The effect of different social media marketing channels and events on movie box office: An elaboration likelihood model perspective

Social media has become an important marketing media to attract and retain consumers. This article focuses on the movie industry and aims to investigate how different channels and events in social media marketing achieve box office success through different consumers’ responses. In reference to elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we propose our research model and test hypotheses using the data of 304 movies with the information of box office, attributes, and associated social media posts. The results show that: (1) official microblog activity increases the purchase intent through changing audience's attitude while third-party mention increases purchase intent through catching audience's attention and promoting positive attitude, and there is an interaction effect between official microblog and third-party media; (2) social media marketing events related to contents introduction promote purchase intent through central route while those related to surrounding information promote purchase intent through peripheral route; and (3) movie attributes interact with marketing intensity in affecting purchase intent. Under the same marketing intensity, the marketing effect of domestic sequel movies released on popular holidays is better. Our findings provide both theoretical and practical implications.