The difference between the Total-Gross-Sales and the Opening-Weekend-Gross sales calculated to form the net-sale-difference for each motion picture. The frequency of the motion pictures that had a net-sale of zero was the highest. Considering that all motion pictures had a chance to feature at the Theater and appeared in Week-Top-60; then these two factors were not a guarantee that a motion-picture would have a net-sale difference.
Half the number of the motion pictures had a net-sale-difference of US$ 5 million and below. Approximately 49% of the motion pictures had net-sales ranging between US$ 5 million and 175.32 million. At least most motion pictures had a chance to appear in the Week-Top-60 than any other frequency. About two-thirds of the motion pictures appeared in the Week-Top-60 ten times or less.
Only five motion pictures appeared in the Week-Top-60 twenty-one times or more. Thus, there is a negative skew in the number of times a motion picture appears in the Week-Top-60 and most probably is because of the competition factor. This explains why the median of the motion pictures ranges the 6th and 10th week of appearance in the Week-Top-60.
At least all motion pictures featured more-than five times among the theaters. More (Just above a third) motion pictures featured 100 or lesser times in the Theaters. Approximately a third of the motion pictures featured more-than 2000 times in the theaters.
If the motion pictures were classified in the 1000s of appearance then ranges will display a negative skew that infers chances of influence of competition when featuring in the theaters. In the overall, net-sales-difference (at 4.69) was more skewed, followed by Number-of-Theaters at 1.62 and finally Week-Top-60 at 1.55.
Assuming that appearance in the Week-Top-60 had no influence on the Net-sales-difference, then on average each feature in a theatre was worth US$ 1.8042 million, ceteris-paribus. Similarly, assuming that featuring in the theatres had no influence on the net-sales, then on average every appearance in the Week-Top-60 was worth US$ 0.0141 million, ceteris-paribus.
Assuming on average that the motion pictures had not featured in any theatre and appeared in Week-Top-60, then the net-sales will be US$ 0.00161million (probably due to other-factors ). The lack of influence of a theatre feature and a Week-Top-60 was worth US$ 0.00161million, ceteris-paribus.
If the number of appearances were influenced by theatre features, then each appearance was worth 142 week features. This infers that on average an appearance in the Week-Top-60 is more worth than a feature in the Theatre.
In other words, the appearance in the Week-Top-60 will be more influential on theatre features than Theatre features will do to Week-Top-60, ceteris-paribus. If this is true, then on average those motion pictures appearing only frequently in the Week-Top-60 will gain competitive-edge (that is, higher net-sales) than those who only feature in the Theatres, ceteris-paribus.
Based on the calculated average estimates Week-Top-60; Number-of-theatres and other-factors contribute to the net-sale-difference at 98.52%; 0.99% and 0.49%, respectively. Assuming on average the number-of-theatre features had no influence on the net-sales then Magnificent-Desolation had the highest performance at US$ 0.0830 million due to Week-Top-60 and other-factors.
Assuming that on average the number of appearances on the Week-Top-60 had no influence net-sales then Star-Wars: Episode-III had the highest net-sales performance at US$ 14.3021 million due to features in the Theatre and other-factors. On average, Alone-in-the-Dark had the highest number-of-theatre features per Week-Top-60 at 708.
Magnificent-Desolation at US$ 0.2317 million had the highest sales due to more Week-Top-60 appearance per Number-of-theatre features. Star-Wars: Episode-III had the highest net-sales due to Number-of-theatre features per Week-Top-60 appearance US$ 271.74 million.
The-Wild-Parrots-of-Telegraph-Hill had the highest number of Week-Top-60; while Star-Wars: Episode-III had the highest net-sales at US$ 271.74 million. These two showed a higher outlier performance. Based on the statistics, Week-Top-60 had a higher influence on sales than Number-of-theatre features; however, it is not obvious since there are other-factors that come to play (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2006, p.559). Other-factors include creativity (Peterson and Berger, 1975, p.159).
References
Hennig-Thurau, T., Houston, M. B. and Walsh, G. (2006). The Differing Roles of Success Drivers Across Sequential Channels: An Application to the Motion Picture Industry. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 34(4), 559-575.
Peterson, R. A. and Berger, D. G. (1975). Cycles in Symol Production: The Case of Popular Music. American Sociological Review 40(2), 158-173.