Introduction

Abstract

In its original meaning, William Goldman’s famous remark referred to the decisionmaking process in the motion picture industry and in particular to the executives’ inability to foresee the market success of individual film projects. Since the mid 1980s, the body of scientific literature on particular determinants of success (e.g. Walls, 2009; Brewer, Kelley & Jozefowicz, 2009; Reinstein & Snyder, 205; Desai & Basuroy, 2005; Chang & Ki, 2005; De Vany & Walls, 1999; Sochay, 1994; Prag & Casavant, 1994), the dynamics and organization of the industry (e.g. Calantone et al., 2010; Gil, 2008; Orbach & Einav, 2007; Einav, 2007; Wasko, 2007; Filson, 2005; Chisholm, 2004; Elberse & Eliashberg, 2003; Corts, 2001) and the management of the various aspects of film production (e.g. Palia, Ravid & Reisel, 2008; Gil & Spiller, 2007; Hennig-Thurau, Houston & Sridhar, 2006; Ravid & Basuroy, 2004; De Vany & Walls, 2002) has significantly grown and provides practitioners with numerous insights to improve decision-making.