It is now the highest-grossing film of all time. Plenty, says Arthur De Vany , a UCI economics professor who has conducted the most comprehensive study to date of the dynamic relationship between audience reactions to films and box office hits or bombs. Motion picture executives won't find much comfort in what he has to say.
Nobody knows anything.
That's the one rule the industry can count on. Through his research, the professor for the first time documented in hard mathematical formulas the complex nature of film industry revenues. Put it on screens and let audiences decide. There's an adage in Hollywood that says films are like a parachute jump. If they don't open well, they're dead.