The impact of online reviews on consumer attitudes and purchase-intentions towards watching movies at the cinema: A comparison of professional and consumer-critic reviews

The key objective of the current study was to explore the impact that online reviews can have on the attitudes and purchase intentions of movie-goers in the UK. Specifically, a comparison was carried out between online movie reviews written by both professional and consumer-critics. The aim of this paper was to explore which type of review movie-goers perceive to be more useful and how in turn, this affects their attitudes and purchase-intentions towards watching movies at the cinema. In order to address this question, an online questionnaire was administered to a total of 54 participants. During the questionnaire, participants were presented with a number of online reviews taken from the website ‘Rotten Tomatoes’, written by either professional or consumer movie critics. Participants were then asked to evaluate how useful they found each review and in turn, their attitudes and purchase intentions towards the movie being reviewed were evaluated. A linear regression analysis revealed that ‘source-expertise’ was a significant predictor of ‘information-usefulness’, which in turn significantly predicted movie-attitudes and positive purchase intentions. Surprisingly however, it was also found that no significant difference existed between the perceived ‘source-expertise’ of professional and consumer-critic reviewers. Furthermore, consumer-critic reviews were perceived to be more useful than professional-critic reviews. One of the key conclusions to be drawn from this analysis, is that it highlights that an individual need not be a professionally paid critic, in order to influence the attitudes and behaviours of movie-goers. In the following paper, a detailed literature review is carried out, which explores the current understanding of online reviews in the movie industry. Following this, the methods section of the paper lays out the chosen research design used in the current study, before a discussion of the key findings and conclusions takes place. Finally, the paper discusses the marketing implications of these key findings, from both an academic and practical perspective