The inefficiency of blogging about „Snakes on a plane“

von Roland Hachmann | Sep. 2, 2006 | Blog, Digital Culture, Digital Marketing

Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab writes about blockbuster films vs snowball effects caused by blogs. In particular, it’s about an article on the USA Today Website:

America’s noisy Web wags were dealt an even more sobering blow 10 days later when Snakes on a Plane opened nationwide to a decidedly flat $15.3 million box office. Before its premiere, Snakes had been the latest blogger darling, as swarms of online film geeks prematurely crowned it the summer’s big sleeper.

Umair now argues, that the film cannot be seen as a blockbuster, but rather that snowball effects are taking place and hence the real success is yet to come:

That implies that, unlike blockbusters, Snakes should earn larger returns going forward than in the past – it should make more and more money (per given unit of time/whatever, rather than less and less, as blockbusters generally do).

I don’t agree with that. The snowball effects of the blogs were a thing of the last couple of months. By the time the film hit the theatres, the blogosphere had already sufficiently promoted the film so that snowballing was over and the typical blockbuster characteristics come into play again. I don’t think we can assume any further snowballing by now.

And in response to the article in USA today: just how much effect did the author think blogs can cause? It’s ok if hundreds or even thousands blog about something and create a „hype“. But I think we all know that this does not mean, that everybody who reads the bloggers will automatically go see the movie (and pay for it).

The reason why the blogosphere is so „powerful“ when it comes to politicians and celebrities is, because in this particular case it is all about reputation.