Just finished reading a book about the infamous movie Heaven's Gate, the film that destroyed United Artists because of bad word of mouth and a particularly ghastly review from Vincent Canby at the NYT, who called the movie the equivalent of a "forced four-hour walking tour of one's own living room". The whole fiasco was a groupthink hatchet job against a film that is at least worth a look, and is enjoyable to some.
Studios releasing overseas ahead of the US is indicative of a larger problem, and that is peoples' obsession with reviews and ratings, on everything from movies and music to washers and toasters.
What happened to experiencing things for oneself? I can't think of anything more worthless than the opinion of an anonymous stranger.
Uh $10 ticket prices for movies.
Experiencing things for yourself is fine if it’s free. If I’m gonna lay down $10 I want some level of indication that I’m not better off spending that money in a bar. Some movies I’ll go see no matter what the reviewers say because they’re topically in my wheelhouse, some movies I won’t see regardless of the reviewers because they aren’t. The rest of the pack I look up the rotten tomatoes collective data, maybe read a couple of reviews, just to get a feel.
When a typical night at the movies is going to cost you $50, you can’t get upset if folks are going to be more discerning about what they spend their money on, especially when that same movie will be available to rent for a few bucks in 3-6 months.
You can’t charge the kind of prices that movies charge and think folks aren’t going to listen to word of mouth/reviews.
Its just that simple.
If a trip to the movies for 2 was $20, movie popcorn, soda etc, I guarantee folks would be less obsessed with what others said, but when you are dropping $50 for 1.5 hours of entertainment when you figure in movie, popcorn, drink etc.. folks are going be far less likely to try something they’ve heard bad things about.
Its standard economics... an app selling for .99 will get folks to try it even if it has a bad review or two.. one selling for 9.99.. not so much.