About MovieReviewIntelligence.com
Background
MovieReviewIntelligence.com was launched in June 2009. The goal is to provide the most accurate and complete picture of movie reviews possible.
The purpose is to give everyone -- moviegoers, filmmakers, marketers, critics, publishers and syndicators -- a clear and unbiased approach for understanding movie reviews.
MovieReviewIntelligence.com is dedicated to showing exactly what the critics are saying. The site makes every effort to cover all movies -- big, small, mainstream, indie, foreign and documentary. The critics included are selected because they represent the body of film criticism that moviegoers see and read everyday.
The founder, editor and publisher of MovieReviewIntelligence.com is David A. Gross, a former movie marketing executive, consultant, and researcher with 25 years of experience in the movie business. "This is the best site to rely on as a moviegoer," Gross says. "It is the site I would have liked to have had as a movie industry professional -- objective."
MovieReviewIntelligence.com is an independent web publication. The site is not affiliated with a movie studio or other entertainment company.
Based on ten years of research, what sets MovieReviewIntelligence.com apart from other movie review web sites is its thoroughness, accuracy and faithfulness to the critics.
MovieReviewIntelligence.com's Approach
MovieReviewIntelligence.com analyzes movie reviews from more than 70 U.S. and Toronto newspapers, magazines, alternative weeklies, web sites and NPR. The site looks at the movie reviews that the public sees and reads every day; that is what counts in the real world.
Several publications covered represent multiple publications because their reviews are printed in many different newspapers and alternative weeklies across the country. This includes the Associated Press; Voice Media (Village Voice, LA Weekly, et. al.); Tribune newspapers (Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, et. al.); the New York Times; and others. With all publications counted, the total number covered by this website is far greater than 70. This is taken into account in the statistical model built to analyze the reviews.
The publications covered include the key national media, as well as the top 25 local markets in the U.S. plus Toronto. The top 25 markets represent approximately 50 percent of the U.S. population and 60 percent of total U.S. moviegoing. Together, these publications and programs reach an audience of over 150 million.
MovieReviewIntelligence.com covers reviews online, as well as in print and on the airwaves. Each publication's online traffic is taken into consideration when analyzing the figures. For example, the Associated Press gets extra weight because of its enormous online traffic. In total, the newspapers covered by MovieReviewIntelligence.com attract over 185 million unique visitors per month to their sites and are included in the list of top web sites of any kind.
For a complete list of the publications covered and an explanation of why they were selected and where the fit in, please click here...
What the Web Site Offers
MovieReviewIntelligence.com offers commentary, summaries, overviews, averages and comparisons in real-time, collecting movie reviews 24 hours a day and analyzing hundreds of reviews each week in meticulous detail. The proprietary methodology for analyzing the reviews provides the most accurate, detailed and timely information possible.
The key factors that MovieReviewIntelligence.com presents for each movie include:
Positive Review Ratings: A 1 to 100 percent score that reflects the full range of reviews. The ratings are broken down by taste and geographic categories so that moviegoers can understand how a movie appeals to them.
Review Mixture: The degree of variance among a movie’s reviews.
Coverage, Volume, and Length: The size of the reviews.
Review Timing: When a movie's reviews are published.
By looking at the important details, MovieReviewIntelligence.com can say with confidence, “These are a movie’s reviews in the real world.”
Reviews in the Real World
Movie reviews are the first word about how well a movie plays; they are the first information about a movie’s playability. As reviews are seen and read, they influence how a movie is perceived at the start of its release. Reviews set the tone.
Further, reviews speak to different tastes. For instance, reviews in the Broad National Press have a different point of view than reviews in the Alternative/Indie press, which differ from reviews in the Highbrow Press. MovieReviewIntelligence.com looks at these different types of reviews in order to cover the full range and understand reviews from all points of views.
Every movie comes with its own marketing potential based on its story, genre, cast, source material, look and feel. Some movies have stronger commercial potential than others. However, all things being equal, a movie with better reviews always performs better at the box-office than the same movie with poor reviews. In the end, movie reviews influence every movie in some way.
Proprietary research conducted on behalf of MovieReviewIntelligence.com shows that 81 percent of moviegoers follow movie reviews. This represents 71,485,980 moviegoers who follow reviews. Clearly, movie reviews are extremely important in the everyday moviegoing marketplace. To read more about the research, please click here...
The Management Team
David A. Gross, Founder, Editor and Publisher – As an executive, consultant and researcher, Mr. Gross has 25 years of movie marketing experience, both domestic and international. He has held executive marketing positions at 20th Century Fox, the National Research Group (NRG), the Walt Disney Studios, MGM/UA and HBO.
As vice president of international marketing at 20th Century Fox, Mr. Gross founded, built and supervised the studio’s state-of-the-art international marketing department. During that time, the studio went from last place to its first international box-office crown in modern history.
Prior to 20th Century Fox, Mr. Gross was managing director of the European office of the National Research Group, the leading market research-based adviser to the American studios on movie marketing and distribution strategies throughout the world.
Mr. Gross became interested in movie reviews at Fox. After a movie opened in several overseas markets, the head of publicity would bring a 2” or 3” stack of clippings and say, “Here are the reviews.” Because Mr. Gross spent the early part of his career in movie market research, it was natural for him to think, “Is there a way to summarize this meaningfully, quantitatively and succinctly?” After leaving Fox, Mr. Gross started doing research on the topic. He would work on it for a couple of months, then put it down, work on it for a couple of months, then put it down. During these years he developed the publication model, the statistical weighting schemes, and the computer algorithms on which the web site is based. In the meantime, the tools for gathering the information – data collection – improved as the Internet matured. In early 2008, Mr. Gross decided there were enough resources to turn the research into a Web site, which is MovieReviewIntelligence.com. With input from film marketing executives, market researchers, computer programmers, writers/editors and lots and lots of moviegoers, the site was launched in June 2009.
Mr. Gross is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and has a BA in classics from Brown University.
James A. Knauer, Software Engineer – A software developer since 1983, Mr. Knauer started out managing large-scale multi-protocol data network installations for Michigan state governmental agencies, including Michigan’s House of Representatives, the Senate, the Supreme and Appeals Courts, and the Office of the Attorney General.
In 1996, Mr. Knauer founded Myne Corporation, a cooperative of colleagues using the Internet to explore and develop solutions for web hosting, design and development, database administration, data network design and management, accounting, bookkeeping, merchant services, and computer hardware diagnosis and repair. MovieReviewIntelligence.com is a database driven application with front-end client usability, which is Mr. Knauer’s specialty.
Mr. Knauer has a computer science degree from Michigan Technological University and is a certified network engineer.
Josephine Scanlon, Assistant Editor – Ms. Scanlon has more than 15 years experience as a writer and editor. As a partner in Duet Write LLC, she has edited published works in fiction and non-fiction, including memoirs, self-help books, blogs and articles, and a historical novel. Ms. Scanlon has a BA in English from Iona College and an MA in English from Fordham University. She lives in Dutchess County, New York.
For more background and detail about MovieReviewIntelligence.com, please click here...
MovieReviewIntelligence.com, Inc.
Santa Monica, California
tel: 310.453.2868; fax: 310.828.9126
email: editor@MovieReviewIntelligence.com
