Seasonality in the Non-U.S. Motion Picture Industry: A Case of South Korea

In the international motion picture market, when making strategic decisions about the timing of release, it is important to consider the product's country of origin as well as demand seasonality because of their cultural orientation. However, the fluctuation patterns of underlying demand for international market have not been distinguished from that of U.S. domestic market. Here, we analyze patterns of the decay effect, which represents the diminishing attractiveness of a movie over the product life cycle, and the seasonality of underlying demand for Hollywood and non-U.S. local movies in a non-U.S. market. We find a positive effect of U.S. holidays on the seasonality of underlying demand for Hollywood movies in the non-U.S. movie market, and a negative effect for non-U.S. local movies. The authors also find that the decay effect for Hollywood movies in the non-U.S. market is greater than that for non-U.S. local movies. These findings contribute to our understanding of the effect of country of origin on product life cycle and the seasonality of underlying demand, especially in movie-importing countries where local and Hollywood movies compete.