General Discussion

Brendan Bettinger at Collider (a great site, by the way) wrote an amazing mathematical formula that fairly accurately predicts the box office gross of films based on reviews, budget, theater count, and a few other variables. It proves unequivocally that good reviews help, as does being a sequel. And, most impressively, he made it easy to understand. I highly recommend visiting it. I am providing the link here, but due to all those irritating spammers I totally get if you don't click it. Therefore I am giving you the address as well: http://collider.com/box-office-reviews-statistics/173667/

This is actually quite an interesting read, you guys. And it is common sense that better movies make more money; The Avengers would have made nowhere near as much without all the positive word of mouth - but it only has a small effect, thus why this doesn't really work for huge blockbusters.

@Tylea002 said:

This is actually quite an interesting read, you guys. And it is common sense that better movies make more money; The Avengers would have made nowhere near as much without all the positive word of mouth - but it only has a small effect, thus why this doesn't really work for huge blockbusters.

I think good reviews work really well. The top grossing movies of 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, and 2001 were all FRESH on Rotten Tomatoes. In fact, since they created the Tomatometer, only one year's top grossing movie--Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest from 2006--wasn't FRESH, and that movie was a sequel to a very well reviewed film.