While platforms like Cinelytic might inevitably underrate films like Iron Man, they can help Hollywood avoid more certain disasters. For instance, as a proof of concept, Cinelytic last year projected the Hellboy reboot would fail at the box office. It did. The platform guessed the film would gross just $23.2 million at the US box office on its $50 million budget; it wound up making even less—only $21.9 million. The executives in charge of Hellboy would have been better off using that $50 million on other projects with more potential.

Cinelytic will also come in handy at film festivals, which are increasingly the sites of intense bidding wars between studios and streaming services over hot projects. Deals can be made—or fall apart—in the matter of hours. The platform can turn what might otherwise be days worth of number-crunching into the click of a button. If the AI-driven tech proves to be a helpful asset for a company as significant as Warner Bros., it could become an industry standard. But that’s not necessarily reason to freak out.

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