Betting On Box Office Opening Weekends Approved Dan Koelsch, June 15, 2010 Want to make some serious money predicting box office opening weekend results? Now you can, at via stock exchange. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a contract with the new Trend Exchange that allow traders to bet on a movie’s opening weekend gross. While a new revenue stream is always nice, there could be some serious downside to this. There has been a lot of opposition to betting on future box-office receipts within the film industry, most prominently from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), as it could actually hurt box office performance. This could also have a serious affect on the viral trends of new releases. Anyone with a stake in the exchange could manipulate word of mouth and other viral marketing of films if they had enough influence. As the L.A. Times writes:In a follow-up interview, [Bart] Chilton [a dissenting commissioner] added that he was particularly concerned about the ability of studios to manipulate the price of a future through marketing and other decisions, which he said was very different from existing futures contracts related to agriculture and other products. I would imagine this would bring a lot more pressure for hyped films to perform well, which only seems to make matters worse for a fickle industry. I don’t have a business degree, so some of the details on this fly over my head, but this is obviously a hotly debated issue. What do you think? News Viral News Box OfficeTrend ExchangeWeekend Box Office
“Zombie Scholars” To Enroll At Truman University October 25, 2012In case you are not aware, zombies are kind of a big deal right now. The Walking Dead is setting all kinds of viewership records during its third season on AMC, 5K races are being adapted to include the undead, and even the federal government launched a zombie awareness campaign… Read More
Create Your Very Own ‘The LEGO Movie’ Sig Fig November 4, 2013November 4, 2013The LEGO Movie marketing campaign has taken a slight shift to the viral angle. We’ve previously posted a contest the film held where the winner would be a part of the film. Chances are if you are reading this post, you probably didn’t win, but the Warner Bros. team doesn’t… Read More
Fans Campaign to Save Chuck By Tweeting to NBC and Advertisers April 24, 2011April 24, 2011When fans realized that their favorite televised series was on the brink of being cancelled, they came to the conclusion that they must flood the network that broadcasted the show with near to infinite amounts of letters persuading them to save the show or extend it for one more season…. Read More