Information Cascades and “The Room”
The Room directed by Tommy Wiseau is widely regarded as the worst movie ever made. The 32% on Rotten Tomatoes seems to testify to this fact, although some might wonder why the film doesn’t have a lower score. The answer lies in the film’s fanatical cult following.
Arguably the first to champion the idea that The Room was actually a good movie, despite being bad in every way imaginable, was a man named Michael Rousselet. Rousselet got so many friends to see the movie while it was still in theaters that after the movie had ended its disappointing run (with a budget of $6 million, the film made only $1,800 during its first run), they were able to petition the director to host midnight screenings at their local theater, which were packed with fans. This tradition has endured 14 years, and continues today.
One might say that Rousselet is the pioneer of a large information cascade about this movie because of the cult following that he began. The movie’s cult following is an information cascade because people ignored their own opinions that the movie is atrocious, in favor of Rousselet’s enthusiastic opinion that the movie is in fact meaningful, if not amazing, precisely because of its imperfections.
The question any observer can ask at this point is whether or not Rousselet’s cascade is an up or down-cascade— in other words, is he right or wrong about this film? There’s only one way to find out, and that involves 84 minutes of time, if one is brave enough.
Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-room-went-disastrous-flop-cult-phenomenon-1035206