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Are online communities on par with experts in the evaluation of new movies? Evidence from the Fandango community

Pradeep Kumar Ponnamma Divakaran (Marketing Department, ESC Rennes School of Business, Rennes, France)
Sladjana Nørskov (Department of Business Administration, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark)

Information Technology & People

ISSN: 0959-3845

Article publication date: 7 March 2016

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate two questions. First, are movie-based online community evaluations (CE) on par with film expert evaluations of new movies? Second, which group makes more reliable and accurate predictions of movie box office revenues: film reviewers or an online community?

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from a movie-based online community Fandango for a 16-month period and included all movies released during this time (373 movies). The authors compared film reviewers’ evaluations with the online CE during the first eight weeks of the movie’s release.

Findings

The study finds that community members evaluate movies differently than film reviewers. The results also reveal that CE have more predictive power than film reviewers’ evaluations, especially during the opening week of a movie.

Research limitations/implications

The investigated online community is based in the USA, hence the findings are limited to this geographic context.

Practical implications

The main implication is that film studios and movie-goers can rely more on CE than film reviewers’ evaluation for decision making. Online CE can help film studios in negotiating with distributors, theatre owners for the number of screens. Also, community reviews rather than film reviewers’ reviews are looked upon by future movie-goers for movie choice decisions.

Originality/value

The study makes an original contribution to the motion picture performance research as well as to the growing research on online consumer communities by demonstrating the predictive potential of online communities with regards to evaluations of new movies.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Lars Esbjerg and Lars Frederiksen for their useful comments and suggestions to the early version of this paper. Similarly thanks to researchers at SCANCOR (Stanford University), and also the user and open innovation community, who provided useful inputs in shaping the ideas. Also, the authors thank Helle Alsted Søndergaard for her useful insights.

Citation

Ponnamma Divakaran, P.K. and Nørskov, S. (2016), "Are online communities on par with experts in the evaluation of new movies? Evidence from the Fandango community", Information Technology & People, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 120-145. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-02-2014-0042

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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