Twitter can help predict box office hits

According to a new research conducted bya team of computer scientists, the box office ratings of blockbuster films can be predicted by studying the tweets at the micro-blogging site Twitter. The team has studied about 3 millon tweets on as many as 25 movies and has come to the conclusion that the rate, at which these tweets were produced, can be used to accurately predict box office ratings prior to a  movie release.



The researchers, from the Hewlett Packard (HP) firm, have claimed their prediction to be "incredibly close". They have also quoted and example for the film The Crazies. According to the tweets received for this film, it was counted to gross $16.8m in its first weekednd in the USA. And it actually took $16.06m .

According to researchers, the faster people tweet, the more likely they are to go and see it. The teams were also able to forecast the ongoing success of a film, including its second weekend revenues, by doing what is known as sentiment analysis.

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