How emotions in online reviews affect movie sales: Evidence from Hollywood

Movies evoke strong human emotions that resonate in the content of online reviews, known as electronic word of mouth ( e WOM). Existing literature suggests that positive content enhances, and negative content reduces movie sales, with negative content having a stronger effect. We demonstrate that there is a limit to the negative emotional content's impact on sales, beyond which it boosts sales. We extract positive and negative emotional content from 80 Hollywood movie reviews ( N = 23,046) and empirically examine their influence on movie sales. Results indicate that for high e WOM volume, the effect of positive content increases progressively, while negative content has diminishing returns. Grounded in ‘Emotions as Social Information’ (EASI) theory, this study provides marketers and researchers with a new understanding of how emotional content in e WOM influences moviegoers' choice of movie and sales. Our typology—Flop, Hype, Star, and Hit—helps predict movie sales and design targeted strategies.