This paper tries to determine the characteristics of the movies that have proved to be box office successes from May 2002 to September 2002 in the US. It attempts to find out if there is a significant difference between characteristics of these movies, and the movies that have failed at the box office during a given time period. The project findings show that although, there is a significant difference between these two categories of movies, determining the characteristics of the movies in either of the category is rather difficult to find. It is interesting to note that advertising budget is influencing the gross box office revenue in both the categories of movies. Also, the critics always seem to underrate a movie as compared to the audiences.

This paper analyzes the data on movies, an experiential product. Unlike consumer packaged goods, movie experiences are subjective, emotional, and intangible and have few objective attributes (Eliashberg et al., 2000). The film industry is a unique business, i.e., it is different from any other business (Austin, 1989, p.6) in the sense that the product is fully created at an investment of several millions of dollars and there is no real assurance that the public will buy it (Squire, 1992).

This interesting facet of the movie industry makes it very skeptic and risk averse (Eliashberg et al., 2000). Can one mitigate this risk involved in the movie making business? Common sense says that such risk can only be mitigated if some characteristics of successful movies are determined. This determination can increase the probability of success and can reduce the risk to same extent. But the question is—can characteristics of a successful movie be determined? Is there a hit formula? In this paper, attempts are male to determine the significant differences between successful movies and movies that failed at the box office.

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