On the role of critics in the culture industry

Cameron, Samuel

doi:10.1007/bf01073994

Cited by 60 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Film critics, in general, adopt ''evaluative journalism'', providing the consumer with basic, descriptive information about a movie (such as the genre, the cast, and the plot) and a personal evaluation, an either positive or negative judgment of the quality of the film in question (about the functions of film critics, see e.g., Brown, 1978;Wyatt & Bager, 1990;Cameron, 1995).…”

Section: Film Critics: Influencers or Predictors?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of film reviews on the box office performance of art house versus mainstream motion pictures

2006

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Critics and their reviews can play an important role in consumer decision making in general, and film choice in particular. In this study, we propose that consumers of art house movies are being led by film reviews when making a film choice (influence effect), whereas consumers of mainstream movies are hypothesized to rely mainly on other sources of information. Thus, in the latter case the review does not influence the moviegoer, but may still be a reflection of the ultimate success of the movie (predictor effect). Using the Dutch film industry as our empirical setting, we study the effects of reviews on the opening weekend and on the cumulative box office revenue. Our research shows that the number and size of film reviews in Dutch newspapers directly influence the behavior of the art-movie-going public in their film choice. The number and size of film reviews of mainstream movies, on the other hand, only predict movie performance. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007Dutch art house movies, Dutch mainstream movies, Film critics, Film performance,

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Section: Film Critics: Influencers or Predictors?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of film reviews on the box office performance of art house versus mainstream motion pictures

2006

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“…1 Thus, recent reviews of these and other studies have concluded that the relationship between evaluative judgments of excellence and aspects of popular appeal in the case of motion pictures tends to be significant-butweak, typically accounting for less than 10% of the variance in popularity or market performance (Holbrook 2005;Holbrook and Addis 2007). Indeed, after reviewing the role of critics in the cultural industry, Cameron (1995) calls for ''more regression studies of the influence of review ratings on sales' ' (p. 330).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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

Holbrook

Addis

2007

J Cult Econ

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Previous studies of the movie industry have raised questions concerning the problematic relationship between the success-related aspects of artistic excellence and commercial appeal. The present article proposes that-when the former is measured by industry recognition (Oscars and other awards) and the latter by market performance (box office and video rentals) and when the former hinges on the evaluative judgments of reviewers and consumers (ratings of excellence) and the latter on the level of buzz among these audience members (amount of attention, word of mouth, or click of mouse)-the two phenomena are essentially separable as independent paths to conceptually distinct and empirically uncorrelated aspects of motion-picture success. An analysis of data for 190 movies from the year 2003 shows that reviewer-and-consumer evaluations and buzz respond differently to a film's marketing clout (production budget, opening screens, and opening box office) and that these audience responses contribute independently to a film's industry recognition and market performance along two separable paths. These findings suggest various implications for movie marketers, film producers, actors or actresses, and other members of the motion-picture industry

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“…There is no clear, unambiguous relationship between critical and popular acclaim. There is a question mark over the role of critics as indicators of expected utility to the prospective consumer (Cameron, 1995;Eliashberg and Shugan, 1997;Holbrook, 1999).…”

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confidence: 99%

What makes a blockbuster? Economic analysis of film success in the United Kingdom

2002

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In this paper, we attempt to evaluate whether a film's commercial performance can be forecast. The statistical distribution of film revenues in the UK is examined and found to have unbounded variance. This undermines much of the existing work relating a film's performance to its identifiable attributes within an OLS model. We adopt De Vany and Walls' approach and transform the revenue data into a binary variable and estimate the probability that a film's revenue will exceed a given threshold value; in other words, the probability of a blockbuster. Furthermore, we provide a sensitivity analysis around these threshold values. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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On the role of critics in the culture industry

Cited by 60 publications

References 11 publications

The impact of film reviews on the box office performance of art house versus mainstream motion pictures

The impact of film reviews on the box office performance of art house versus mainstream motion pictures

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

What makes a blockbuster? Economic analysis of film success in the United Kingdom

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