Do consumer and expert reviews affect the length of time a film is kept on screens in the USA?

We evaluate the effect of critical reviews by consumers and experts on a film’s running time at movie theaters in the USA using survival regression analysis. In addition to the usual expert critics’reviews, we employ the consumer reviews rating and their affectivity about films as proxies for the co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cultural economics 2019-03, Vol.43 (1), p.145-171
Main Authors: Souza, Thaís L. D., Nishijima, Marislei, Fava, Ana C. P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arts
Consumers
Cultural Economics
Drama
Economic Policy
Economics
Economics and Finance
Emotions
Experts
Microeconomics
Mining
Motion pictures
Music
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Regional and Cultural Studies
Theaters & cinemas
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Summary:We evaluate the effect of critical reviews by consumers and experts on a film’s running time at movie theaters in the USA using survival regression analysis. In addition to the usual expert critics’reviews, we employ the consumer reviews rating and their affectivity about films as proxies for the consumer influence effect. To provide measures for consumer affectivity, we perform affective computing using mining techniques of sentiment and emotion on consumer reviews. We build a very rich film dataset by collecting information from the Box Office Mojo and the Rotten Tomatoes sites, including all matched films released between 2004 and 2015 that are available on these sites. We find evidences of consumer ratings matter in keeping a film running longer at the theaters, but experts’ratings have a larger influence on the movie market as a whole. Estimates by genre indicate that the influence of expert reviews on the length of run of widely opening film releases, which include blockbusters, is null, but that their influence on narrowly released films is large. Also, film running times of genres like foreign, drama and action films are greatly influenced by sentiments and emotions spread by consumers through their reviews.
ISSN:0885-2545
1573-6997
DOI:10.1007/s10824-018-9332-6