IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ijrema/v33y2016i2p357-374.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of critical reviews on exhibitors' decisions: Do reviews affect the survival of a movie on screen?

Author

Listed:
  • Legoux, Renaud
  • Larocque, Denis
  • Laporte, Sandra
  • Belmati, Soraya
  • Boquet, Thomas

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate that distribution intermediaries, namely exhibitors, are influenced by critical reviews in their programming decisions after the launch of a movie. More specifically, it tests the effect of critical reviews on the decision of exhibitors to keep or withdraw a movie on their screens from week to week. A unique data set comprising more than 165,000 weekly theater level decisions spanning over a decade is used for the analyses. Exhibitors' decisions are modeled through a discrete time survival model with random effects. Results show that a movie with excellent reviews has more chances to stay longer in a theater when compared to one with poor, fair, or good reviews, even after controlling for the previous week's box office. This finding suggests that a portion of the overall commercial performance usually associated with positive reviews can be attributed to the impact of critics' reviews on exhibitors' decisions to keep the movie on screen for a longer period.

Suggested Citation

  • Legoux, Renaud & Larocque, Denis & Laporte, Sandra & Belmati, Soraya & Boquet, Thomas, 2016. "The effect of critical reviews on exhibitors' decisions: Do reviews affect the survival of a movie on screen?," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 357-374.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ijrema:v:33:y:2016:i:2:p:357-374
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2015.07.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016781161500083X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2015.07.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anita Elberse & Jehoshua Eliashberg, 2003. "Demand and Supply Dynamics for Sequentially Released Products in International Markets: The Case of Motion Pictures," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 329-354.
    2. W. Wayne Fu, 2009. "Screen Survival of Movies at Competitive Theaters: Vertical and Horizontal Integration in a Spatially Differentiated Market," Journal of Media Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 59-80.
    3. Jordi McKenzie, 2009. "Revealed word-of-mouth demand and adaptive supply: survival of motion pictures at the Australian box office," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 33(4), pages 279-299, November.
    4. Stigler, George J., 2011. "Economics of Information," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 5, pages 35-49.
    5. David A. Reinstein & Christopher M. Snyder, 2005. "The Influence Of Expert Reviews On Consumer Demand For Experience Goods: A Case Study Of Movie Critics," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 27-51, March.
    6. Ravid, S Abraham, 1999. "Information, Blockbusters, and Stars: A Study of the Film Industry," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(4), pages 463-492, October.
    7. Jehoshua Eliashberg & Anita Elberse & Mark A.A.M. Leenders, 2006. "The Motion Picture Industry: Critical Issues in Practice, Current Research, and New Research Directions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(6), pages 638-661, 11-12.
    8. Darlene C. Chisholm & George Norman, 2006. "When to Exit a Product: Evidence from the U. S. Motion-Picture Exhibition Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 57-61, May.
    9. John G. Lynch Jr., 2006. "Accessibility-Diagnosticity and the Multiple Pathway Anchoring and Adjustment Model," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(1), pages 25-27, June.
    10. W. David Walls, 1998. "Product survival at the cinema: evidence from Hong Kong," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 215-219.
    11. Thorsten Hennig-Thurau & André Marchand & Barbara Hiller, 2012. "The relationship between reviewer judgments and motion picture success: re-analysis and extension," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 36(3), pages 249-283, August.
    12. Sanjeev Swami & Jehoshua Eliashberg & Charles B. Weinberg, 1999. "SilverScreener: A Modeling Approach to Movie Screens Management," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 352-372.
    13. Byeng-Hee Chang & Eyun-Jung Ki, 2005. "Devising a Practical Model for Predicting Theatrical Movie Success: Focusing on the Experience Good Property," Journal of Media Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 247-269.
    14. Heilbrun,James & Gray,Charles M., 2001. "The Economics of Art and Culture," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521637121.
    15. Eva Deuchert & Kossi Adjamah & Florian Pauly, 2005. "For Oscar Glory Or Oscar Money?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 29(3), pages 159-176, August.
    16. Eliashberg, Jehoshua & Hegie, Quintus & Ho, Jason & Huisman, Dennis & Miller, Steven J. & Swami, Sanjeev & Weinberg, Charles B. & Wierenga, Berend, 2009. "Demand-driven scheduling of movies in a multiplex," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 75-88.
    17. Nelson, Randy A, et al, 2001. "What's an Oscar Worth?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(1), pages 1-16, January.
    18. Judith D. Singer & John B. Willett, 1993. "It’s About Time: Using Discrete-Time Survival Analysis to Study Duration and the Timing of Events," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 18(2), pages 155-195, June.
    19. Gerda Gemser & Martine Oostrum & Mark Leenders, 2007. "The impact of film reviews on the box office performance of art house versus mainstream motion pictures," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 31(1), pages 43-63, March.
    20. Ricard Gil, 2009. "Revenue Sharing Distortions and Vertical Integration in the Movie Industry," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 25(2), pages 579-610, October.
    21. Jessica Barrett & Peter Diggle & Robin Henderson & David Taylor-Robinson, 2015. "Joint modelling of repeated measurements and time-to-event outcomes: flexible model specification and exact likelihood inference," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 77(1), pages 131-148, January.
    22. De Vany, Arthur S & Walls, W David, 1997. "The Market for Motion Pictures: Rank, Revenue, and Survival," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(4), pages 783-797, October.
    23. Randy Nelson & Patrick Rutherford, 2010. "The impact of early DVD release on box office revenues," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(7), pages 689-693.
    24. Peter Boatwright & Suman Basuroy & Wagner Kamakura, 2007. "Reviewing the reviewers: The impact of individual film critics on box office performance," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 401-425, December.
    25. Jehoshua Eliashberg & Mohanbir S. Sawhney, 1994. "Modeling Goes to Hollywood: Predicting Individual Differences in Movie Enjoyment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(9), pages 1151-1173, September.
    26. Silver, Jon & McDonnell, John, 2007. "Are movie theaters doomed? Do exhibitors see the big picture as theaters lose their competitive advantage?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 491-501.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shijie Lu & Xin (Shane) Wang & Neil Bendle, 2020. "Does Piracy Create Online Word of Mouth? An Empirical Analysis in the Movie Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(5), pages 2140-2162, May.
    2. Xingyao Xiao & Yihong Cheng & Jong-Min Kim, 2021. "Movie Title Keywords: A Text Mining and Exploratory Factor Analysis of Popular Movies in the United States and China," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Wei, Liyuan & Yang, Yupin, 2022. "An empirical investigation of director selection in movie preproduction: A two-sided matching approach," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 888-906.
    4. Thaís L. D. Souza & Marislei Nishijima & Ana C. P. Fava, 2019. "Do consumer and expert reviews affect the length of time a film is kept on screens in the USA?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(1), pages 145-171, March.
    5. Feifei Wang & Yang Yang & Geoffrey K. F. Tso & Yang Li, 2019. "Analysis of launch strategy in cross-border e-Commerce market via topic modeling of consumer reviews," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 863-884, December.
    6. Jordi McKenzie, 2023. "The economics of movies (revisited): A survey of recent literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 480-525, April.
    7. Kackovic, Monika & Bun, Maurice J.G. & Weinberg, Charles B. & Ebbers, Joris J. & Wijnberg, Nachoem M., 2020. "Third-party signals and sales to expert-agent buyers: Quality indicators in the contemporary visual arts market," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 587-601.
    8. François A. Carrillat & Renaud Legoux & Allègre L. Hadida, 2018. "Debates and assumptions about motion picture performance: a meta-analysis," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 273-299, March.
    9. Yu-Hsi Liu & Darlene C. Chisholm & George Norman, 2023. "Product-Line Decisions and Rapid Turnover in Movie Markets," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 62(4), pages 341-365, June.
    10. Jong-Min Kim & Leixin Xia & Iksuk Kim & Seungjoo Lee & Keon-Hyung Lee, 2020. "Finding Nemo: Predicting Movie Performances by Machine Learning Methods," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-12, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Caroline Elliott & Palitha Konara & Haiyi Ling & Chengang Wang & Yingqi Wei, 2018. "Behind film performance in China’s changing institutional context: The impact of signals," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 63-95, March.
    2. Frederick Derrick & Nancy Williams & Charles Scott, 2014. "A two-stage proxy variable approach to estimating movie box office receipts," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(2), pages 173-189, May.
    3. Jordi McKenzie, 2009. "Revealed word-of-mouth demand and adaptive supply: survival of motion pictures at the Australian box office," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 33(4), pages 279-299, November.
    4. Jordi McKenzie, 2023. "The economics of movies (revisited): A survey of recent literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 480-525, April.
    5. Darren Filson & James H. Havlicek, 2018. "The performance of global film franchises: installment effects and extension decisions," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 42(3), pages 447-467, August.
    6. Clement, Michel & Wu, Steven & Fischer, Marc, 2014. "Empirical generalizations of demand and supply dynamics for movies," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 207-223.
    7. Sven Heidenreich & Franziska Handrich & Tobias Kraemer, 2023. "Flawless victory! Investigating search and experience qualities as antecedent predictors of video game success," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 33(1), pages 1-20, December.
    8. Georgios Alaveras & Estrella Gomez-Herrera & Bertin Martens, 2018. "Cross-border circulation of films and cultural diversity in the EU," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 42(4), pages 645-676, November.
    9. Thaís L. D. Souza & Marislei Nishijima & Ana C. P. Fava, 2019. "Do consumer and expert reviews affect the length of time a film is kept on screens in the USA?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(1), pages 145-171, March.
    10. Hofmann, Julian & Clement, Michel & Völckner, Franziska & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten, 2017. "Empirical generalizations on the impact of stars on the economic success of movies," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 442-461.
    11. Moez Hababou & Nawel Amrouche & Kamel Jedidi, 2016. "Measuring Economic Efficiency in the Motion Picture Industry: a Data Envelopment Analysis Approach," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 3(3), pages 144-158, December.
    12. Gazley, Aaron & Clark, Gemma & Sinha, Ashish, 2011. "Understanding preferences for motion pictures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(8), pages 854-861, August.
    13. Amanda S. King & John T. King & Michael Reksulak, 2017. "Signaling for access to high-demand markets: evidence from the US motion picture industry," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(4), pages 441-465, November.
    14. Brinja Meiseberg & Thomas Ehrmann, 2013. "Diversity in teams and the success of cultural products," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 37(1), pages 61-86, February.
    15. Jordi McKenzie, 2010. "Do 'African American' films perform better or worse at the box office? An empirical analysis of motion picture revenues and profits," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(16), pages 1559-1564.
    16. Brian Goff & Dennis Wilson & David Zimmer, 2017. "Movies, Mass Consumers, And Critics: Economics And Politics Of A Two-Sided Market," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(2), pages 269-277, April.
    17. Sofia Izquierdo‐Sanchez, 2019. "Managing The Supply Of Short‐Life Products. A Duration Analysis Approach Using The Uk Film Industry," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 75-89, January.
    18. Jordi McKenzie & W. Walls, 2013. "Australian films at the Australian box office: performance, distribution, and subsidies," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 37(2), pages 247-269, May.
    19. Darlene Chisholm & Víctor Fernández-Blanco & S. Abraham Ravid & W. David Walls, 2015. "Economics of motion pictures: the state of the art," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(1), pages 1-13, February.
    20. Ana Suárez-Vázquez, 2011. "Critic power or star power? The influence of hallmarks of quality of motion pictures: an experimental approach," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 35(2), pages 119-135, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ijrema:v:33:y:2016:i:2:p:357-374. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-research-in-marketing/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.