Opinion: 'Opinion leaders of cinema are now on social media', writes G. Dhananjayan

So much so that films like Mullum Ma larum (1978), Sethu (1999), Azhagi (2002) and many such films did not open well on release. After a week, when reviews appeared in popular magazines praising the film, word of mouth spread and these films picked up in the second or third week and ran for over 100 days. 

Even five years earlier, the scenario was the same and most small budget films were looking for appreciation from select magazines and newspapers to benefit the film. The growth of social media in the last five years has dramatically changed this scenario. While in traditional media, reviews take between a day and a week to appear, the social media reviewers are able to come up with detailed reviews within three hours of a film’s release through Facebook, Twitter, blog or YouTube, which reduce the impact of traditional media reviews substantially. 

No longer do  popular magazine or newspaper reviews play a significant role, as by the time they are published, the fate of the film has already been decided on social media and by the audience. Clearly, the balance of power has shifted towards social media reviewers and today they have become the opinion leaders for theatre going audience. Social media is all about ‘who is the first to post the review’, to get the highest viewership for their reviews and correspondingly increasing their reach. Under such a scenario, the demand by a few popular actors and directors from reviewers to delay the posting of reviews in social media by three days will have no takers. When the reviewers cannot wait for even three hours to post their reviews after the first show of the film, the question of posting their reviews after three days does not arise at all. 

Today, film reviewing has also become a competitive scenario on social media as can be observed from the aggressive effort put in by many reviewers to increase their subscribers for YouTube channel and other social media. When there is so much competition among the reviewers to post their reviews first, filmmakers should be happy if the reviews appear after the first show in India than at midnight after the première shows in foreign countries, as that will at least protect the week-end collections. If the reviews from overseas on the previous day show seem to be bad, the film usually ends up getting an average opening at the box office as the news spreads fast, affecting the interest to watch the film in theatres. Coupled with online piracy sites releasing films on the same day  of release, an ‘average film’ review in social media discourages the audience from going to the theatre. Such reviews may rather make them watch it free, online, or through pirated DVDs, which comes out quickly for most films. 

What is proven time and again is that while a positive review in social media may or may not have a big impact in the collections (the audience quickly find out whether these reviews are motivated or 'paid for', instead of being genuine), negative reviews certainly affect the interest among film-goers, thereby impacting the collections. Thus, negative reviews on social media is a death knell at the box office for most films. No film that has received negative reviews in social media escaped this ill- fate as they make more dent on the film, than positive reviews enhancing a film’s collections. 

The best way to get good reviews is through a good film (recent examples: Irudhi Suttru, Visaranai, Thozha, Joker, Appa, 24, Aandavan Kattalai, Dharmadurai, Devi etc.). When the film is good, the critics usually review the film professionally. With an average or bad film, one cannot escape the wrath of the social media reviewers, who, in most cases, go all out to kill such films. The opinion leaders for new films today is social media reviewers and only through a good film, we can satisfy them and create a positive buzz.