How Long to Squeeze the Creative Juice? An Empirical Study of the Impact of Movie Production Timing on Financial Performance

We empirically examine the financial impact of production duration in a multi-stage production process for creative products. In particular, we analyze a novel data set from the movie industry to shed light on how the total production time and duration of individual stages affects box office revenues. We find that total production time is negatively associated with box office revenues. In particular, 1% additional total production delay may lower box office revenues by approximately 0.94% on average. In terms of the individual production stages, the duration of the post-production and distribution phases are critical, since both are negatively associated with box office revenues. Our study can help studios better understand how to prioritize production planning and minimize the negative impacts of production delays