IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/revfin/v29y2025i2p603-632..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Blockbuster or bust? Silver screen effect and stock returns

Author

Listed:
  • Sanghyun Hong
  • Xiaopeng Wei

Abstract

This study introduces a novel mood metric—blockbuster movie releases—and investigates its correlation with stock market dynamics. We document a significant positive correlation between blockbuster movie releases and US stock market returns in the subsequent week. This pattern remains robust across various robustness tests both in-sample and out-of-sample. The changes in weekly box office revenue and increased Internet searches for movie-related terms further affirm this relationship. Moreover, releases of blockbuster movies predict lower expected market volatility and risk aversion. The positive predictive effect on market returns is also evident in international markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Sanghyun Hong & Xiaopeng Wei, 2025. "Blockbuster or bust? Silver screen effect and stock returns," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 603-632.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:revfin:v:29:y:2025:i:2:p:603-632.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rof/rfaf004
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    More about this item

    Keywords

    movie; blockbuster; entertainment; box office; mood; market returns;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:oup:revfin:v:29:y:2025:i:2:p:603-632.. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eufaaea.html .

    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.