Revisions’ Scope

In addition to the reclassification, the Commerce Department’s report will include the first reading of second- quarter GDP and updates to growth figures based on more complete data that is available only with a lag. The economy grew at a 1 percent annualized rate from April through June, after expanding at a 1.8 percent pace in the previous three months, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The revisions potentially could affect the numbers back to 1929.

The updates may help narrow the disconnect between the pickup in hiring over the past year and the lackluster rate of growth. Payrolls climbed by 202,000 a month on average from January through June, up from 180,000 in the second half of 2012, according to the Labor Department. Such gains are typically linked with GDP growing close to 3 percent, about double what government data may show next week, say economists at UniCredit Group and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.

Shares Fall

Shares fell today as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index pared its biggest monthly gain since October 2011. The S&P 500 declined 0.5 percent to 1,682.47 at 11:44 a.m. in New York.

Data elsewhere today showed mortgage approvals in the U.K. unexpectedly declined in June and business lending fell, highlighting continued strains in credit markets that may act as a drag on the recovery.

In the U.S., the rebound in housing may be taking a pause. The index of pending home sales dropped 0.4 percent in June after climbing a month earlier to the highest level since December 2006, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed in Washington.

For the Commerce Department’s analysts, one way to gauge entertainment’s contribution to GDP was to go where film fans go. Needham used a credit card and an army of cinephiles to start a movie trivia site in 1990, incorporating it six years later. More than 160 million people access IMDb.com every month to read up on movies, buy tickets or DVDs and keep up with celebrities such as Lindsey Lohan. The BEA will be using the website and other sources to determine a film’s production budget and receipts, from which the agency can estimate future cash flow.

Improving GDP

“I’m confident in them,” said Bob Kornfeld, a BEA economist. “GDP specifics are better with them than without them.”