Comments on: Are Movies Inferior? (Updated) http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/2009/06/are-movies-inferior/ Economics, Politics, Entertainment and Life in Academia Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:37:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Aaron Jorbin http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/2009/06/are-movies-inferior/comment-page-1/#comment-1977 Aaron Jorbin Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:27:35 +0000 http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/?p=760#comment-1977 That makes a lot of sense and I can easily see that the correlation between critic ratting and revenue would be very different for different groups of individuals. Thanks for sharing. If an ungated version of these papers ends up online, please post them. I'd love to check them out. That makes a lot of sense and I can easily see that the correlation between critic ratting and revenue would be very different for different groups of individuals. Thanks for sharing. If an ungated version of these papers ends up online, please post them. I’d love to check them out.

]]> By: ProfSwitzer http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/2009/06/are-movies-inferior/comment-page-1/#comment-1971 ProfSwitzer Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:54:04 +0000 http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/?p=760#comment-1971 For the box office revenues, we use two measures: an average critic rating from a website (www.metacritic.com), as well as the maximum number of theaters on which the movie showed (to measure popular appeal). They are both significant determinants of box office revenue, some more for some groups than for others. For senior citizens, the critic rating is a strong, highly significant variable -- grandma's not going to plunk down $6 to see Land of the Lost (critic rating of 32 out of 100), but she might to check out Slumdog Millionaire (79). For students and children, critic ratings are not important, which I think makes sense. For DVDs, we keep the critic rating variable, and replace the theaters variable with box office revenue. BOR is highly significant and the elasticity there is about .6. Critic rating is much less important but still significant. For the box office revenues, we use two measures: an average critic rating from a website (www.metacritic.com), as well as the maximum number of theaters on which the movie showed (to measure popular appeal). They are both significant determinants of box office revenue, some more for some groups than for others. For senior citizens, the critic rating is a strong, highly significant variable — grandma’s not going to plunk down $6 to see Land of the Lost (critic rating of 32 out of 100), but she might to check out Slumdog Millionaire (79). For students and children, critic ratings are not important, which I think makes sense.

For DVDs, we keep the critic rating variable, and replace the theaters variable with box office revenue. BOR is highly significant and the elasticity there is about .6. Critic rating is much less important but still significant.

]]> By: Aaron Jorbin http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/2009/06/are-movies-inferior/comment-page-1/#comment-1970 Aaron Jorbin Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:27:55 +0000 http://www.profswitzer.com/blog/?p=760#comment-1970 This is definitely interesting and the explanation offered by NATO certainly seems plausible, but I wonder if you have found any way or need to control for 'quality' of movies. I imagine that with sales and rentals older than a certain age you can see individual trends, but for Box office numbers, I wonder how you've gone about it. Perhaps somehow incorporating budget, buzz, and critical reaction? This is definitely interesting and the explanation offered by NATO certainly seems plausible, but I wonder if you have found any way or need to control for ‘quality’ of movies. I imagine that with sales and rentals older than a certain age you can see individual trends, but for Box office numbers, I wonder how you’ve gone about it. Perhaps somehow incorporating budget, buzz, and critical reaction?

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