IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jculte/v23y1999i4p237-256.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Determinants of Motion Picture Box Office Performance: Evidence from Movies Produced in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • M. Bagella
  • L. Becchetti

Abstract

The paper provides an empirical analysis of box office performance for movies produced in Italy between 1985 and 1996. Descriptive evidence documents a decrease in the total number of films produced and a sharp reduction in daily revenues and per screen daily admissions during the sample period. In the econometric analysis various alternative hypotheses on the impact of the ex ante popularity of directors and cast of actors on box office performances are rejected in favour of a quadratic specification with positive externalities between the two factors. The econometric cross-sectional evidence also documents that the net impact of subsidies on total admissions is irrelevant and that the significantly lower performance of subsidised films depends on the lower ex ante popularity of their cast and directors. Results on the impact of specialisation genres and production houses show that very few of them (i.e., the comic specialisation genre and the Filmauro production house) have a significant marginal impact on box office performances after controlling director and actors effects. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1999

Suggested Citation

  • M. Bagella & L. Becchetti, 1999. "The Determinants of Motion Picture Box Office Performance: Evidence from Movies Produced in Italy," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 23(4), pages 237-256, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jculte:v:23:y:1999:i:4:p:237-256
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1007579421768
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/A:1007579421768
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/A:1007579421768?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adam Finn & Colin Hoskins & Stuart McFadyen, 1996. "Telefilm Canada Investment in Feature Films: Empirical Foundations for Public Policy," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 22(2), pages 151-161, June.
    2. Whitney K. Newey & Kenneth D. West, 1994. "Automatic Lag Selection in Covariance Matrix Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(4), pages 631-653.
    3. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119, Decembrie.
    4. Hamlen, William A, Jr, 1991. "Superstardom in Popular Music: Empirical Evidence," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(4), pages 729-733, November.
    5. Koenker, Roger & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1982. "Robust Tests for Heteroscedasticity Based on Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 43-61, January.
    6. Hamlen, William A, Jr, 1994. "Variety and Superstardom in Popular Music," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(3), pages 395-406, July.
    7. William Gould, 1993. "Quantile regression with bootstrapped standard errors," Stata Technical Bulletin, StataCorp LP, vol. 2(9).
    8. Chung, Kee H & Cox, Raymond A K, 1994. "A Stochastic Model of Superstardom: An Application of the Yule Distribution," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(4), pages 771-775, November.
    9. Dexter, Albert S & Levi, Maurice D & Nault, Barrie R, 1993. "Freely Determined versus Regulated Prices: Implications for the Measured Link between Money and Inflation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(2), pages 222-230, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brinja Meiseberg, 2014. "Trust the artist versus trust the tale: performance implications of talent and self-marketing in folk music," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(1), pages 9-42, February.
    2. Nela Filimon & Jordi López-Sintas & Carlos Padrós-Reig, 2011. "A test of Rosen’s and Adler’s theories of superstars," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 35(2), pages 137-161, May.
    3. Budzinski, Oliver & Kohlschreiber, Marie & Kuchinke, Björn & Pannicke, Julia, 2019. "Does music quality matter for audience voters in a music contest?," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 122, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    4. Aloys Prinz, 2017. "Rankings as coordination games: the Dutch Top 2000 pop song ranking," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(4), pages 379-401, November.
    5. Luc Champarnaud, 2014. "Prices for superstars can flatten out," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(4), pages 369-384, November.
    6. Olivier Gergaud & Vincenzo Verardi, 2006. "Untalented but Successful," Post-Print halshs-00112423, HAL.
    7. Günther G. Schulze, 2011. "Superstars," Chapters, in: Ruth Towse (ed.), A Handbook of Cultural Economics, Second Edition, chapter 56, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Andrés González-Moralejo, S & Compés López, R, 2009. "Problemas contractuales y acuerdos de subcontratación: El caso de la logística frigorífica en la industria alimentaria valenciana/," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 27, pages 279(30á)-27, Abril.
    9. Egon Franck & Stephan Nüesch, 2005. "Talent, Past Consumption and/or Popularity - Are German Soccer Celebrities Rosen or Adler Stars?," Working Papers 0005, University of Zurich, Center for Research in Sports Administration (CRSA), revised 2006.
    10. Giles, David E., 2006. "Superstardom in the US popular music industry revisited," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 68-74, July.
    11. David Giles, 2007. "Increasing returns to information in the US popular music industry," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(5), pages 327-331.
    12. Ordanini, Andrea & Nunes, Joseph C., 2016. "From fewer blockbusters by more superstars to more blockbusters by fewer superstars: How technological innovation has impacted convergence on the music chart," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 297-313.
    13. Elmer Sterken, 2014. "Collective Memory and Nostalgia in The Dutch Radio2 Top2000 Chart 1999-2013," CESifo Working Paper Series 4632, CESifo.
    14. Joel Hellier, 2023. "Asymmetric Globalization, Top Performers’ Income and Inequality," Working Papers 634, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    15. Francesco Angelini & Massimiliano Castellani, 2019. "Cultural and economic value: a critical review," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(2), pages 173-188, June.
    16. Hofmann, Julian & Schnittka, Oliver & Johnen, Marius & Kottemann, Pascal, 2021. "Talent or popularity: What drives market value and brand image for human brands?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 748-758.
    17. Olivier Gergaud & Vincenzo Verardi, 2021. "Untalented but successful? Rosen and Adler superstar Pokemons," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(5), pages 2637-2655, May.
    18. Hillebrand, Eric & Schnabl, Gunther & Ulu, Yasemin, 2009. "Japanese foreign exchange intervention and the yen-to-dollar exchange rate: A simultaneous equations approach using realized volatility," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 490-505, July.
    19. David Giles, 2007. "Survival of the hippest: life at the top of the hot 100," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(15), pages 1877-1887.
    20. W. Crain & Robert Tollison, 2002. "Consumer Choice and the Popular Music Industry: A Test of the Superstar Theory," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 1-9, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jculte:v:23:y:1999:i:4:p:237-256. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.