Thorsten Hennig-Thurau - Entertainment Science

Thorsten Hennig-Thurau and Mark B. Houston

Entertainment Science Data Analytics and Practical Theory for Movies, Games, Books, and Music

Thorsten Hennig-Thurau and Mark B. Houstontwo of our finest scholars in the area of entertainment marketinghave produced a definitive research-based compendium that cuts across various branches of the arts to explain the phenomena that provide consumption experiences to capture the hearts and minds of audiences.

Morris B. Holbrook, W. T. Dillard Professor Emeritus of Marketing, Columbia University

Entertainment Science is a must-read for everyone working in the entertainment industry today, where the impact of digital and the use of big data cant be ignored anymore. Hennig-Thurau and Houston are the scientific frontrunners of knowledge that the industry urgently needs.

Michael Klmel, media entrepreneur and Honorary Professor of Media Economics at University of Leipzig

Entertainment Science s winning combination of creativity, theory, and data analytics offers managers in the creative industries and beyond a novel, compelling, and comprehensive approach to support their decision making. This ground-breaking book marks the dawn of a new Golden Age of fruitful conversation between entertainment scholars, managers, and artists.

Allgre Hadida, Associate Professor in Strategy, University of Cambridge

Finally, a pioneering step from conventional power-political and gut-feel decision-making to a research-based guide that can readily be applied to all segments of the entertainment and media universe. More than anything that has been previously available, Entertainment Science provides readers with a deep understanding of what makes the industry tick and what raises the probability of profitability. Media executives, scholars, students, and buffs will find this book an invaluable reference.

Harold (Hal) L. Vogel, author of Entertainment Industry Economics: A Guide for Financial Analysis.

Hennig-Thurau and Houston have done a terrific job organizing, summarizing, and articulating lucidly cumulative scholarly research on the entertainment industry. Entertainment Science challenges convincingly the Nobody-Knows -Anything old mantra, making empirical-based knowledge and findings accessible to a wide range of audiences.

Jehoshua Eliashberg, Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School.

Entertainment Science offers a new dimension of how statistical analysis can be applied to the intersection of art and science.

Jason E. Squire, editor of The Movie Business Book and Associate Professor of Practice, USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Thorsten Hennig-Thurau Mark B. Houston

For the latest developments in Entertainment Science and to engage with the authors and other readers, please visit our website http://entertainment-science.com and our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/EntertainmentScience .

#EntertainmentScience

To Claudia and the boys, for their love and support and inspiration, as well as their sheer infinite patience with me during the writing of this book. And to Sergio and Clint, for making me fall in love with the movies and the art (and science) of entertainment.

T. H.-T.

To Nancy, Jon, Elise, Wil, and Shane for their love and laughter, regardless of circumstance.

M. B. H.

And to Bruce Mallen, without whose inspiration and efforts this book and a large part of the research from which it arose would never exist. We will always be thankful for your contributions to Entertainment Science and hope that there will be a way through which our words will reach you.

T. H.-T. & M. B. H.

Preface and Acknowledgements

The entertainment industry, enlightening billions of people with movies, games, books, and music, is often characterized by its Nobody-Knows-Anything mantra. This mantra, coined more than 30 years ago by screenwriter legend William Goldman, argues that survival and success is a function of managerial intuition and instinct only and refuses the existence of economic rules and laws for entertainment products.

The Goldman adage strongly collides with todays production and marketing budgets for entertainment products which often exceed $100 million and can reach up to $500 millionfor a single new movie or video game. This book introduces Entertainment Science as an alternative, and more timely, paradigm. Entertainment Science builds on the assumption that in the era of almost unlimited data and computer power, the combination of smart analytics and powerful theories can provide valuable insights to those who have room for them in their decision making. Our aim to retire the Goldman mantra must not be confused with any desire to retire creativity and intuition Entertainment Science considers data analytics and theory as complementary resources to these basic skills, not as their substitutes.

Entertainment Science (the book) offers a systematic investigation of the knowledge that has been accumulated by scholars in various fields such as marketing and economics regarding the factors that make entertainment products successfulor let them flop. This knowledge has gone unnoticed by many who manage entertainment products and determine the industrys course. But the knowledge has also suffered from a lack of integration, with most studies being relatively isolated scholarly endeavors of particular aspects of the entertainment business.