From Brüno to Harry, WOM’s rocking the film industry
By Molly FlattWe’ve always known that word of mouth is one of the key drivers in our decision to see a movie; films are classic water cooler and dinner table fodder, and we crave the opinion of people who know our tastes rather than the divisive reviews of cooler-than-thou (or Jonathan-Ross-style sycophant) critics.
But thanks to social media, WOM is visibly starting to influence the film industry’s bottom line. Pithy, emotive film reactions are perfectly suited to microblogging and a number of new apps are encouraging us to share our opinions, from Netflix updates on Facebook to Blippr, a Twitter-style platform for entertainment reviews, and they’re having a noticable effect on box office sales. The Wrap claimed that studio honchos are shaking in their Gucci loafers thanks to the extreme and often unexpected peer-to-peer ‘marketing velocity‘ that now snowballs around a new release: “the net effect, some studio executives say, is that a marketing spend that used to take a movie through the weekend now only really takes a studio through Friday evening, east coast time.”
Many commentators have been blaming Brüno’s steep decline in box office takings - which opened with a healthy $14.2 million in the US last Friday, but plummeted $20 million short of expectations by Saturday - on a rash of damning tweets, which transformed a groundswell of positive anticipation into a rapid sense of ‘don’t go there.’ And now there are rumblings that tweeters could help drain Harry Potter sales quicker than a bunch of Dementors thanks to disappointment over the unfaithful ending of the new film.
It seems a dubious claim to me; do a quick search and you see a whole lot of love for Harry; people are going to flock to see him regardless of reviews. But then I loved Bruno, and I already booked for Harry, so I’m obviously bucking the WOM trend when it comes to cinema. And it certainly goes to show that conversation translates directly into currency - and fast - which may well have a swim-or-sink effect on smaller productions where reviews are the only thing that will pull punters in. Movie marketers are certainly starting to realise the journos aren’t the only ones they need to woo.
