Once upon a time, word-of-mouth about a film used took days to circulate; now it can happen directly from the movie theater. It used to be when films opened strongly their first day of an opening weekend, they would stay strong all weekend. But now studios are noticing new patterns--upswings or dropoffs (and dramatic ones at that) before the weekend is even over.
More and more people are Twittering opinions as they leave the theater--likewise, they are listening in to Twitter chatter to determine if they will attend a film or not. Generally, people will pay attention to what the people in their network have to say because they have things in common with them.
When "Inglourious Basterds" (which played here) was being marketed, the Weinstein Company went all out to court Twitter users. A couple of examples include: their screening at San Diego's Comic Con was filled with people who won their seats on Twitter, they also conducted the first "Red carpet Twitter meetup" which generated lots of celebrity-level tweets about the experience.
What do you think? Do you pay attention to Twitter input when deciding about movies? Do you like the ways studios are trying to use it as a marketing tool?
I don't search Twitter for specific films to get a consensus, but I think the people I follow DO have an impact on what movies I might be on the fence about. I definitely tweet my opinion of films I see, but generally only when it's positive.
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