Is Hollywood ready for the gamification of its business?

Topline:

Online gamblers are betting on everything from movie release dates and box office totals to Rotten Tomatoes scores. Is Hollywood ready for the gamification of its business?

Why it matters: Gambling has upended the sports world, allowing leagues and teams to partner with sportsbooks to make hundreds of millions of dollars. Politics, too, has become highly influenced by with real-money prediction markets that are considered by some to be a more reliable forecasting tool — and certainly a more instantaneous one — than polling. In entertainment, gambling has the potential to be both: a huge cash cow and, in the case of box office markets, a valuable tool.

How they bet: There are bettors who gamble on Rotten Tomatoes scores on the predictions market site Kalshi, and to do so, they closely track a number of factors, including how many press screenings there are before a release, which critics get invited and when critics review the movies. All of that helps some of them make four or even five figures on certain bets. Box office bets are technically illegal in the U.S., but can also be bet on via the offshore platform Polymarket, which has taken in millions in bets on certain movies.

Studios’ reaction: Purists in the industry note that making films and television into a game — or a “reductive” point tally, as Rotten Tomatoes does — threatens to impinge the artistry of it all. Others, however, believe that consumers having a vested interest in different projects will actually drive interest and engagement and can provide the industry with valuable insights when it comes to box office tracking.

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This story is published in partnership with The Ankler, a paid subscription publication about the entertainment industry.