Giannetti, V. orcid.org/0000-0001-5703-789X, Chen, J. and Wei, X. (2024) Actors’ Facial Similarity and its Impact on U.S. Movies’ Box-Office Performance in East and South-East Asia. International Marketing Review, 41 (2). pp. 469-489. ISSN 0265-1335
Abstract
Purpose
Anecdotal evidence suggests that casting actors with similar facial features in a movie can pose challenges in foreign markets, hindering the audience's ability to recognize and remember characters. Extending developments in the literature on the cross-race effect, we hypothesize that facial similarity – the extent to which the actors starring in a movie share similar facial features – will reduce the country-level box-office performance of US movies in East and South-East Asia (ESEA) countries.
Design/methodology/approach
We assembled data from various secondary data sources on US non-animation movies (2012–2021) and their releases in ESEA countries. Combining the data resulted in a cross-section of 2,616 movie-country observations.
Findings
Actors' facial similarity in a US movie's cast reduces its box-office performance in ESEA countries. This effect is weakened as immigration in the country, internet penetration in the country and star power increase and strengthened as cast size increases.
Originality/value
This first study on the effects of cast's facial similarity on box-office performance represents a novel extension to the growing literature on the antecedents of movies' box-office performance by being at the intersection of the two literature streams on (1) the box-office effects of cast characteristics and (2) the antecedents, in general, of box-office performance in the ESEA region.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited. This author accepted manuscript is provided for your own personal use only. It may not be used for resale, reprinting, systematic distribution, emailing, or for any other commercial purpose without the permission of the publisher. |
Keywords: | Actors, Facial similarity, International box-office, East Asia, South-East Asia, Cross-race effect |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Business (Leeds) > Marketing Division (LUBS) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 Feb 2024 14:03 |
Last Modified: | 04 Oct 2024 10:43 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Emerald |
Identification Number: | 10.1108/IMR-06-2023-0118 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:209375 |