2007 May : Movie Marketing Madness

Blockbusters all over the place - but how are they doing?

While studios jockey (and sometimes bicker) for position as the box office champs of the weekend or the biggest comedy of the year or whatever, it’s important to maintain some perspective. As this New York Times story shows nothing aside from 1997’s Titanic comes close to any claim as an all-time box office hit when [...]

Die Hard marketing sets up, trips over own stumbling blocks

It’s been 12 years since Bruce Willis last took to movie theater screens as do-it-his-own-way cop John McClane and 19 years since the original Die Hard debuted. The latest adventure, Live Free or Die Hard, comes amid a flurry of comic adaptations, sci-fi/fantasy and high concept period adventure films. That makes it, a more or [...]

Ratings system gets it wrong - again

Eric Zorn at the Chicago Tribune is wondering why Once from Fox Searchlight, which features just a few conversational F-bombs and no other objectionable content, is rated R. Such a rating, of course, limits the audience and creates a stigma around the movie.
The answer, of course, is that the MPAA’s ratings board thinks bad language [...]

Film fests raking in sponsorship dollars

A growing number of film festivals are making the rounds at no charge to attendees because they’re ad-supported, reports MediaBuyerPlanner.
Comcast, IFC and others are sponsoring the ten city tour of the Free Film Fest. In addition to the major opportunities there are chances for local and smaller advertisers to get in on the event as [...]

MovieLabs looks for technology ideas

Scott Kirsner has a write-up in Variety of MovieLabs, a multi-studio-funded research group that awards grants for original thoughts on security, presentation and other ideas to protect or expand the studio footprint on the world.
The group awards grants to people with ideas on how to improve secured online delivery of movies, develop cross-platform access to [...]

Universal going crazy and marketing religous themed film to religious audiences

Universal Studios has enlisted faith-based marketing veteran agency Grace Hill Media to help with the push for Evan Almighty, reports The New York Times.
Grace Hill is the agency responsible for helping make The Passion of the Christ a hit with religious groups. The agency has helped get screenings of the movie in front of religious [...]

Quick Takes 5/30/07

Bankers are becoming an increasingly common presence at Cannes and other film festivals as movies look for the funds to get made and distributed.
But Woody Allen, in a sad statement of today’s Hollywood, is having a hard time finding a buyer for his latest film.
Ian Schafer wants to make sure we’re all paying attention to [...]

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer notes

This past weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race featured the movie’s cast as well as a team of stunt divers that created a look of the Silver Surfer and the F4 team logo.
SSH has the link to a YouTube compilation of clips from the cast’s hosting of “Fantastic Monday” on Comedy Central.
Marvel has a number of [...]

Evan Almighty’s ecoimagination

While watching TV the other night I saw one of GE’s “Ecomagination” spots about how the company was making strides in environmentally friendly technology. I didn’t pay much attention to it but then saw it extended with a pitch for Universal’s Evan Almighty. After the standard spot ended the screen went briefly black only to [...]

Broken English trailer

What do you want? This trailer for Broken English, starring Parker Posey as a woman looking for love in all the wrong places, is great. There’s not much more to say.

Transformers/Pontiac commercial

SuperHeroHype points the way to a Pontiac Solstice commercial that ties into Transformers. The spot features a bit of robot goodness but also plenty of co-star Megan Fox looking very nice but not doing a whole lot more than that. Still, considering the contest promotion Pontiac is running in conjunction with the film involves her [...]

Comic shop owners not thrilled with WB’s guerrilla marketing

Comics2Film reports that at least one owner of a comic book shop is not thrilled with Warner Bros. and their marketing techniques. The studio, as I mentioned before, had been sending teams equipped with all-Joker decks of playing cards to comic shops and releasing the cards in the store as part of the campaign for [...]

When Springfields compete, you win

Randi at The Cycle has another write-up of the competition 20th Century Fox is holding to find the Springfield most qualified to host the premiere of The Simpsons Movie. The movie debuts Juley 26th and Springfields from across the country are competing to host the event. Towns must submit short videos explaining why they’re the [...]

POTC MMORPG

Disney is extending the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise virtually with the launch of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the films. The game is in “beta” status right now with no official launch date made public right now. The game has been in development since 1999 and allows players to create their [...]

Hollywood and exhibitors loving 3D

Major Hollywood players and exhibitors are tapping into the power of 3-D to express themselves, reports The New York Times.
Theatrical features are being re-purposed for 3-D exhibition and new films are being shot in the format. While other studios have dabbled, Warner Bros. and Disney are the studios to most fully jump into the three-dimensional [...]

keep looking »

Widgets