Erik Lundergaard of Slate crunches the numbers and determines the consumers really do listen to movie critics. With more newspapers cutting jobs in the entertainment and arts sections, there has not been much joy in the ranks of those who write movie reviews.
It's almost a given these days that movie critics are elitist, while moviegoers are populist. When the highest-grossing films get panned by critics, what good are critics? As publishers across the country dump their reviewers, this is not exactly a rhetorical question.
Believe it or not, though, critically acclaimed films generally do better than critically panned films at the box office -- if you measure their performance in the right way.
After this, the math starts. But the end result is that people really do pay attention to movie critics. So take hope, critics. People really are listening.
