No Business Like Tweet Business
I saw The Avengers last weekend, like $200 million worth of other folks. (Though full disclosure: I saw it at a screening at the Producer's Guild. No money changed hands.)
It was okay. Better than okay, really, but it was about 20 minutes too long, and I'm tired of watching the same third act in every single superhero movie -- crazy attack from flying villains; lots of urban destruction; people looking up from cars and cabs and running in terror. Yawn. And I wish they took some of those millions they spend on special effects and spent them on extras and a more realistic-looking New York street. I mean, they made me believe in a flying aircraft carrier. Surely they could afford better set dressing.
I knew I'd like the movie, though, even before the opening scene. Twitter told me. And Twitter is becoming awfully important to the movie business. From the Financial Times:
Hollywood’s peak summer season starts in earnest next week with the release of The Avengers, a movie that throws characters such as Iron Man, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk together in one action-filled super hero melange.
Walt Disney has high expectations for its film, given its recent box-office flop, John Carter . But thanks to Twitter and other social media sites, the company can predict to a relatively high degree of accuracy how much money the film will make on its critical opening weekend.
What we used to call the "watercooler effect" -- the way a movie or TV show would be discussed and promoted around the office watercooler -- is now online:
Yet while Twitter can help studios tailor marketing campaigns it has also become a powerful tool that can turbocharge the word of mouth that can hurt a film’s box-office performance. Academics from the Cass Business School in London have analysed 4m film-related tweets and concluded Twitter postings could sway the box office results of a film after its first night on release.
“We found that sentiment spread via Twitter immediately after a new movie’s release systematically influences other consumers’ decisions about whether to attend a screening . . . during the remainder of its opening weekend,” said Caroline Wiertz, who co-wrote the report.
That's what all of those people are doing as they stare listelessly into their smartphones. They're getting movie recommendations.
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Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Twitter is also adding to the "spoiler" factor on major films. If you don't want to know what happens in the re-release of Titanic, for instance, stay far away.
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Let me guess: the iceberg is really an oil rig.
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
How long until the first TV spot with the line "I loved it! The first feel good movie of the summer!" @popcornlover772
The problem is of course is that these things are easily manipulated by savvy studio marketing departments. But then of course, so were movie reviews.
May '10
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Great link Yeti! Of course, while Manning was off-base with respect to The Animal, it turns out he was spot on predicting the rise of Heath Ledger.
May '10
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Remember:
Jan '11
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Word-of-mouth has a certain legitimacy and credibility, because you're dealing with people you know. When they're your kind of folks, and they like something, it boosts the chances that you'll like it too.
But before instant communication, you'd only mention something if it really stood out. That winnowed the comments to only those things you really, really enjoyed. Now, you're being pushed to rate / approve / recommend things you don't actually care about, but you do it because it's so easy.
Word-of-mouth credibility, so to speak, is going to be diluted. Twitter will suffer from "inflation," and eventually it'll flat-line to the point where any recommendation will be infinitesimally useful.
Dec '10
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Rob,
Banal, predictable content amplified by phonaholic audience.
Hmmm..I wonder what it is that doesn't attract me to the entertainment industry.
Regards,
Jim
Apr '11
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Well, since they've been building to this movie since the original "Iron Man", there's been steady buzz about this film long since. For the last year the concern amongst my crowd has been: "Will they pull it off or will it be a total flop?" That it turned out so well says something.
Also, as one of Ricochet's Resident Nerds: This movie was totally, utterly awesome.
So there.
May '10
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
So Rob, if I understand you correctly, you're saying you can get us all free tickets to stuff??
May '11
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Huge Joss Whedon fan, still missing Fire Fly. I look forward to seeing it here in the fall in Japan.
Apr '12
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
My family is taking me to The Avengers for mother's day. Then they are making the steak & potatoes dinner served in the Captain America movie.
Dec '10
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Avengers is an awesome movie. I would really like to hear what other movie anyone would put against it for the title of "perfect summer movie".
I would say that is you like comics you must go see this movie, but let's be honest with each other here. If you like comics you already saw it and you already loved it.
EDIT:
I don't follow twitter, but I can say that rottentomatoes has very much affected my movie going habits. There were a lot of movies this year I might have taken a chance on if not for the bad metacritic scores on rottentomatoes.
Edited on May 7, 2012 at 9:27pmJul '11
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
I saw it yesterday. I cannot remember what happened though. Was anyone in it other than Scar Jo?
Well my kids liked it. My wife had a tough time picking her sexiest super hero. It was good enough to see in the theater but predictable.
May '10
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
I'm having trouble believing, or perhaps, understanding how Twitter, or for that matter, Facebook, can be that big an influencer of tastes/choices. Both social media platforms (or, for that matter, any social media platform) features a stream of messages and/or pictures that's constantly changing; add in even a fairly small list of followed/friended accounts, and that stream moves/changes pretty fast. Just how do you systematically make it likely that a film or tv show plug is seen, or that a "friend's message references such? Seems like the point of saturation/overload comes pretty fast, especially for Twitter.
I am not suggesting the social media isn't a worthless promotion method; just that the scale of actual influence seems pretty low, and maybe the hype for these social media platforms pretty high.
Can you say Facebook IPO bubble?
PS: have they gotten to the point on Twitter of tweets during a given event to promote another event? For example, promoting a new conservative tomb with tweets during, say, a GOP or Presidential debate (when conservative political traffic is high)? Seems like a natural.
Edited on May 7, 2012 at 10:29pmDec '10
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Two senerios. 1) Something in the stream keeps appearing so often that it stands out 2) You notice something in the stream beacuse you are looking for it.
Sometimes a movie will gets its 15mins of internet fame/infame. This makes me much more(or not) likely to see the movie. Other times I am thinking about going to see a movie so when people in my stream mention it, those post/tweets stand out to me. Either case has an effect on my movie going habits, especially in a wolrd with netflix and redbox.
May '10
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
(of course, the model for what I write at the end of my comment above is this: http://voices.yahoo.com/burma-shave-roadside-advertising-2535698.html
Apr '11
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
"crazy attack from flying villains; lots of urban destruction; people looking up from cars and cabs and running in terror."
Uh, Rob, can we at least get a Spoiler Alert!
Apr '11
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Nyadnar17
Also, the buzz around the movie can be precisely measured. Imagine if Big Brother were able to bug the nation's water coolers and actually count how many times a movie is mentioned, and know what's being said about it.
Jul '10
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Cutlass:"crazy attack from flying villains; lots of urban destruction; people looking up from cars and cabs and running in terror."
Uh, Rob, can we at least get a Spoiler Alert! · 2 hours ago
Yoda dies. Princess Amadala is a man. The Emperor is really Woody Allen.
Nov '11
Re: No Business Like Tweet Business
Don't super hero blockbusters, in the contemporary genre, bore the socks right off any viewer who isn't a boy of twelve?
In the few I've been unable to escape watching, my own socks have invariably disintegrated and crumbled to dust within my very own shoes. The sock-melting phenomenon, although disturbing to experience, at least gives my imagination a more pleasant and worthwhile subject until the torture ends. But it makes for a triple loss--the price of admission, the value of my time, and the cost of hosiery.
(This is especially odd in my case, since I myself am a certified Cape & Tights Super Hero. Or perhaps it's true that "potter hates potter.")
Edited on May 8, 2012 at 2:55am