To understand why some movies bomb, Hollywood studio executives are increasingly focused on Rotten Tomatoes and other platforms that aggregate hundreds of views into a single score. This switch is a marked difference from past decades when high-profile movie critics at big newspapers were the most important judges of a movie’s merit. Those critics still exist, but primarily seem to hold sway with a small group of older viewers. Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores, meanwhile, show up in today’s search results and social media conversations. Continue reading Hollywood Studios Weigh Impact of Rotten Tomatoes Scores

A survey by RBC Capital Markets found that consumers are not willing to pay any more than they already do to stream a movie on opening weekend. Eighty-seven percent of consumers will not pay more than $10 to stream a movie on the same day it is released in theaters. That’s bad news for Hollywood studios that are trying to make more money with same-day video-on-demand releases. Most of the survey respondents also said that a VOD release would have no effect on their choice to go to theaters. Continue reading Survey Says Viewers Won’t Pay More Than $10 to Stream Movie

“Furious 7,” the latest installment in the “Fast and Furious” franchise, broke box office records last weekend, and that’s not even counting the people who watched the movie at home. From Thursday to Monday, the film had been illegally downloaded 2.59 million times on torrent networks. Meanwhile, fans could legally stream the movie on PRIMA, a streaming set-top box. For the luxury of streaming movies opening weekend, PRIMA users would have to shell out $500 for the 24-hour rental. Continue reading Pirates and the Wealthy Watching Theatrical Releases at Home