Wikipedia Can Predict Box Office Flops 147
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Despite a record year, like every year before it, 2013 remained fraught with its fair share of box office disasters. What if studios could minimize their loses and predict when the next Pluto Nash-level flop was imminent? According to new research published in PLoS One, they may actually be able to. Using data gleaned from Wikipedia articles, researchers measured the likelihood of a film's financial success based on four parameters: number of total page views; number of total edits made; number of users editing; and the number of revisions in the article's revision history, or 'collaborative rigor.'"
Re:Oh great... (Score:3, Informative)
Agreed. If this were the case we wouldn't have Citizen Kane, The Wizard of Oz, Blade Runner, Office Space, Donnie Darko, etc.
Re:Oh great... (Score:4, Informative)
In other words, they're a popcorn store selling movie tickets as a loss leader to get you in the door.
Re:Oh great... (Score:4, Informative)
Pretty much, yes. There is a LITTLE profit to most tickets, but not much.
I mentioned above... many theatres sold Iron Man 3 tickets at a significant loss, because Disney is getting monopolistic and the theatres can't really afford to NOT show Iron Man 3. Disney said Bend Over, and the theatres couldn't really argue.