In any case, the effects of this sort of conversational proliferation are beginning to register. Boing Boing links to an LA Times article that indicates that new technologies have accelerated word-of-mouth to the point where crappy movies die faster, which may be responsible for the absence of a dominant summer blockbuster this year.
Instant word of mouth, as a trend, probably traces back to 1998 in Japan with the release of "Ringu," [Rick]Sands [chief operating officer at Miramax] said.
The cerebral horror flick ... caused a sensation in Japan. And in a technology-forward country with lots of cell phones, instant word of mouth became the fuel that lighted that film's box office success. The power of instant feedback—good or bad—was immediately apparent.
"I remember it struck fear into the hearts of our Japanese distributors, because it was a new phenomenon," Sands said. "By the time people walked out of the theaters, they were instant messaging. And it is so much more pronounced now."
In the U.S. these days, the pace of chat is fast enough, in some cases, to affect a movie's box office results from its Friday opening to Saturday night.
