Lessons from the hit movie “Interstellar”: Will social media word-of-mouth dominate the box office?

Recently, the sci-fi masterpiece "Interstellar" has been a big hit. In five days, it has earned 250 million yuan in domestic box office. What is even more puzzling is that the discussion about this film on social networks such as Weibo and WeChat is even more popular than the box office itself, which deserves our attention and deep thought.

Generally speaking, a high-grossing movie is mainly determined by three factors: a high screening rate, the quality of the movie itself, and strong publicity for the movie. Putting aside these common sense factors that affect the box office, let's take a look at how high-quality movies such as "Interstellar" can achieve high box office with the help of word-of-mouth communication on social media and the promotion of mobile Internet.

Social media reputation has become a barometer of movie box office success

First, the explosion and popularity of social media has enabled word of mouth to have a more direct impact on box office than ever before. In the past, we only got information about new movies from outdoor advertisements or TV promotions, which were blunt and cold, and often could not directly prompt us to go to the cinema. Today, the impact of social media is "silent" and simple and direct.

Looking back four or five years ago, when social media was not yet developed, the time it took for word-of-mouth to ferment and explode through online portal media, forum communities, and even traditional newspapers and magazines was too long. The reputation of many excellent movies had just been formed, and the movies might have already been taken off the shelves.

Comparing the box office performance of the Lost on Journey trilogy in which Xu Zheng participated, we can see it more clearly. The cast is almost the same, the same road movie, the same good reputation, but the final box office results are very different. Lost on Journey, which was released in the summer of 2010, had a good reputation, but the box office was less than 40 million yuan. Lost in Thailand, which was released in the Lunar New Year of 2013, and My Lucky Star, which was released in the National Day of 2014, both had box office revenues of more than 1 billion yuan thanks to the strong publicity of the film producers, especially the word-of-mouth promotion on social media. From 2011 to 2014, these four years were the period of rapid development of social media.

Let's restore the process of a heavy social media user watching "Interstellar". First, when he was browsing Weibo or WeChat Moments, he saw that some friends were strongly praising "Interstellar" and had a preliminary idea to watch the movie. Then he went to Douban or Time.com to see the introduction and rating of the movie, and then formed a strong desire to watch the movie. Then, he selected seats online through apps such as Meituan.com Movie Seat Selection, and successfully paid through WeChat or Alipay. Finally, he arrived at the theater and entered the digital password on the ticket terminal to successfully pick up the ticket. After watching the movie, he posted the movie ticket stub on Weibo or WeChat Moments and posted a brief review, and then went to Douban and Time.com to rate or post a review.

We can see that this kind of consumption behavior converted by social word of mouth may only take a few minutes. The popularity of social media has greatly increased the conversion rate of online word of mouth. This is because more and more film distributors are paying more and more attention to publicity on social media. On the other hand, we think that the source of word of mouth is probably the "premeditated" publicity of the film producers. After all, in the era of social media, hiring KOLs (opinion leaders) to spread and promote word of mouth has long been commonplace.

Mobile Internet drives growth in moviegoers

At the same time, we should also realize that it is far from enough for a movie to have a high box office just by relying on word-of-mouth promotion on social media. We should also see the improvement and progress of the domestic film industry chain, and we should not ignore the promotion of the mobile Internet wave to the box office. For example, in the process of online movie ticket sales, the formation of online ticket purchase consumption habits relies more on technological progress, especially the realization of online seat selection and offline terminals, which greatly improves the conversion rate of online word-of-mouth contribution to the box office.

Objectively speaking, the film industry has become the most successful case of O2O implementation and Internetization among traditional industries. The O2O process of the film industry can be traced back to the era of hot group buying. At that time, movie tickets, as the most standardized product, became one of the products strongly promoted by various group buying websites. Movie tickets that used to cost hundreds of yuan can now be purchased through group buying websites for only 20 or 30 yuan. On the one hand, this has enabled many young people with limited financial resources to enter the cinema, and on the other hand, it has made online ticket booking a consumption habit for young people.

With the continuous advancement of mobile Internet, the function of online seat selection anytime and anywhere has been realized, and the offline ticket collection terminal has been improved, which has further improved the viewing experience of consumers and also brought more people to the cinema. In recent years, we can see that whether it is a domestic low-cost production or an international Hollywood blockbuster, as long as there is a little publicity, the box office can basically easily exceed 100 million yuan, and the underlying reason is actually due to the overall growth of the domestic viewing population.

Therefore, whether it is Hollywood blockbusters such as "Interstellar" or domestic films such as "My Lucky Star" starring Huang Bo, they have proved to us time and again how obvious and direct the role of word-of-mouth on social media is in promoting the box office of movies. And I can also assert that today, with the full penetration of mobile Internet and social media, it is very likely that every purchase made by consumers, not just the consumption of movies, may be related to social media and mobile Internet, either before or after the purchase.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.