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SOFTWARE TO PREDICT HIT MOVIES
A software to predict hit movies
A professor in US is trying to create software that can predict successful movies even before the movie is made.
15 December, 2005: Searching for a formula to make a movie click? Well, its time you seek a software which help predict whether a film will be a hit in the box office even before it is made, rather than hunt for age-old formulas for success.
And if such a software were to be developed, it is only natural that there should an Indian behind that.
A US-based scientist is in the process of putting in place a software which foresees the success or failure of a movie.
"We are trying to forecast the success of a movie based on things that are decided before a movie has been made. Our goal is to try to find oil in a way," Professor Ramesh Sharda , the Indian origin scientist, said about the software.
Professor Ramesh Sharda, of the Oklahoma State University, has been focusing on the work for years and sifted through more than 800 movies in the process, media reports said.
His research paper is set to appear in `Expert Systems with Applications’ in 2006.
Sharda had seven yardsticks to rate a movie: Its censor rating, challenges it faces from other movies during the release time, its star cast, special effects , the type of the movie and even the number of prints released.
Sharda’s process also categorised movies into nine, including flop, which means collections of less than $1 million and blockbuster, which , according to him, collects, more than $200 million.
And the results were encouraging. Sharda’s platform showed accurate results 37 per cent of the cases. Moreover, in seventy five per cent of the cases, the result missed the right answer only one category, reports said.
The Udaipur University graduate has now entered into a pact with a Hollywood production house to develop the software. The project also aims to include DVD sales.
Work is also on to set up a website where users can get a movie forecast by its key parameters.
Sharda’s test films included Harry Potter, which it rightly predicted to be in the category of blockbuster. The film series turned out to be a mega hit, with collection of billions of dollars worldwide.
The only issue Bollywood producers may be having is the category: $1 million in collections in India cannot be termed a flop in ordinary circumstances. But then customization is always there to set your own parameters. Wannabe hitmakers, are you listening?
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