Do expert reviews affect the decision to see motion pictures in movie theatres? An experimental approach

Christer Thrane

Applied Economics, 2018, vol. 50, issue 28, 3066-3075

Abstract: The positive correlation between favourable expert reviews and the economic success of motion pictures suggests that potential moviegoers are encouraged to see a particular movie by the good reviews it has received. Yet experimental evidence on actual consumers is mixed as to whether or not this is the case. Against this background, we examine the relationship between movie critics’ reviews and the decision to see motion pictures in movie theatres. Based on an experimental approach using four treatments – no review, a poor/OK minus review, an OK/OK plus review and a very good review – movie-seeing decisions for seven movie genres are examined. What we find is at odds with experimental studies, yielding as they do mixed results for the association between favourable reviews and movie preference. Seemingly unrelated regressions consistently show that the better the expert review of a movie, the more likely it is that people will see it. Yet the magnitude of the effects of expert reviews appears both somewhat genre specific and gender specific.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2017.1414938

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