The Academy Awards represent the uneasy tension between art and commerce in Hollywood. The façade of art that the Academy has worked so hard to cultivate is weakened in the face of “for your consideration” campaigning. These advertising efforts, led by the studios and teams employed by potential nominees, make claims to the virtues of a given film and advocate for their celebration. The awards business has grown into a multi-million dollar industry, directly contradicting the art-driven version of Hollywood that the Academy claims to represent.
The movie industry is an uncertain business, and films often fail to make money, so the movie promotions and marketing decisions studios make are vital in determining success. With movie promotions, people from different cultures can perceive films and their advertising efforts differently because of their backgrounds, so movie marketers must recognize these differences to be able to succeed in international markets. This thesis is intended to help provide information for filmmakers and their respective film advertisers on how different cultures may perceive promotional movie poster factors, and how they can be more successful in their pursuit. Specifically, we are focusing on the influence of stars and review sources featured on such posters and how they might play into someone’s response to a film. To do so, we will be comparing viewers relative to their Hofstede cultural dimensions (of individualism and collectivism and power distance) to understand what factors might influence a society more and why. We first dive into our preliminary research, then make predictions and test them through a 2x2 study to determine what movie promotion elements are most influential to different viewers. Next we will conclude with the managerial implications and limitations and future research of our study. Overall, our research and data findings offer insights to filmmakers on how they might enhance and tailor their movie promotions when marketing to different cultures.