Adapting to succeed? Leveraging the brand equity of best sellers to succeed at the box office

    Authors

    A. Joshi;H. F. Mao

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Acad. Mark. Sci.

    Keywords

    Experiential brand extension; Motion picture industry; Book adaptations; Box office revenue; MOTION-PICTURE INDUSTRY; INTERNATIONAL MARKETS; FILM-CRITICS; EXTENSIONS; MODEL; PRODUCT; MOVIES; PERFORMANCE; VALIDITY; ATTITUDE; Business

    Abstract

    Many movies are based on best-selling novels. While book adaptation is an often used strategy in the motion picture industry, it has received little academic attention. Using a multi-method approach, this research investigates the drivers behind the success of book-based movies. In Study 1, we analyze over 700 movies and find that book-based movies perform better at the box office on the opening weekend than non-book movies. However, this superior performance dissipates after the opening weekend. Further, the opening weekend performance of book-based movies is positively driven by book equity, book-movie similarity, and recency between the book's peak equity and movie release. After the opening weekend, many of these book-related variables cease to have an impact, and the effect of movie-related variables (e.g., reviews) increases. Because Study 1 documents that book-movie similarity positively impacts the movie's performance, contrary to prior findings that content similarity has negative or null impact on performance of a movie sequel, we undertake a second study to reconcile the discrepancy. Study 2 finds that content similarity results in satiation and therefore hampers the movie success for sequels; however, when a movie is adapted from a book, due to experiential modality change (i.e., from book format to film format rather than film to film), content similarity increases the movie's chance of success.

    Journal Title

    Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

    Volume

    40

    Issue/Number

    4

    Publication Date

    1-1-2012

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    558

    Last Page

    571

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000304166200004

    ISSN

    0092-0703

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