Twitter can predict, with astonishing accuracy, how well a movie will sell, according toResearchers at HP Labs.
By monitoring movie mentions in 2.9 million tweets from 1.2 million users over three months, they found the rate of tweets around the release date and the number of theaters its released in was 97.3% accurate in predicting opening weekend box office. By contrast, the Hollywood Stock Exchange, which has been the gold standard for opening box-office predictions, had a 96.5% accuracy. By looking at the ratio of positive tweets to negative ones they predicted second-weekend performance with a 94% accuracy rate.
Twitter might be more than just a mirror of mass sentiment--the service might also influence it. In other words, could you actually make a product launch far more successful with a really smart Twitter strategy?
Read more at Fast Company.
