Forget the “Nobody-Knows-Anything” Mantra: It’s Time for Entertainment Science!

Abstract

When it comes to success for entertainment products, William Goldman famously quipped, “Nobody Knows Anything.” You’ve either got the gift—artistic and managerial intuition—or you don’t. This view has permeated entertainment for years and has suggested that scientific insights is less relevant for managing entertainment than for other industries in which it is used to create and market products. Today’s “big data analytics” revolution is seen by many as an alternative to managerial intuition. So which is the best way forward for creating successful entertainment products in the age of big data? We argue that the right path is a careful integration of intuition and analytics, building on the strengths of each and compensating for the weaknesses. We show that analytics also needs powerful theory to be effective, as empirical results and predictions will otherwise be misleading and useless. Entertainment Science fuses managerial intuition with data analytics and theory, suggesting a new path for the thoughtful entertainment manager.