Distributors and film critics: does it take two to Tango?

Abstract

Previous literature has documented the impact of critics on audience choices of movies. We investigate three issues regarding professional critics in the motion picture industry. First we document whether and to what extent critics and their recommendations exhibit a statistical bias toward specific studios. We show that reviews by a number of critics are significantly affected by the film distributor’s identity. A second question is whether audiences are able to distinguish between biased and unbiased critics. We cannot support the view that audiences put less weight on the views of biased critics; in fact, they may listen to them more. Third, we try to characterize critics who are more prone to bias. Surprisingly, but in accord with reputation models, we find that more reputable critics may be more biased; in particular, critics based in L.A. tend to significantly prefer specific studios. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006Critics, Bias, Motion picture, Reputation,

Art versus commerce in the movie industry: a Two-Path Model of Motion-Picture Success

“…(6) Finally-consistent with the studies cited heretofore-we assume that Critical and Popular Buzz (CritPopBuzz) and Marketing Clout (MktgClout) combine to stimulate Market Performance (MktPerf) in the form of gross box office and video rentals. In this connection, previous research has examined the relationship between opening-week box office and opening-week video rentals per store (r = .65, Lehmann and Weinberg 2000) or between DVD sales and 4 Please see, for example, Basuroy et al (2003Basuroy et al ( , 2006, Clement et al (2006), Dodds and Holbrook (1988), Elberse and Eliashberg (2003), Eliashberg and Shugan (1997), Hennig-Thurau et al (2007), Litman (1983), Litman and Ahn (1998), Ravid (1999), Ravid et al (2006), Sochay (1994), and Zufryden (2000). 5 Oscars-related studies include those by Clement et al (2006), Deuchert et al (2005), Dodds and Holbrook (1988), Ginsburgh (2003), Hennig-Thurau et al (2007), Holbrook (1999), Litman (1983), Litman and Ahn (1998), Nelson et al (2001), Prag and Casavant (1994), Smith and Smith (1986), Sochay (1994), and Sommers (1983Sommers ( -1984.…”

“…Examples includeBasuroy et al (2003),Basuroy et al (2006),Boatwright et al (2005),Desai and Basuroy (2005),Clement et al (2006),Eliashberg and Shugan (1997),Hennig-Thurau et al (2007),Holbrook (1999Holbrook ( , 2005,Kamakura et al (2006),Litman (1983),Litman and Ahn (1998),Prag and Casavant (1994),Ravid (1999),Ravid et al (2006),Sawhney and Eliashberg (1996),Sochay (1994),Wallace et al (1993), andZufryden (2000).…”

“…Relevant examples includeAlbert (1998),Basuroy et al (2003), Chisolm (2004,Chung and Cox (1998),Clement et al (2006),Desai and Basuroy (2005), De Vany and Walls(1999, 2004),Deuchert et al (2005),Elberse and Anand (2006),Eliashberg et al (2007),Hennig-Thurau et al (2001,Holbrook (1999),Jansen (2005),Litman (1983),Litman and Ahn (1998), McCalman (2005),Prag and Casavant (1994),Ravid (1999),Ravid et al (2006),Sawhney and Eliashberg (1996),Sedgwick and Pokorny (1999), andWallace et al (1993).…”

How do theatrical box office revenues affect DVD retail sales? Australian empirical evidence

“…The Breusch-Pagan statistic reveals that the SUR structure is valid, with a p-value of zero against the null of independence. 29 The correlation between the errors of the respective Prag and Casavant (1994), De Vany and Walls (1999), Ravid (1999), Collins et al (2002), Elberse and Eliashberg (2003), Jansen (2005), Walls (2005a), Ravid et al (2006), Gemser et al (2007), and Einav (2007). 29 Formally, this statistic is given by k ¼ T P S s¼1 P sÀ1 r¼1 r 2 sr , where r sr is the estimated correlation between the residuals of S equations, and T is the number of observations.…”

Revealed word-of-mouth demand and adaptive supply: survival of motion pictures at the Australian box office

“…Such an approach also allows films, which may differ in many dimensions, 1 See, for example, Smith and Smith (1986), Prag and Casavant (1994), Eliashberg and Shugan (1997), Albert (1998), Ravid (1999), Hand (2001), Collins et al (2002), Basuroy et al (2003), Elberse and Eliashberg (2003), Reinstein and Snyder (2005), Goettler and Leslie (2005), Jansen (2005), Ravid et al (2006), Gemser et al (2007), Einav (2007), Moul (2007), McKenzie (2008). De Vany and Walls have contributed significantly to this area with the research collated in De Vany (2004) that also provides a useful survey of the literature.…”