a web crawler. Computerised text analysis using linguistic inquiry and word count was adopted to analyse the movie synopses data. The empirical study comprises two phases. Phase 1 used exploratory factor analysis on 50 per cent of the sample (Sample 1) to establish the dimensionality of psychological processes as reflected in the linguistic expressions. The analysis identified 11 linguistic variables that loaded on four dimensions. The factor structure was replicated on an independent sample (Sample 2) using confirmatory factor analysis. Phase 2 tested the hypotheses using structure equation modelling. Findings Results show that consistency between movie genres and linguistic cues in a film synopsis promotes movie box office revenue when linguistic cues shown in the synopsis confirm a consumer’s expectancies about a focal movie genre. Conversely, a synopsis reduces the movie box office revenue when the linguistic cues shown disconfirm the genre-based expectancies. These linguistic cues exert similar effects on action and crime films but different effects on comedies and drama films. Research limitations/implications It is likely that consumer tastes and linguistic styles of film synopses have evolved over time. As a cross-sectional study, such changes were not taken into consideration in the current research. A longitudinal study in the future can reveal the dynamic relationship between film synopses and audience. Practical implications Managerially, the findings show that a synopsis is an effective communication touch point to position a movie. This research provides concrete guidelines in crafting synopses with the “rights words’ aligned with movie-goers’ expectations within each specific genre. Beyond movie consumption, the research findings can be applied to other entertainment products, such as TV series and books. Originality/value To our knowledge, this research is the first in studying the linguistic cues in synopses and its relation to box office performance. It addresses this knowledge gap by answering the basic question of whether movie synopses matter. Methodically, the paper marks the first attempt to use the two-step structural equation modelling method on computerised content analysis data.


Author(s):  
Sangjae Lee ◽  
Joon Yeon Choeh

Abstract While electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) variables, such as volume and valence have been posited in previous studies to consistently affect product sales, there is a lack of studies on the different contexts and outcomes that affect the importance of eWOM variables. In order to fill this gap, this study attempts to use the helpfulness of reviews and reviewers as moderators to predict box office revenue, comparing the prediction performances of business intelligence (BI) methods (random forest, decision trees using boosting, the k-nearest neighbor method, discriminant analysis) using eWOM between high and low review or reviewer helpfulness subsample in the Korean movie market scrawled from the Naver Movies website. The results of applying machine learning methods show that movies with more helpful reviews or those that are reviewed by more helpful reviewers show greater prediction performance, and review and reviewer helpfulness improve the prediction power of eWOM for box office revenue. The prediction performance will improve if the characteristics of eWOM are likely to be combined to contribute to box office revenue to a greater extent.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Jian Feng ◽  
Bin Liu

Academic research pertaining to the marketing of film industry has identified advertising, film-making, and star power as the important factors influencing a movie’s market performance. Prior research, however, has not investigated the joint influences of these factors. The current study has extended previous research by analyzing the investment decision of studios or investors. In order to analyze the optimal film investment decision in advertising, film-making, and stars power, this paper develops a goodwill model and system dynamic (SD) model, which allow us to disentangle the effects of advertising, film-making, and star power on film market performance. The results show that the film producer should increasingly lay emphasis on investing in advertising to absorb moviegoers’ attention. Then the film producer should focus on investing in film-making when film quality has a great impact on the movie's reputation and audience's viewing decision. Furthermore, the film producer should pay more attention to the higher cost-performance stars who have more reasonable remuneration, better acting skills, and bigger box-office guarantee. Moreover, the numerical analysis reveals that rational audience contribute more than fans to a movie's box-office and bankable stars contribute more than high-profile stars to a movie's returns. Through SD simulation analysis, the film series yields higher profits than new theme movies although the cost of investment is the same.


Author(s):  
Mark Glancy

By the time Cary Grant and Betsy Drake announced their separation in 1958, Grant had followed Drake’s lead by embarking on an intensive form of psychotherapy using the hallucinogenic drug LSD. In clinically supervised sessions, he took the drug, which was not yet illegal, and explored his unconscious mind. This, he maintained, allowed him to peer into his past and overcome the childhood memories and experiences that haunted him. He revealed this to a prominent journalist, Joe Hyams, and then vehemently denied the story when it made headlines across the country. Yet the story did not dent his popularity with audiences. Operation Petticoat (1959), directed by Blake Edwards, became his biggest box-office success. Its humour is dated now, but it is still notable as the film that paired Grant with Tony Curtis, the actor who imitated him so memorably in Some Like It Hot (1959). The Grass is Greener (1960), directed by Stanley Donen, tried to repeat the success of the sophisticated comedy-romance Indiscreet (1958), but fell short of that mark. The screwball comedy A Touch of Mink (1962) paired Grant with Doris Day, the most popular screen actress of the period. They did not enjoy working together, but the film’s star power ensured that it was a hit. These successes, together with Grant’s lucrative contract with Universal-International Pictures, led the trade weekly Variety to declare that he was the “richest actor” and “most astute businessman” working in Hollywood.


Author(s):  
Shyam Gopinath ◽  
Pradeep K. Chintagunta ◽  
Sriram Venkataraman

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