The dynamics of the Chinese film industry: factors affecting Chinese audiences’ intentions to see movies

Abstract

This study attempts to understand the dynamics of the rapidly growing Chinese film industry by relying on a revised reason action model that uses a data-mining approach with aggregated data to examine the determinants of people’s intentions to see movies. The results show that attitude towards seeing movies indicated by online film ratings, collective norms represented by box-office performance and Academy Award win(s) significantly predict intentions to see movies. In addition, a movie’s year of release, star power, country of origin, adaptation from a novel and status as a sequel were significant predictors of aggregated intentions.

Keywords:

• Aggregated data
• China
• data-mining
• film industry
• movies
• ratings

Acknowledgements

The author would like to extend his sincere appreciation to Professor Malcolm Warner, the APBR Co-Editor, whose advice has greatly contributed to the improvement of the paper, and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.