August 17, 2003
High-Tech Word of Mouth Maims Movies
The LA Times looks at how word of mouth has long been an element in a film's success or failure. But bad buzz, fueled by text messaging and the internet has accelerated the pace of communication so much that Hollywood feels the reverberations at the box office almost immediately.
This telling example should strike terror into the hearts of studio executives: "On opening day, a teenager coming out of "The Hulk" "whipped out her cell phone, tapped out a message telling her friends exactly what she thought of the movie - and the verdict was brutal.
Fatima's pan was all her friends needed to convince them to stay away. And they told their friends. Soon the chatter would end up in a girls Internet discussion group, where all the world could see what a few teenagers in Manhattan Beach thought about a movie".
[...] Instant word of mouth, as a trend, probably traces back to 1998 in Japan with the release of "Ringu".
"The cerebral horror flick that inspired a U.S. remake — "The Ring," which was released here last fall — caused a sensation in Japan. And in a technology-forward country with lots of cell phones, instant word of mouth became the fuel that lighted that film's box office success. The power of instant feedback — good or bad — was immediately apparent.
(Thanks Rafat!)
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