The performance of entertainment products depends on their ability to transport the audience into the narrative. Deriving entertainment features (imagery and display of emotions) from screenplays, we empirically test the theory-inspired conceptual framework. The proposed framework details the nonlinear effects of imagery and display of emotions and their synergistic effects on box office performance. We correct for the sample selection bias using a sample of unproduced and produced screenplays as well as for the endogeneity due to the omitted variable bias. The results show that the increase in the relative number of characters and dialogs, decrease in scene pace, and increases in emotionality and positivity improve the box office return on investment (ROI) at a decreasing rate. A 1% desired change in entertainment features corresponds to a 1.97% increase in ROI, which is equivalent to a $1.24 million increase in revenue (assuming an average budget). Overall, this study enables film studios to identify and craft screenplays that have the potential to perform well in the box office.

娱乐产品的性能取决于它们将观众带入叙事的能力。从剧本中衍生出娱乐特征（图像和情感表现），我们凭经验测试了受理论启发的概念框架。所提出的框架详细说明了图像和情绪表现的非线性效应及其对票房表现的协同效应。我们使用未制作和制作的剧本样本以及由于遗漏变量偏差导致的内生性来校正样本选择偏差。结果表明，角色和对话相对数量的增加、场景节奏的减少以及情绪和积极性的增加以降低的速度提高了票房投资回报率（ROI）。娱乐功能中 1% 的期望变化对应于 1。投资回报率提高 97%，相当于收入增加 124 万美元（假设平均预算）。总体而言，这项研究使电影制片厂能够识别和制作有可能在票房上表现出色的剧本。