blockbusters

Do critics matter? Do people actually care about film reviews? These questions are almost as old as cinema itself, and they seem to get ask anew every couple of months, whenever a critically acclaimed movie flops or a critically drubbed one becomes a massive success. At least as bigger movies go, the conventional wisdom is that critics don’t really make an impact. Backed by enormous multimillion dollar marketing budgets and huge brand awareness, the studio’s tentpole releases are often considered critic-proof. Supposedly it’s smaller, specialty releases that can benefit from (or be hurt by) film critics.