Academic research pertaining to the marketing of cultural productssuch as Broadway shows, books, music, and movies has identified a
product's genre (or type), star pow^er, and critics' reviews as important
factors influencing the market performance of an individual
product. Prior research, however, has not investigated the joint influences
of these factors. The current study extends previous research
by empirically investigating the managerially relevant interactive
influences of these factors within the context of the motion-picture
industry. For example, should producers of more familiar genre
movies, such as dramas and comedies, feature popular, but expensive,
stars? Real-world data from two distinct time periods are used to test
the hypotheses. The findings are consistent across the two time periods
and reveal that for more familiar genre movies, star power and
the valence of critics' reviews have less impact on the movie's performance
in the market. In contrast, for the less familiar genre
movies, stronger (vs. weaker) star power and more (vs. less) positive
reviews have positive influence on the market performance. Further,
for movies with less star power, the valence of critics' reviews has no
impact on the performance. In contrast, for movies 'with greater star power, more (less) positive reviews have positive (negative) influence
on movie performance. Managerial and theoretical implications,
along with limitations of the findings and directions for future
research, are offered.