Ed Mintz, the founder of the motion picture industry’s tried-and-true audience polling service CinemaScore, died February 6.
He was 83. Known for its mathematical “Coca-Cola” algorithm developed by Mintz, CinemaScore has been prized by studios and exhibitors since its inception in the early 1980s as a domestic box office barometer for movies when it comes to its opening-night audience grades.
Pre-pandemic, an A+ CinemaScore meant a movie could leg out to a 4.8x multiple off its U.S./Canada box office opening; a B+ meant a 3.2x multiple to final domestic gross; C+ and D+ 2.4x; and an F 2.2x.
CinemaScore continues to be operated by Mintz’s two sons, Harold and Ricky Mintz. Mintz, a math wizard since his teenage years when he penned a book about square roots, The Mintz Method, sparked to the idea for CinemaScore in his late 30s in 1978.
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