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1. Introduction
The recent surge in video-sharing social media websites has provided a broader range of values to consumers in terms of information search, decision making, and information sharing. For example, consumers can watch a movie trailer on YouTube before going to the theater and easily share their experience with family, friends, and colleagues via social-sharing features embedded on YouTube. According to a report by Google, while over 35 million hours of movie trailers are viewed via mobile on YouTube as of 2015, 69 percent of moviegoers admit that watching a movie trailer on YouTube influences their decision to see a movie in the theater (Google, 2015).
As with many industries, the movie industry benefits from the growth of video-sharing sites. In addition to employing conventional film-marketing materials such as posters, promotional websites, and trailers, film marketers are now paying attention to the promotional advantages of movie trailers on video-sharing sites. First, trailers allow potential consumers to “taste” a movie (Kerrigan, 2010). Movies are characterized as experience goods, and consumers hardly evaluate the value of movies until they are consumed (Nelson, 1970). A trailer can therefore provide potential moviegoers with an opportunity to experience the movie in a shortened form. Second, with the development of social media, movie trailers are easily shown and distributed through various types of channels. Now, consumers can watch movie trailers on video-sharing social media websites like YouTube and then share them by providing a link via Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter.
Film marketers have realized that movie trailers on video-sharing sites can play an important role in attracting a potential audience’s attention and raising its interest at an early stage in film marketing. Hence, most studios, such as 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and Paramount Pictures, run their own marketing channels on video-sharing sites and upload official trailers before movie releases. However, there are few studies on video-sharing social media sites as a channel for the consumption and distribution of movie trailers.
Whether sharing of movie trailers on social media has an impact on box-office revenue has not been adequately researched with actual data despite anecdotal evidences regarding the impact of movie trailers on moviegoers’ decision making. Previous studies on the motion picture industry have made diverse attempts to predict...