Miramax is getting serious about forging marketing campaigns and promotional partnerships with other Walt Disney Company divisions, according to Variety.
To kick off the move, Miramax Executive V.P. of Business Affairs Michael Luisi has been given an expanded role that will put him in charge of developing partnerships with Disney divisions such as ESPN, ABC and Hyperion. While Miramax has conducted these sorts of promotional activities in the recent past, the move signifies an attempt to systematize these activities, to improve Miramax’s brand recognition, and to better integrate Miramax into the company as a whole. The move also mirrors Disney’s move towards greater divisional symbiosis. The best example has been their recent success with the ‘Pirates’ franchise, which began as a theme park ride and has led to increased park attendance and merchandise sales.
Miramax has grossed a little over $17 million year to date on six releases, down drastically from the division’s peak of $427 million in 2001. The sharp decline in revenue reflects the division’s shift in focus from larger budgeted tentpole productions under the Weinsteins to a mix of lower-budgeted independent fare and foreign acquisitions.
With the burgeoning growth on India’s online population, Bollywood movie marketers are ramping up their online marketing efforts, according to The Hindu Business Line.
According to the article, over 38.5 million Indians have Internet access, and although broadband penetration is in its early stages, over 1.5 million homes already have high-speed access. There are also an estimated 20 million Indians living abroad who are interested in keeping up with the latest Bollywood productions.
Indian film marketers have noted that young, tech-oriented professionals with disposable income are highly likely to use the web to discover movies to see in theaters:
Says Rajnish R., Head - Digital Marketing Revenue and Strategic Business, MSN India: "People who use the Internet are twice likely to go watch movies in multiplexes (than those who do not). Indians abroad go online to read movie reviews before they book a ticket or buy the DVD. So, the adoption of online media is attractive to new-age producers, who themselves are Net-savvy."
Online promotions on large portals such as MSN India typically cost between 800,000 and one million rupees ($17-25K dollars). Promotions on Indiafm, Bollywood's #1 movie portal vary from 50,000 to 1.2 million rupees ($1100 -$26,100) depending on the targeted regions and audience.
Individual film sites are also become more common, and traffic has been booming – Hungama, a top online promotions company for Bollywood, noted that some of their larger sites attract up to 12 million page views a month. Online interactive contests are also becoming popular, and are now sporting major corporate sponsors.
The migration to more sophisticated online marketing methods mirror’s Bollywood’s increasing marketing savvy in other channels. Recent calls for more integrated marketing have increased lately, even culminating in top talent calling for the emulation of Hollywood-style marketing.
The Indian film industry sold more than 3.8 billion tickets in 2005, grossing over $1.14 billion dollars, according to a recent article on Bloomberg. By comparison, Hollywood grossed nearly $9 billion dollars during the same calendar year.
News Corp.'s Fox Filmed Entertainment today announced plans to target the Christian audience with the formal launch of the FoxFaith Home Enertainment Division.
FoxFaith will acquire up to twelve films a year, with a minimum of six theatrical releases a year under partnerships with AMC Theatres and Carmike Cinemas. The label will target evangelical Christians, a group whose beliefs have traditionally been at odds with secular Hollywood fare (including some of the racier content seen on Fox's broadcast network). The label has also partnered with the Dove Foundation, a non-profit that offers seals of approval to qualifying films free of offensive content.
Productions will be based on bestselling Christian fiction and will have production budgets under $5 million. Recent updates indicate they will be acquisitions, and not studio productions Additionally, the films will receive marketing support nearly equal to the production budgets, a significant figure for marketing low-budget films. This will complement Fox’s already hefty grassroots database of 90,000 congregations and 14 million evangelical households.
As we reported here over a year ago, FoxFaith has been making major inroads into the Christian marketplace in the DVD arena. Since the launch of the FoxFaith initiative last June, Fox has shipped over 30 million faith-based DVDs. As the DVD distributor for ‘Passion of the Christ,’ fox has sold an impressive 15 million units and established a considerable competitive advantage in marketing to the Christian community.
Another interesting element to this announcement: As opposed to the rest of Hollywood’s alignment of their theatrical and home video divisions along genre lines (Foreign, American Independent, Horror, etc.), Fox is throwing that paradigm out the window by aligning them along demographic lines, first with Fox Atomic, and now FoxFaith. It’s doesn't seem like much of a stretch to imagine a FoxAsian or FoxWomen specialty unit. After all, this model has been put to the test via specialty cable networks for several decades, but the web has given the model even more promise. With the lower cost of marketing to a known cohort, the centralization of these communities in online social networks, and the ease of building up reusable grassroots databases over time, Fox may have discovered a winning formula for combating the fracturing of the mass audience. The Weinsteins Company has placed a bet on this model as well with Our Stories Films, a specialty studio catering to the African-American audience.
Today AOL announced that they will release the horror film 'Incubus' as a "direct-to-download" exclusive on AOL RED, a teen-centric entertainment site.
Starring Tara Reid, the feature-length film follows a group of six teens attempting to escape from a government paranormal research lab. AOL plans to sell downloads for 7.99 or five day rentals for $3.49. Purchasers can begin watching the stream as it downloads. The film will be available for download beginning on October 31st, and AOL will have a 30 day exclusive window before the DVD hits stores. AOL plans to promote the release with a user-generated content contest where fans can submit homemade horror shorts. No specifics on prizing was mentioned.
At first glance, this looks like a creative way to build buzz for both AOL RED (who heard of it before today, anyway?) and the DVD's release. However, given the fact that the target audience spends more time online than watching television, this little promotion may have stumbled on a new window. If they're successful, that is…
In running a website about marketing, sometimes we forget that the online space is not the center of the marketing universe. After all, the online marketing budget for most films amounts to only 10-15% of the total marketing spend. Now granted, that number is rising every day, and you do get more bang for your online marketing buck, but other forms of advertising -- namely print, television and outdoor -- are still the single biggest percentage of the movie marketing spend.
In recognition of that fact, Movie Marketing Update is starting a new feature called "Movie Ads in the Wild." Several times a month we're going to show you what marketers are doing on the street, in theater lobbies, on billboards, and in the local newspapers. This week's installment comes to you from New York City -- more specifically, Park Avenue between 17th and 23rd streets in Midtown, with a little dash of Queens to boot.
Starting out Broadway at 19th street, we pass a wall of
"coming soon" posters outside of a six-plex. 'Casino Royale' seems to catch
the eye the most out of the four we see here.
Walking cross-town to Park avenue, we found a poster for 'The
Guardian' hanging above a parking garage entrance. Not the greatest of
placements -- you have to be looking up to notice it. It's also a shame that nearly a third of the poster is wasted with an illegible credit block (but we get it, its in the
contract...)
Still crossing over to Park, we noticed some great 2x2
wild postings at a construction site promoting 'American Hardcore'. Music releases and events are heavily promoted this way in New York, which makes this particular technique a good fit for this film. Its hard to see in this picture, but there is a mention of the "Vans Warped Tour," one of the film's promotional partners.
Just a few feet away from the 'American Hardcore' posting,
we see an old Jet Li ad from a few weeks ago peeling away. Sometimes the layers of old postings get so thick that they simply shear off of the plywood under the weight of glue and paper, and other environmental conditions like rain, wind, graffiti artists, and drunken fratboys can wreak havoc on your ads. In prime areas, your adverts will need to be re-posted weekly, otherwise they simply get posted over by competitors.
Turning on to Park Avenue, we see a phone booth (which are less common than you think) with an ad for 'The Grudge 2.' Note how much
better the ad works without a massive credit block?
Looking up Park avenue, we see the massive, 60 foot noggins
of DiCaprio, Damon and Nicholson in the distance.
Here's a closer shot of the massive 'The Departed' ad at the
corner of 23rd Street and Park avenue. You can barely see the workers affixing the
ad from a gondola hanging just below DiCaprio's head. I didn't get a close
enough look to see if they were painting or postering, but its a massive
undertaking in any case. You can see the last vestiges of blue in the lower left from
the 'Lady in the Water' ad that was there during the Summer. If my memory serves me well, this ad changes four to six times a year -- anyone have an idea how much this particular space goes for? If you do, or just want to guess, drop a note in the comments.
On my way into the Subway I found yet another ad for 'The
Departed.' . Nicholson looks like he
aged in reverse by twenty years. And don't get me started on the quarter of the ad wasted on the credit block...
Okay -- here we are in Long Island City, a 10 minute
subway ride away from Midtown. Upon exiting the station, I found this
jumbo-sized wild posting for 'Gridiron Gang.' This 4x6 foot poster is
right on the corner of a very busy intersection with heavy car traffic.
Unfortunately, whoever designed the poster made the release date illegible
from any more than a few feet away. Note that the poster to the left is
already partially covered with a competing music poster after a week.
Just a little bit down the street we've got a big 6x6
wild posting for 'A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.' This is a smart
location right next to a bus stop, but the poster needs some help -- the
key art is too small and the talent's names should have been arranged better. The actual neighborhood may be a bad placement, however, because the local demographic isn't likely to be interested in seeing this, in my opinion.
And here's where my journey ends -- at the Sunnyside Cinemas, a neighborhood first-run theater.
This 'Babel' poster is displayed under the Theater's marquee next to the box office window.
I would be surprised if this particular film actually plays at this theater, since they mostly run genre and family fare. Note the ridiculously low ticket prices for New York City,
by the way (and that's probably the last remaining matinee pricing in New
York as well.)
According to Broadcasting & Cable Magazine, the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has asked Disney to stop marketing the PG-13 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' to children on Nickelodeon.
A self-regulating arm of the ad industry, CARU made a formal complaint about ads that ran in tandem with the film's theatrical release in June, three months after they had aired. Disney responded by saying they had no plans on rerunning the ads, and stated that they had relied on Nickelodeon's clearance department to ensure proper ad placement.
CARU frowns on advertising PG-13 films to children under 12 because the MPAA rating indicates the presence of content that "may be unsuitable." However, as the B&C notes, 'Pirates of the Caribbean' toys, games, food and a whole bevy of other licensed products are heavily marketed to children despite the film's rating.
It will be interesting to see how close and timely CARU's scrutiny will be when Disney launches the third installment of the franchise next year, and what changes Disney will make regarding ad buys on younger-skewing channels. As reported for Q3 2006, the Disney Consumer Products division’s income rose 70% over the previous year to $105 million, much of which was due to sales of Pirates-themed merchandise.
In an effort to keep you abreast of the latest trailers, clips, posters, ads, websites and more, we're kicking-off a daily round-up of new movie marketing collateral releases. To get your collateral mentioned send an email to news@indiescene.net.
'Casino Royale' -- New Flash leaderboard ad on Adverlicio.us
'Fearless' -- New Flash leaderboard ad on Adverlicio.us
Other Collateral and Ads of Note:
Heavy 'Jesus Camp' PPC ad placement on liberal blogs, to include Google video ads. Here's an example of a text ad (scroll to the end of the article.) Looks like they also did a banner buy on the same site.
Big Blogads buy for 'The Ground Truth' across liberal blogs -- see an example at Dailykos. Also note the 'Jesus Camp' ad.
According to recent reports on CNNMoney.com, Wal-Mart is ramping up its movie download service efforts amidst the recent launch of Amazon and Apple’s services.
The single largest seller of DVDs in the world, Wal-Mart accounts for upwards of 40 percent of all DVD sales, mainly from highly popular new releases from the studios. The article speculates that the move is part of Wal-Mart’s effort to maintain this dominance.
Wal-Mart is still working out the pricing and delivery options for the service, which may include free or discounted downloads with purchase. Downloads would be available at walmart.com, and the company is also considering in-store burning kiosks as well.
Wal-Mart’s moves come just weeks after it was widely reported that they threatened not to sell titles of companies making download deals with Apple. Earlier this year, Wal-Mart refused to carry Disney’s 'High School Musical' after it appeared on iTunes prior to release in stores.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony Pictures Entertainment has signed a six-figure promotional partnership with The Netherlands-based Heineken Brewing Company to showcase the company's product in the upcoming James Bond action thriller 'Casino Royale.'
Promotional activities will include heavy product placement in the film, to include scenes with new James Bond actor Daniel Craig drinking the beer. While the on-screen placements seem to counter the "shaken not stirred" vodka martini image usually seen in Bond flicks, it may work well with the new tougher, "man's-man" approach the producers are taking with the Bond character. Plans are also in the works for a special tie-in commercial starring Bond girl Eva Green, which will be directed by Oscar-winner Stephen Gaghan ('Syriana,' 'Traffic'), who will have access to the actual production sets for the ad.
No word yet as to how this new beer-swilling, Bond will sit with fans, but the initial backlash to Craig's casting seems to be cooling. On the promotional side, the number of official partners has been cut back significantly from 2002's 'Die Another Day,' which was criticized for going over the top with irrevelant tie-ins. Smirnoff will remain the offical vodka for this installment, will produce a custom commercial, hold an on-pack promotion tied in with the film's release.
The James Bond franchise has grossed nearly $1.3 Billon dollars domestically since the release of 'Dr. No' in 1963, according to Box Office Mojo. 'Casino Royale' hits theaters November 17th.
This morning, MySpace and Twentieth Century Fox announced the launch of the Black Carpet Screening Series, which will enable MySpace registered users a chance to see early previews of films before they hit theaters. The move is the biggest studio social networking promotion to date, and also marks MySpace’s first foray into a worldwide exclusive event.
The first advance screening will kickoff on September 20th, which will showcase 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,' a full two weeks ahead of the film’s November 3rd premiere. Members in Canada, Germany, the U.K., Ireland and 20 U.S. cities will have a chance to attend local screening events. Users will have to add the Black Carpet profile to their friends list, as well as the film they are interested in seeing, and they will then receive bulletins with details on cities and showtimes.
This looks like an exceptionally smart move by Fox to harness the viral effect of social networks. In effect, it is a brilliant marriage of the proven word of mouth Generating capability of advance screenings to MySpace’s 40 million member social network, and this move will enable the positive word of mouth to spread faster than face-to-face contact. It will be interesting to see which films they choose beyond ‘Borat;’ After all, we have seen how much of a double-edged sword instant word-of-mouth can be.
Nonetheless, this move furthers the synergy between MySpace and News Corp., and looks like a broadening of the studio’s recent efforts to court the youth market with the launch of their Fox Atomic label. It will be interesting to see if further synergies between MySpace and Fox Atomic develop, and also how the other studios will react.
Today Warner Home Video announced that they will be releasing 'The Lake House' simultaneously on standard DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray formats.
With a September 26th street date, Warner will be the first studio to release titles in all formats. They will also be releasing the film as a combo disc, with a high definition DVD on one side and SD DVD on the other side, priced at $39.99. The Blu-ray version will be available for $34.99 SRP. And a standard DVD will cost $28.98. The bonus materials will be available on all versions, though Warner did not disclose if they would be in high definition on the HD DVD and Blue-ray versions.
'The Lake House' is a time-travel romance starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, and is a remake of a recent Korean film. Warner may be banking on the geek appeal of the film’s plot and Keanu Reeve’s Matrix pedigree to appeal to the early adopters who are currently the biggest segment of the high definition player owners.
In theatrical release this past summer, 'The Lake House' took in $52.3 million domestically and $49 million overseas, coming in at #38 for 2006.
Lionsgate and Warcon Records teaming up next month to put on a ‘Saw III’-themed live music show in support of the upcoming feature film and soundtrack.
“A Musical Evening Inspired by the Soundtrack of SAW III” will kick off at New York’s Webster Hall on October 19th. The evening will feature appearances by bands from the film’s soundtrack, with headlining acts to include Helmet, The Smashup and Hydrovibe. Shawnee Smith, who stars as “Amanda” in all three ‘Saw” movies, will emcee the show, and other cast members will be on hand for appearances as well.
A special ‘Saw’ museum will also be set up on the premises, which will include actual film props, torture devices, and the creepy ‘Billie’ puppet. There’s also an opportunity to join a “Circle of Blood” fan club, which will entitle members to gain early access to the venue for a meet and greet with cast members and the bands and a big bag of ‘Saw’ swag.
The informational site for the event is here. Advance tickets are also available through Ticketweb.
The ‘Saw III’ soundtrack will drop on October 24th, and the film hits theaters on October 27th. The ‘Saw’ franchise has grossed Lionsgate over $247 million to date in worldwide box office and has sold-through over 1.8 million DVDs, according to Nielsen Videoscan.
In a special presentation yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the new iTunes movie store, which will enable users to buy and download feature-length films.
The initial slate of 100 movies includes an offering of titles from Disney-affiliated labels Pixar, Miramax, Touchstone, as well as Disney-branded films. A forthcoming deal with Lionsgate is expected, but was not announced during the presentation. The films will be priced at $14.99 for new releases and $9.99 for catalog titles, but customers who pre-order new releases can order them for $12.99. The video files will use the H.264 codec and will be at 640 x 480 resolution, which is “near DVD” quality and suitable for viewing on standard TV sets.
Apple also gave a sneak preview of a new product tentatively called “iTV,” which is a set-top box that will enable users to stream downloaded movies, music, and photos from a computer to a consumer’s television set. The wireless box will also have HDMI output, which should be able to address the studio’s piracy concerns. The iTV release date is slated for sometime in 1Q 2007.
When compared to the lackluster release of Amazon’s Unbox service last week, the Apple offering looks like an improvement if they can secure a wider base of content partners. However, the pricing structure for DRM-hobbled, low-quality video without packaging or special features seems too high. For example, for $20 dollars, you can pick up Miramax’s ‘Kinky Boots’ DVD on Amazon, and for that price you will get DVD quality video, Dolby 5.1 sound, two featurettes, deleted scenes, commentaries, and foreign language tracks. You can play it on any DVD player in or out of the home, and if you wanted to, an individual with minimal technical knowledge can rip a DRM-free version to play on their iPod (albeit illegally). Therein lies the real problem: creating a downloadable product that offers consumers the same level of choice for the same price as a physical product, or reducing the price to reflect the true value to the consumer.
Perhaps the recent conjecture is right - maybe the studios aren't interested in seeing downloads cannibalize DVD sales just yet.
According to Variety, AMC Theaters and RKO Distribution have announced plans for a recurring film series next year.
Called the “RKO Distribution Film Series,” the six film slate will run for 12 weeks in 16 markets starting next February. Each film will play run exclusively at AMC theaters for a minimum of two weeks. If the films take off, they could be held over or expanded according to the agreement. If the series is successful, a second slate of six films will bow in August.
The deal falls under the recently launched AMC SELECT program, which is designed showcase specialty and independent films at 72 AMC theatres in 39 markets across the country. AMC has dedicated at least one screen at each participating theatre to indie programming. Recent titles that have run under the AMC SELECT moniker include ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ and ‘A Prairie Home Companion.’
Earlier today, Nokia and Warner Brothers announced a deal that will make special Warner Brothers content available for consumer download through the Nokia Content Discoverer client, which is available in millions of Nokia devices worldwide.
The multi-country agreement will create a dedicated Warner Bros. "storefront," embedded in capable phones, from which subscribers to the service can download images, tones, games and video clips. The content selection will include a combination of free and promotional material from Warner’s basket of franchises and recent films, including brands like Looney Tunes and DC Comics and recent films like ‘Superman Returns,’ ‘V for Vendetta,’ and ‘Batman Begins.’
The Nokia service is available on over 40 different Nokia models, which are expected to reach over 20 million consumers worldwide by the end of 2006.
Clickstar will make Morgan Freeman’s latest drama '10 Items or Less' available on the web just two weeks after its release in theaters, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article.
The company also announced that the film will be available for purchase and rental on DVD in tandem with Thinkfilm’s theatrical release. ClickStar, Freeman’s joint venture with Intel, will handle web distribution. Thinkfilm announced theatrical distribution rights earlier this week at the Toronto Film Festival.
Directed by Brad Silberling, the film follows a washed up former A-lister (Freeman) who, while prepping for a role in a low-budget movie, strikes up a friendship with a fiery-tongued checkout clerk (Paz Vega) at a local market. According to the Los Angeles Times, Clickstar produced the film for under ten million dollars and shot it guerrilla-style in under three weeks with handheld HD cameras.
Thinkfilm has yet to announce the theatrical premiere date.
Guba, the online video sharing site, today announced that their month long price reduction experiment yielded a 1000% increase in sales and a doubling of their site traffic.
For the last 30 days, Guba has offered new release movies priced at $9.99, catalog titles at $4.99 and TV episodes for 49 cents, though the offerings cannot be burned to a DVD. These prices are at a substantial discount to the current pricing structure at Amazon's Unbox service ($14.99 and up for new releases, $9.99 and up for catalog titles) and the forthcoming Apple download store, which is likely to bow new release movie downloads at around $15 dollars.
Guba currently has deals with Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers, offering 500 and 200 titles from each library, respectively. In all likelihood, Guba is serving as a low-risk pricing test bed due to its lower profile and smaller user base, which is probably enough to keep Wal-Mart from getting nervous. As of late, the mega-retailer has been annoyed at the prospect of downloads being priced below their DVD wholesale pricing of $17 for new releases, and has used their muscle to influence online pricing moves.
So what is the optimal download price for a burnable, DRM-managed feature-length movie? Take the poll below to give us your opinion.
Netflix, the online DVD rental service, announced a new feature that enables their subscribers to watch a stream of movie trailers personalized to their movie tastes.
The feature, called “Previews,” consolidates all available movie trailers in one area on their site. Netflix's recommendation engine selects the appropriate trailers and calculates the order in which they are shown based on a subscriber’s rental and rating histories with the service. The previews run sequentially and without interruption. Subscribers can then add movies to their rental queues directly from the "Previews" page.
Netflix will launch with 1,000 trailers in the "Previews" section, but it plans on increasing that number to between 5,000 and 10,000 trailers by the end of the year.
Yesterday evening, Universal launched a newsreel-styled promo video on YouTube for their upcoming release ‘The Back Dahlia’', reports Adrants.
In addition to using recreated footage and archival crime scene clips, the four minute piece also utilizes vintage clips of other early twentieth century crimes to help set the tone. Exopolis, a creative shop specializing in design and development for broadcast, print and interactive, produced the promo.
This video furthers the vintage aesthetic of the film’s marketing campaign. Earlier this week, a special promotion with the Los Angles Times featured a special wraparound which included vintage clips. The Black Dahlia is an adaptation of James Ellroy's 1940s-set novel about two Los Angeles detectives heading the hunt for the killer of newbie actress Elizabeth Short. Directed by Brian De Palma and starring Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson and Hillary Swank, the films hits theaters on Spetember 15th.
According to Variety, a new study released by Statistics Canada showed a substantial increase in theatrical revenue and attendance last year.
Canadian theatrical receipts rose 16.6% between the 2003-04 and 2004-05 periods to C$446.3 million, or $401.7 million, according to a survey of the film and video distribution businesses by the agency. Attendance figures were up as well, and according to the article the growth came predominantly from an over 20% rise in drive-in attendance. Per-family spending on theater-going averaged $101, up from $95 the prior year. Canadian DVD revenue growth was flat, with sales of $1.6 billion.
Anyone with any insight as to why Canadians are in love with the drive-in experience, let us know. Here’s a list of Canadian Drive-ins if you’re curious.
Update: Here's a link to the full report. It has a wealth of interesting facts and data that Canadian movie marketers might want to note, including a growth in market share of Canadian-produced content.
The Starz Network will be broadcasting highlights from the Hollywood Reporter's 35th Annual Key Art awards tonight - you can check local times here. It looks like there will be encore presentations as well.
For those not in the know, the Key Art Awards are held annually to recognize movie marketing achievement for all forms of film ad collateral including posters, trailers, print ads and TV commercials. This year's event was hosted by comedian and Saturday Night Live alumnus Kevin Nealon.
If you never had a chance to review the winners, the full listing is available here. VNU Media also sells illustrated programs highlighting the best of the print work.
PixelPlay and New Line Cinema have partnered to offer a 'How to Eat Fried Worms' game on PixelPlay's DishGAMES service, available via the DISH Network, according to a joint press release.
Gamers will have the chance to win 10 different prizes, and the top three scorers will win a "Worms Prize Package" featuring a Samsung portable DVD player, 10 movie tickets from Fandango, a New Line DVD Pack, a ‘Fried Worms’ movie poster and a 17 piece stainless steel cookware set, ostensibly to cook up homemade worm delicacies. The game went live on the service last Friday in tandem with the film’s theatrical release.
The game is available free to all DISH Network subscribers, which currently number over 12.4 million throughout the U.S. The promotion will be available on the service for the remainder of the summer.
According to Zap2it, CBS has partnered with Warner Brothers for the premiere of the new crime drama ‘Smith.’ The pilot will be solely sponsored by the upcoming Scorsese film The Departed, with “limited commercial interruptions.”
The Warner Brothers sponsorship of the ‘Smith’ pilot takes care of a tricky scheduling dilemma faced by CBS. With the premiere running over an hour before commercial breaks, CBS would have had to trim down the episode, limit commercials, or run an extended premiere.
'The Departed,' a hard-boiled crime drama in the vein of Scorsese’s past work, is a natural fit for 'Smith.' The series also stars Ray Liotta, who had his big breakout role in the Scorsese classic Mafia hit 'Goodfellas.'
‘The Departed’ features an ensemble cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Martin Sheen, among others, and will premiere in theaters on October 6th.
With the brutal heat wave making headlines across the country, the marketing team behind ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ have spun current events into a creative series of advertisements, according to the “Marketplace Report” broadcast yesterday on American Public Media:
Global warming might seem like counter-intuitive programming for folks trying to escape the heat, but the new ad campaign for the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" has used the toasty weather to its advantage.
Newspaper ads for the film now list scorching temperatures in several US cities.
"It's kind of unusual in the 7th, 8th week of release to have fresh ad campaigns going out to keep a film in the public eye. I think it's been pretty effective."
The film has grossed just under $19 million through July 24th (very impressive for such a "didactic" documentary), and the platform release up to the current peak of 560+ theaters has been handled exceptionally well by the Paramount team. Keeping a film"fresh" during a long roll-out is one of the biggest challenges in film marketing, and tying into current events on both the publicity and advertising fronts is a smart approach to achieve that end.
The film is likely on track to gross in the $20-22 million dollar range, and has a good chance of usurping ‘Bowling for Columbine’ for the number three spot on the list of top-grossing documentaries of all time (‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ holds the top spot at $119 million, and ‘March of the Penguins’ is at #2 with $77.4 million).
According to Variety, New Line has decided to forgo any pre-release screenings of their upcoming horror film 'Snakes on A Plane.'
In a move calculated to reduce the chances of any poor critical reviews or buzz-killing word of mouth, the earliest the public and critics alike will be able to see the film is Thursday night on August 17th. No press screenings or sneaks will be available.
Holding back press screenings for genre and action fare has become a common practice lately, mostly because the films' core audience is typically made up of genre fans who don’t read newspaper reviews. However, for the rest of the public, a lack of early reviews is starting to be interpreted as "this film sucks." New Line is spinning this move as “a chance for fans to see the film first.” However, if you look at past films that have withheld press screenings, it doesn’t bode well for the quality of 'Snakes.'
Recent films that have withheld press screenings include: 'Aeon Flux,' 'Cursed,' 'Phat Girlz,' 'Scary Movie 4,' 'See no Evil', 'The Benchwarmers,' 'The Fog,' 'The Hills Have Eyes,' 'Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion,' 'Ultraviolet,' 'Underworld: Evolution', and 'When a Stranger Calls.'
If we've missed any, please add them in the comments.
Lionsgate has teamed up with in-theater ad & promo outfit National CineMedia and Horror rag Fangoria Magazine to launch a one-night-only advance screening event for the upcoming horror thriller 'The Descent.' The special screening will take place next week on July 26th at 8:00 p.m. - nine days ahead of the film's August 4th wide release. The event will be held at 47 participating Regal, United Artists, Edwards, and Cinemark around the country in key markets including New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Miami and Atlanta, among others (a full list of markets is available here). A regular admission charge will be in effect, and tickets can be purchased either online or at the box office the day of the screening.
The producers of the film have created exclusive behind-the-scenes content created especially for the event, and Fangoria has created a microsite to promote the screenings as well. Lionsgate has also linked to the advance ticket sales site from the film’s homepage.
Based on the numerous positive early reviews from fan boy and genre sites such as AICN, Joblo.com and bloodydisgusting.com, the potential for good word of mouth arising from this effort are high, especially since the structure of the event is designed to cater to the "mavens" of the horror genre – Fangoria readers eager to see both the previously-unseen U.S. cut as well as the exclusive extras. Collateral for the film has also been exceptional, with one of the most compelling one-sheets, trailer and web sites of 2006.
This isn't National CineMedia's first foray into movie marketing promotions – Last year, they conducted advance screenings to promote MGM’s 'North Country', as well as a one day re-release of New Line's 'The Wedding Crashers' earlier this year in support of the DVD release. Both screenings also had "special features," including a live satellite Q&A for 'North Country' and exclusive "uncorked" extras for 'Wedding Crashers.'
According to Variety, last week Paramount Vantage and The Sierra Club teamed up to promote the release of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ with “robo-calls” – the same sort of prerecorded telephone calls that are usually used to promote political candidates.
On July 7th, approximately 300,000 of the automated calls were placed in New York and four other key markets. The call was a 38 second message from Al gore urging the listener to get out and see his film about global warming, which began like this:
"Hi, I'm Al Gore. The fight against global warming is not about right vs. left, it's about right vs. wrong. That's why the Sierra Club and I are asking you to see my film, 'An Inconvenient Truth,' this weekend.”
According to the article, this is the first time this technique has been used to promote a film, and at least one studio executive believes that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The real question is if people will consider this sort of "push" advertising as an intrusion or not. If done well and correctly targeted, it may work for certain genres of films -- political documentaries and comedies come to mind. And If this technique could be paired with Moviefone-like ticketing capabilities, the ROI tracking capabilities would be a huge boon to movie marketers.
‘An Inconvenient Truth’ has grossed $15.6 million since its release in late May.
Warner Independent Pictures has made the first 24 minutes of 'A Scanner Darkly' available as an online exclusive at IGN FilmForce. You can watch the extended preview, - nearly the first quarter of the film - at this link.
While the studios have been releasing clips under ten minutes on a fairly regular basis, this is without a doubt the longest preview released by a studio or specialty division to date. This shrewd marketing move is undoubtedly meant to drum up interest preceding the film's expansion onto 190 screens this weekend, up from 17 during the opening weekend. In its first weekend of limited release, 'A Scanner Darkly' earned over $392K, averaging just over $23K per screen.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced the launch of a new online consumer panel called “My Movie Muse” today. According to their release, the site will allow interested, qualified consumers to register so that they can participate in online surveys on issues affecting the organization’s member companies, including topics such as theater attendance, home video rental, advertisements, and piracy. The site plans on commissioning quarterly generalized surveys, and will also conduct “one-off” surveys that relate to specific demographic groups as the need arises.
The My Movie Muse site plans on enrolling 7,500 participants this year, and plans on doubling that figure in 2007. An international version of the site is also in the works.
Registration is currently open to the public at mymoviemuse.com, although it appears that studio employees or individuals involved in the market research of movies are ineligible to participate.
According to a new study released by market research firm Knowledge Networks today, much of the buzz surrounding mobile video content is currently little more than marketing hype.
The company's research discovered that more than half of the subscribers of mobile video services such as Verizon’s VCast don’t bother to actually view any video content, and thirty percent of Video iPod owners have never used the device to view videos. However, among laptop users, more than 90 percent use their device to watch video content. The study also showed a growing acceptance for ad-supported content in the form of pre-rolls.
Knowledge Networks derived their data by surveying 2,400 consumers between ages 13 and 54 who owned devices capable of accessing mobile content, and also held individual interview sessions to gain deeper insights on individual consumer behavior.
The bottom line for movie marketers: Unless your film is highly targeted to the same demographic as consumers of video content on cell phones, the user base and consumption habits don’t warrant the investment in video-based marketing content – at least not yet. Producing content for video iPods is advisable, however, simply because the costs for encoding the content alongside the encoding costs for web streaming are marginal. In fact, if movie marketing video content is uploaded to popular video sharing sites like Google Video or Guba, their software will convert the content automatically.
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The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced the launch of a new online consumer panel called “My Movie Muse” today. According to their release, the site will allow interested, qualified consumers to register so that they can participate in online surveys on issues affecting the organization’s member companies, including topics such as theater attendance, home video rental, advertisements, and piracy. The site plans on commissioning quarterly generalized surveys, and will also conduct “one-off” surveys that relate to specific demographic groups as the need arises.
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