August 18, 2003

Now bad movies cannot get even one weekend’s grosses via massive advertising. The LA Times looks at how cell phones, text messaging and other communication from their initial viewers can cause a movie to suffer a steep falloff in viewers after a single day, or propel worthy movies to increasing grosses. Update: David Poland of The Hot Button savaged this piece, noting that most big movies have Friday to Saturday upticks and that a drop of over 50% does not indicate a flop – but could lead the way to huge grosses, such as the Matrix Reloaded which was off 59 percent in its second weekend while making a $278 million domestic gross. 12:06:36 AM