Celebrity star power: Do age and gender effects influence box office performance?

Abstract

Celebrity media exposure is an increasingly strong source of actor popularity and is a viable star power variable that focuses on the impact of celebrity, not acting talent. Using People to calculate an actor's popularity, we analyse how the gender and age of a movie's lead actors affect box office success using quantile regression. We find that male celebrity media exposure can positively impact the success of a movie, whereas female celebrity exposure tends to decrease box office revenues. The results also suggest that although it may be harder for older actresses to land a lead role, it is actually the older male actors who lack the ability to carry a movie. The results highlight that a linear regression may not be the optimal solution to assess the relationship between star power and box office revenues.

Keywords:

• media
• star power
• advertizing and marketing
• movie industry

JEL Classification:

• A10
• M3

Notes

¹ See, for example, Magazine Publishers of America (2000–2008).

² In fact, People coverage is negatively correlated with a movie that receives an A grade and positively correlated with a movie that receives an F grade. Both measures are statistically significant at the 5% level.

³ For details, see Young et al. (2012).

⁴ Gross revenues do not include video sales or rental figures.

⁵ We were unable to collect data regarding the number of photographic appearances by the stars.

⁶ Although the selection of two stars is an admittedly arbitrary number, including additional members of the cast only dilutes the celebrity concept.