Which Level of Identity Matters to Film Success: The Moderating Effect of Producer-level Identity

This study shows that not all genre-spanned, thus atypical, films are equally devalued by critics. By tackling the issue of multilevel identities, including both product and producer level identity, we find that in the U.S film industry from 1991 to 2006, although an atypical film is more likely to get poorer evaluations from critics, if critics can refer to its director's identity of making atypical films, the relationship between the atypicality of her focal film and its critical ratings can be positively moderated. In order words, we show that atypical films by those directors who have known for their identity as genre spanners is more likely to get better critical evaluations than those films with the exactly same genre-based identity but a less helpful director-level identity in terms of establishing an expectation of subsequent atypical films as well as signaling the capability of making atypical films. In doing so, this study contributes to the literature on devaluations which category spanners are supposed to suffer and that on the issue of multilevel identities.