State Subsidies to Film and Their Effects at the Box Office: Theorizing and Measuring Why Some Genres Do Better than Others

Abstract

This chapter explores several theoretical approaches that can be employed to measure the performance of the movies and to assess the main factors that may influence their performance. In particular, we focus on evaluating the impact of public intervention on the movie performance and its effects on genre success at the box office. From an empirical perspective, we provide some examples to highlight the impact of public subsidies on the movie performance in Italy. To this aim, we consider quantity (box office revenues) and quality (film festival awards) as two separate indicators. Specifically, public subsidies and movie genres are employed as explanatory variables to investigate the impact of public intervention and film genre on the movie performance. In this respect, we use specific methods, such as fixed-effects approach and count models, in accordance with the type of the dependent variable under investigation. The findings show that although public funding has an overall negative impact on quantity and quality, there are some differences when considering public subsidies by genre. On balance, there is statistical evidence that dramas and thrillers are the genres that should be primarily financed by public agents.