IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ijb/journl/v17y2018i2p123-142.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

At the Movies: Some Stylized Facts on Investment Returns and Consumption Patterns

Author

Listed:
  • Lee Yoong Hon

    (Nottingham University Business School, The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Malaysia)

  • Ruth Lim Sheau Yen

    (School of Social Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Malaysia)

Abstract

This article examines the impact of a movie's budget on its profitability by measuring movie profitability using its return on investment (ROI). With a dataset comprising 3309 movies, we find that a movie's ROI negatively correlates to its production budget. Our findings further reveal that its ROI is highest in the category of low budget films when compared to other groups of different budget categories, i.e., moderate, big, and mega budget. In terms of an investment portfolio strategy, we argue that the better option for movie studios is to concentrate more on smaller-scale film projects instead of investing heavily in major productions, or at the very least, to consider having a more balanced portfolio in order to realize greater overall returns.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee Yoong Hon & Ruth Lim Sheau Yen, 2018. "At the Movies: Some Stylized Facts on Investment Returns and Consumption Patterns," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 17(2), pages 123-142, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ijb:journl:v:17:y:2018:i:2:p:123-142
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ijbe.fcu.edu.tw/assets/ijbe/past_issue/No.17-2/pdf/vol_17-2-3.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ijbe.fcu.edu.tw/assets/ijbe/past_issue/No.17-2/abstract/03.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Timothy King, 2007. "Does film criticism affect box office earnings? Evidence from movies released in the U.S. in 2003," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 31(3), pages 171-186, September.
    2. William Goetzmann & S. Ravid & Ronald Sverdlove, 2013. "The pricing of soft and hard information: economic lessons from screenplay sales," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 37(2), pages 271-307, May.
    3. Ali F. Darrat & Bin Li & Omar Benkato, 2011. "The Relationship between Volatility and Expected Returns: Some Evidence for Australia," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 10(1), pages 27-43, April.
    4. H. E.T. Holgersson & Peter S. Karlsson & Rashid Mansoor, 2012. "Estimating mean-standard deviation ratios of financial data," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 657-671, August.
    5. Darlene Chisholm & Víctor Fernández-Blanco & S. Abraham Ravid & W. David Walls, 2015. "Economics of motion pictures: the state of the art," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(1), pages 1-13, February.
    6. W. D. Walls, 2009. "The Market for Motion Pictures in Thailand: Rank, Revenue, and Survival at the Box Office," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 8(2), pages 115-131, August.
    7. Amit M. Joshi & Dominique M. Hanssens, 2009. "Movie Advertising and the Stock Market Valuation of Studios: A Case of “Great Expectations?”," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(2), pages 239-250, 03-04.
    8. Arthur De Vany & W. Walls, 1999. "Uncertainty in the Movie Industry: Does Star Power Reduce the Terror of the Box Office?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 23(4), pages 285-318, November.
    9. John, Kose & Ravid, S. Abraham & Sunder, Jayanthi, 2017. "Managerial ability and success: Evidence from the career paths of film directors," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 425-439.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jordi McKenzie, 2023. "The economics of movies (revisited): A survey of recent literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 480-525, April.

    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. Jordi McKenzie, 2023. "The economics of movies (revisited): A survey of recent literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 480-525, April.
    2. Darren Filson & James H. Havlicek, 2018. "The performance of global film franchises: installment effects and extension decisions," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 42(3), pages 447-467, August.
    3. Fei Peng & Lili Kang & Sajid Anwar & Xue Li, 2019. "Star power and box office revenues: evidence from China," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(2), pages 247-278, June.
    4. Pamela Adams & Roberto Fontana & Astrid Marinoni, 2018. "More “team” than “fame”: spin-off success in the US television sitcom industry," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(6), pages 957-974.
    5. Darlene Chisholm & Víctor Fernández-Blanco & S. Abraham Ravid & W. David Walls, 2015. "Economics of motion pictures: the state of the art," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(1), pages 1-13, February.
    6. Georgios Alaveras & Estrella Gomez-Herrera & Bertin Martens, 2018. "Cross-border circulation of films and cultural diversity in the EU," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 42(4), pages 645-676, November.
    7. Sofia Izquierdo‐Sanchez, 2019. "Managing The Supply Of Short‐Life Products. A Duration Analysis Approach Using The Uk Film Industry," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 75-89, January.
    8. Hofmann, Julian & Clement, Michel & Völckner, Franziska & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten, 2017. "Empirical generalizations on the impact of stars on the economic success of movies," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 442-461.
    9. Ponnamma Divakaran, Pradeep Kumar, 2018. "Technology-enabled community data for gaining pre-release brand insights," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 217-226.
    10. Angela (Xia) Liu & Tridib Mazumdar & Bo Li, 2015. "Counterfactual Decomposition of Movie Star Effects with Star Selection," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(7), pages 1704-1721, July.
    11. Divakaran, Pradeep Kumar Ponnamma & Palmer, Adrian & Søndergaard, Helle Alsted & Matkovskyy, Roman, 2017. "Pre-launch Prediction of Market Performance for Short Lifecycle Products Using Online Community Data," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 12-28.
    12. Frederick Derrick & Nancy Williams & Charles Scott, 2014. "A two-stage proxy variable approach to estimating movie box office receipts," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(2), pages 173-189, May.
    13. Amanda S. King & John T. King & Michael Reksulak, 2017. "Signaling for access to high-demand markets: evidence from the US motion picture industry," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(4), pages 441-465, November.
    14. Clement, Michel & Wu, Steven & Fischer, Marc, 2014. "Empirical generalizations of demand and supply dynamics for movies," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 207-223.
    15. Venkat Kuppuswamy & Peter Younkin, 2020. "Testing the Theory of Consumer Discrimination as an Explanation for the Lack of Minority Hiring in Hollywood Films," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(3), pages 1227-1247, March.
    16. Finsterwalder, Jörg & Kuppelwieser, Volker G. & de Villiers, Matthew, 2012. "The effects of film trailers on shaping consumer expectations in the entertainment industry—A qualitative analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 589-595.
    17. François A. Carrillat & Renaud Legoux & Allègre L. Hadida, 2018. "Debates and assumptions about motion picture performance: a meta-analysis," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 273-299, March.
    18. Christoph Engel & Michael Kurschilgen, 2011. "Fairness Ex Ante and Ex Post: Experimentally Testing Ex Post Judicial Intervention into Blockbuster Deals," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(4), pages 682-708, December.
    19. Michael Lewis & Yeujun Yoon, 2018. "An Empirical Examination of the Development and Impact of Star Power in Major League Baseball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(2), pages 155-187, February.
    20. McKenzie, Jordi, 2013. "Predicting box office with and without markets: Do internet users know anything?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 70-80.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    return on investment; production budget; movie industry; box office; consumption pattern;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General
    • M20 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - General
    • M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ijb:journl:v:17:y:2018:i:2:p:123-142. 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: Szu-Hsien Ho (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbfcutw.html .

    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.