Movies
We Love In Times of Depression: Box Office Signals and Market
Reactions in the 1930s, 1970's and 2000s
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Emotion shapes our lives and our futures.
Understanding the emotions of crowds will help you to
achieve your goals and convert your dreams into reality.
Do you act differently when you’re depressed? Are
you slow to make decisions or take action? Do you hesitate and hunker
down, waiting for a better time to take a chance on something new? Now
imagine if you’re not the only one thinking like this. What if the
majority of people in the country shared these feelings? If we are all
depressed, we don’t buy as much, take as many trips or invest
aggressively. We lose our confidence in the future, especially in the
predictability of tomorrow being “normal”.
Now, imagine if you could take a poll of people’s emotional
state of mind, their collective mood? Would this be important to you, knowing
you’re not alone? Well, the weekly box office is a national poll of our
emotions. The choices we make together when we choose a movie at the local
theater is based on how we feel. Are we sad, happy, angry, frustrated or
scared? Do we want to escape our daily lives, watch a story about someone else
having a worse time that we are?
There have been three depressing decades from an economic
point of view in the last 100 years. The 1930s, 1970s and the 2000s were tough
times for everyone. During these tough times, the big question on everyone’s
mind is “when is it going to get better?” This book is an analysis of the
weekly movie box office and the financial to create a profile of movies we like
when we’re positive or negative about the future. In times of depression (both
emotionally and economically), we like different movies than in times of
prosperity. It depends on the movie genre, story and quality. Each factor
contributes to our “movie mood” and a measure of our collective state of mind.
If you only invested in
the Dow Jones Index during these three decades, you would have lost 44%
of your money over thirty long years. Isn't that depressing? What movies
would you go and see? Disaster movies? Horror? Screwball comedy? Yes,
all of these genres. When we are losing money, depression makes us want
to see movies which cheer us up, provide an escape from our troubles or
release from our tension and anger by watching someone suffering even
more than we are. When the world is going against you, you go to the
movies.
Learn how the great movies of the past marked the turning
points of bull and bear markets. All Quiet On The Western Front
was the top movie as the DOW started a 89% crash in 1930. Young
Frankenstein turned the market around in 1974 and The Dark Knight
preceded the Great Recession of 2008. The movie mood at the box office
measures the emotional mood of investors. All you need to do is look back at
the past. Imagine doing investing research every week by going to the movies!
Sound like more fun that reading financial statements or divining chart
patterns? Get started using the box office as an indicator of the emotional
mood of the investing herd with this book.
So join me in reviewing 30 years of depression and
the movies we loved during these dismal times; movies like King
Kong, The French Connection, The Hangover and Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs. Each opened during a pivotal turning
point in our history and confirmed a change in movie mood, a new wave of
depression or optimism. If you understand the emotional signals from
the box office, you can take action in your own life with greater
confidence, either to follow the crowd or move against it to seize new
opportunities in your life, both financially and personally. Are you
considering moving to a new job, changing careers, retiring early, going
back to school or starting a business? Whatever changes you want to
make in your life, it helps to know the mood of the nation. Emotion
shapes our lives and our futures. Understanding the emotions of crowds
will help you to achieve your goals and convert your dreams into
reality.
