"The Social Network," from Sony Pictures Entertainment opened on October 1 to a strong $23 million in weekend ticket sales at US theaters, and prompted a 480% increase in weekend social media conversation about the movie, compared with levels recorded over the previous weekend, according to a study by Alterian.
Some 97% of social media mentions about the film during the release weekend were favorable:
Just 3% of social mentions were negative (represented by the white space in the chart above).
Overall, most of the online chatter around film has been positive. Major negative spikes occurred during trailer releases (9/25/2010), while spikes in positive opinion occurred around the release of the EP (extended play) and advanced screenings of film.
Below, other findings from Alterian's Social Media Analysis of The Social Network.
Roughly 20,000 Tweets were generated about the movie on its release date, while overall social networking chatter increased from 16,000 conversations daily to nearly 40,000.
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Opinions expressed via Twitter were mixed, with a near even split between positive and negative tweets about the film.
Many negative tweets were focused on comparisons of The Social Network
with movie classics the Godfather and Citizen Kane. Many positive
tweets, however, were from people who saw advance screen of the
film—and loved it.
Similarly, Facebook users were also split in their reactions toward the movie, with equal levels of positive and negative sentiment.
Opinions on Facebook, however, were more often overt hate or love of the film, whereas Twitter sentiment tended toward sly and sarcastic commentary, according to Alterian.
Among those discussing the film online, 65% were male and most of the audience was under age 35.
About the data: Findings are from Alterian's analysis of social media chatter from July 1 to October 1, 2010. Keyword search terms used were The Social Network, Facebook movie, and official fanpage of movie.
