Information Cascades and the Popularity of “Your Name”
Article: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-anime-your-name-became-an-phenomenon-969255
“Kimi no Na Wa”, or more commonly known as “Your Name” became the highest globally grossing Japanese film in history, surpassing Academy award winning “Spirited Away” by Hayao Miyazaki. This was an unexpected phenomenon for the creators of the movie, since a previous movie by the same company called “Garden of Words”, didn’t nearly become as much of a hit. With impressive visuals, beautiful music, and a touching story, one would think that it’s not that surprising that this movie became a huge hit. However, there is another reason why this movie became so popular. The decision that people make to watch this movie is influenced by information cascades.
The first cascade of viewers of the movie was most likely typical viewers of Japanese animated movies, such as Japanese residents and anime watchers. These viewers are influenced by their own personal preferences. These viewers will then encourage family and friends to watch the movie. This creates another cascade of viewers. However, these viewers’ decision to watch the movie will also be based off of the first impression the movie gives them, perhaps from the trailer. If this cascade of viewers enjoys the movie and then recommends the movie to their family and friends, this next cascade of viewers will be more inclined to watch this movie, even without knowing the quality of the movie, because it would be surprising to them that even viewers who aren’t familiar with Japanese anime are enjoying the movie. The cascade of viewers therefore grows exponentially, and people who decide not to watch the movie becomes less and less. This is similar to a homework question. If the first group of people decide to watch the movie and enjoy the movie, this information increases the probability that the next group of people in the cascade will also decide to watch the movie.
It is fairly intuitive that the popularity of movies can be explained by information cascades, and the new information that is revealed after each cascade. However, I think the surprising popularity of “Your Name” is due to the variance of the audience. When someone who is normally indifferent about Japanese animated films encourages his or her family and friends to watch a Japanese animated film, there is a higher chance that his or her family and friends will want to watch it out of curiosity of what is so different about this particular animated movie.