New Jack City: Hollywood Figures It Out…from Kansas City

If I told you Hollywood’s major studios turn to Kansas City for information and insights about their latest movies you’d probably think I was nuts…

Well they do, and I’m not!

THE BOX OFFICE ANALYST, LLC here performs important services that only a handful of similar companies provide—worldwide. Think of it as an analytical think tank that its movie making clients draw to shepherd their movies through the jigsaw puzzle of film distribution.

Box Office Analyst started in 1982 as ex-Kansas Citian John Shaw‘s Movieline International in Texas and since 2010 has been helmed by Douglas Stone in K.C.

And Stone’s no stranger to the movie biz.

His family booked and marketed a number of Drive-In theaters here and later operated the Mid-America Cinema chain. When AMC became Mid-America’s new owner, Stone joined Stan Durwood‘s operations and for 20 years oversaw the circuit’s analytical projects, eventually rising to the position of Vice President of Strategic Analysis for American Multi Cinema.

As a Box Office Analyst Stone provides movie data to studios, including opinion tracking, consumer interest, the boxoffice potential of films, statistical comparisons to similar past and present releases and ticket sales forecasts.

How close are his predictions?

Stone claims an 85% on-target average.

His predictions come from a myriad of sources which include industry insiders, statistical comparisons and deciphering volumes of data and other materials available today.

Put another way, Stone’s company is a data interpreter.

He’s got Warner Brothers, 20th Century-Fox, Universal, Paramount, Disney, Sony (Columbia-Tri-Star) and Lionsgate among the buyers of his services.

And his client list doesn’t end with the studios.

The nation’s biggest exhibitors, including Regal, AMC, Cinemark and Carmike also make weekly use of Stone’s forecasts and analytical data.

With the motion picture industry being closely followed today by financial and investment entities, Stone counts a number of them also as end users of The Box Office Analyst’s consulting services.

Why? For trend analysis, baby.

Can the general public access Stone’s insights? Not really, but he offers some weekly industry data free of charge via the boxofficeanalyst.com website.

With three updated newsletters a week from Kansas City to his worldwide client base, Doug Stone’s Box Office Analyst, LLP keeps the movies on track right where it counts – in potential ticket sales.