 NYTimes. Great article on the Hollywood stock exchange. Forecasting the potential of movies is very much like picking stocks (but with less chaotic variability). However, instead of a system that allows good stock pickers to rise up in the ranks in a meritorcracy, we have a small cadre of executives making the decisions. Here is a funny statement from a disintermediated executive at MGM:
"I don't go by HSX," said Erik Lomis, president for distribution at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Instead, he said, he considers factors like a film's director and stars, along with performance of other films in its genre at a specific time of year (as if the HSX stockpickers didn't do nearly the same thing with likely MUCH better accuracy than he does). That yields a preliminary projection; it is then refined by market researchers hired by MGM to survey consumer awareness and intent.
NOTE: I did get a top 30 status on HSX for the 3 week time period that I played it (out of ~300,000 players). LOL ;-> Also, I bet that there are at least 3-4,000 better HSX stock pickers than the guy listed above. What if they fired him and farmed out his salary (and the salary of his support staff, etc. -- probably $2 m plus) as consulting fees for the top 100 stock pickers on HSX?
9:30:33 AM 
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