Big-budget feature films are typically released first in theaters and then in the home video market. Two key strategic management decisions here concern the timing and pricing of a film in streaming offerings. A new study on this topic has been published by Nicolas Weber, André Marchand and Reinhard Kunz in the leading scientific journal International Journal of Research in Marketing and is now available here (open access).
Analyzing weekly data of 1397 feature films and more than 50,000 observations, the authors conclude that too short and too long delays of streaming releases after theatrical releases are suboptimal. They also find interactions between timing and pricing, so that, for example, prices with short delays have a less negative effect on demand than with long delays. The authors also examine numerous other success factors for streaming in this study.
With the help of a tool based on this study, interested readers can simulate the expected revenues for the streaming market in Germany themselves with a click.