Interactive influence of genre familiarity, star power, and critics' reviews in the cultural goods industry: The case of motion pictures

Abstract

Academic research pertaining to the marketing of cultural products such as Broadway shows, books, music, and movies has identified a product's genre (or type), star power, and critics' reviews as important factors influencing the market performance of an individual product. Prior research, however, has not investigated the joint influences of these factors. The current study extends previous research by empirically investigating the managerially relevant interactive influences of these factors within the context of the motion-picture industry. For example, should producers of more familiar genre movies, such as dramas and comedies, feature popular, but expensive, stars? Real-world data from two distinct time periods are used to test the hypotheses. The findings are consistent across the two time periods and reveal that for more familiar genre movies, star power and the valence of critics' reviews have less impact on the movie's performance in the market. In contrast, for the less familiar genre movies, stronger (vs. weaker) star power and more (vs. less) positive reviews have positive influence on the market performance. Further, for movies with less star power, the valence of critics' reviews has no impact on the performance. In contrast, for movies with greater star power, more (less) positive reviews have positive (negative) influence on movie performance. Managerial and theoretical implications, along with limitations of the findings and directions for future research, are offered. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.