The USC Annenberg Film Forecaster uses all-new software, called Big Sheets, which measures not only the volume of tweets mentioning upcoming movies -- it also gauges their sentiment. The data is fed into a graphic that shows a movie's positive and negative buzz:
The result: how buzz translates into box office performance. This week, the analysis of more than 1 million movie-related tweets shows the premiere of "Harry Potter" as the star of Twitter movie chatter. It was the subject of nearly 53 percent of the tweets that expressed sentiment.
In May, the tool correctly predicted a clamor for "Hangover 2" that resulted in a $100 million opening over Memorial Day weekend.
The tool also has been used to gauge sentiment surrounding this year's Arab uprisings as well as potential Republican presidential candidates.
Stay tuned for summer updates from the USC Annenberg Film Forecaster!
