How Social Data Predicted Disney's 'Jungle Book' Success

The latest data from TickerTags indicates that the massive success of Walt Disney Co DIS’s "The Jungle Book" should come as no surprise to investors. "The Jungle Book" registered unprecedented social media buzz prior to its release. The movie logged a $100 million opening domestic weekend box office, well above industry projections in the $70–80 million range.

TickerTags monitors social media sites to identify trends by searching for words and phrases that appear together in social media content, such as tweets.

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Heading into opening weekend, social media chatter about "The Jungle Book" exceeded the buzz prior to the openings of "Zootopia" and "Big Hero 6" by 90 and 70 percent, respectively. Traders that read the social media writing on the wall saw the big box office beat coming from a mile away and capitalized on Disney stock's 5.2 percent gain this week.

Incredibly, post-release social media chatter about "The Jungle Book" is almost 100 percent positive, suggesting that the movie could have a profitable and extended theater run. In fact, social media sentiment surrounding "The Jungle Book" is more positive than that of any other Disney movie in the past two years.

So far in 2016, Disney’s stock is down 1.2 percent.

Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.