Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Twitter Gives 'Inglourious Basterds' Boost at the Box Office, Maybe

by Caleb Johnson on August 25, 2009 at 02:53 PM


What led to the better-than-expected box office opening of Quentin Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds?' Was it the anticipation for a film that was years in the making? Or, was it maybe Brad Pitt's mustache? According to various sources on the Web, neither is the case. Instead, Twitter swooped in to save the day. The film racked up about $37 million at the box office this weekend, which is about $10 million more than experts predicted.

There's no sure way to attribute this success to Twitter, but that hasn't stopped analysts from trying. Mashable points to a report from Crimson Hexagon, which tracks online consumer buzz and opinion, that says 78-percent of all 'Basterds' tweets were positive. However, that's not exactly a scientific way to track the movie's success. All Things Digital cites NewTeeVee's look at tracking service Trendr's numbers, which found that the volume of 'Basterds' tweets increased over the weekend. This could mean that hardcore Tarantino fans saw the movie on Friday, sent out glowing 'tweets,' and the average moviegoer went later in the weekend. A little more precise, but still not exact enough for our tastes.

Let's face it. There's no real way to pinpoint Twitter's influence on the box office. But it looks like the people who watch the people that watch the movies (get that?) will continue to call 'Basterds' the first Twitter success, particularly since 'Bruno' seems to have recently suffered at the hand of critical tweeters. With folks tweeting from the theater more and more, look for future films to be credited with the 'Twitter bump.' [From: All Things Digital and Mashable]

Tags: BoxOffice, brad pitt, inglourious basterds, InglouriousBasterds, microblogging, money, movies, quentin tarantino, top, twitter, web

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular