When It Pays to Wait: Optimizing Release Timing Decisions for Secondary Channels in the Film Industry

This study examines the optimization of interrelease timing decisions, focusing on box office and DVD sales in the U.S. motion picture industry. It aims to improve managerial decision making by jointly modeling the revenue in these two channels through a copula modeling approach. As in previous studies, the authors find that the time lag from box office release to DVD release should be increased to optimize total movie performance, but they...