Movie Stars and the Distribution of Financially Successful Films in the Motion Picture Industry

Abstract

Audiences choose to see films using information from previous films. A stochastic consumer choice process based on this assumption generates a particular distribution of financially successful films among film types. Movie stars can be used to mark these successful film types. Thus, their star power originates not only from “box-office appeal” but also from “marking power”. Evidence of 960 top 20 films released in the United States and Canada between 1940–1955 and 1960–1995 is consistent with this model. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1998