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Regarding the definition of "Tracking"... (responding to Antibody's post last weekend)
(Original posts: https://www.hsx.com/forum/forum.php?id=3&pid=491515)
You're ultimately arguing semantics over word choice, but you also seem to be misinformed on how tracking works and is reported.
I think I've addressed this before, but it may not have been on this board. What you read in the industry trades as "tracking" is very often an "informed prediction", as you put it -- often by people who do not gather the actual tracking data. They see the data (demographics, interest levels, intent to view, first choice, etc.) handed down to them and extrapolate their predictions comparing that information to similar films. Sometimes they work for the tracking service, sometimes they're just a third party, and sometimes they work for the trade outright.
The end result is a dollar forecast that people have come to identify as "tracking", regardless of whether the dollar forecast comes from the actual tracking's source or not. That's why you often see wide ranges and claims of "other services/independent trackers" seeing different numbers. That information is technically not supposed to be freely available because it's a service (a very expensive one, in most cases, that studios and various businesses pay for). Outlets are able to get away with publishing it though, because it's (usually) not the **actual** tracking data -- just interpretations of it, and often loose interpretations at that.
Regardless of your personal opinion, Boxoffice Pro's tracking has been cited (both off and on the record) as one of a number of "other services/independent trackers". You're probably not aware, but our parent company and its resources reach fairly deep into the film industry, and Boxoffice is part of that network. It's run on an internal corporate structure, very different than the Boxoffice.com you may remember from years past.
We're not "piggybacking" anything when it's accurate, let alone when the "tracking" description was given to us by outside parties before we ever adopted it after expanding our internal data collection and how we formulate our forecasting models.
In fact, that's one reason we differentiate it as "Long Range Tracking" and strive to refer to outside tracking if we're ever talking about numbers that don't originate from data we have on hand. We report internal tracking two months in advance (for free) -- the traditional type you're referring to isn't until three weeks from release.
Not all tracking is made equal, but it's all data-based with someone and/or their team doing the math and forming a rough dollar forecast based on tangible metrics -- not "opinions" pulled out of thin air, as you suggest.
Hope this helps clear up any confusion.
Regarding the definition of "Tracking"... (responding to Antibody's post last weekend) Feb 07, 11:52
Every tracker has different methods. They're still trackers. ;) {nm} Feb 07, 12:43