2007 October : Movie Marketing Madness

Fears of the Dark trailer

According to Newsarama, Fears of the Dark is a horror anthology film, with components contributed by a number of comics artists. The movie does not seem to be getting a North American release just yet, but I think we can agree this is one of the more interesting trailers of late.
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Quick Takes: 10/31/07

Lionsgate has signed a deal with USA Network and the Sci-Fi Channel that will have movies like Saw II, 3:10 to Yuma and Good Luck Chuck making the television debuts on the networks. The deal also includes a number of other movies.
Disney has launched “The Disney Garden” as an over-arching product line for its healthy [...]

Quick Takes: 10/31/07 - Home Video News Edition

A whole slew of news has hit the Hollywood trades in the last couple of days regarding home video in general and occasionally the fight for next-generation dominance in particular.

DVD sales slowed in the third quarter, a dip some are attributing to a lack of high-profile titles. While movies like 300 and Knocked Up bowed [...]

“Movies for no one”

This New York Times story is fascinating. Writer Michael Cieply is logging another entry in the “WTF happened to this fall’s movies” genre, but is approaching it in a much more interesting way than some of the other entries.
The problem, and the premise of the piece, is that the dramas that have underperformed this fall [...]

Studios among those buying Super Bowl spots early

It’s not really all that surprising that movie studios are among those who, according to AdAge, have contributed to the fact that Fox has already sold 90 percent of its Super Bowl ad inventory. After all - 2008 is going to see some high-tier releases. Indiana Jones 4, the revamped Incredible Hulk, Wall-E, The Dark [...]

MMM: Dan in Real Life updates

A few additional news items relating to marketing of Dan in Real Life that have popped up in the last day or so.
First, this review from ColumbusAlive says the role Dan’s job as a newspaper columnist is much bigger in the campaign than it does in the movie itself. I’m kind of surprised at this [...]

Wanted trailer

I have to admit this trailer for Wanted is wicked cool. The movie is based on a comic book about an ordinary guy who is plucked from his life and indoctrinated into a fraternity (that word gets mentioned about five times in the spot) of assassins. There he learns of their secret, society-maintaining mission and [...]

WhySoSerious’s new scavenger hunt

Well, the speculators were right. WhySoSerious, part of the Dark Knight viral campaign, has updated after the rotting pumpkin’s candle burned out. It’s now the central hub of a scavenger hunt.

Here’s what the letter says up close.

When you click on the letters on the puzzle you’re shown the name of a city and directions on [...]

Best. Comment. Ever.

Alan responds to my uncertainty about the Bucket List poster:
“I’m not sure what to make of this new poster for The Bucket List. ”
Please allow me to assist: it blows. It’s crap. It says nothing and does nothing. It’s a pair of dorkily grinning, formerly respectable actors who seem to be standing idly by while [...]

The Bucket List poster

I’m not sure what to make of this new poster for The Bucket List. The title treatment reminds me of the one used for The Notebook for some reason. And look at how the designers grudgingly acknowledge the movie was directed by Rob Reiner.
Otherwise it’s a passable effort that tips the audience off to absolutely [...]

Charlie Wilson’s War poster

This poster for the Tom Hanks/Julia Roberts/Philip Seymour Hoffman political drama Charlie Wilson’s War is, if you’ll please excuse me, just awful.
For one thing, there’s absolutely no visual design to it. It’s Hanks and Roberts looking very stiff while Hoffman leers ion the background.
For another thing, the campy copy on the poster completely contrasts against [...]

The Princess trailer

You really need to read the plot description for The Princess, a new manga-style animated feature that James over at JoBlo has. No, you really need to read it. Then you can surf over the movie’s official site and watch the trailer, which is quite cool and, while it’s not all that clear about the [...]

Jeff Zucker identifies nose, cuts it off to spite his face

OK, this isn’t movie related but I feel compelled to comment on this. In much-discussed remarks on the eve of Hulu.com’s launch, NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker said that part of his company’s problems with iTunes was that they wouldn’t discuss flexible pricing of TV shows. He complained that NBCU only made $15 million from [...]

The impact of reviews on sales

Finn at LightHeavyWeight is discussing the impact a positive or negative review can have on the sales of a video game title. While games are the focus of the research and his post, I think the data over there has value for looking at the movie world as well. There are a couple big takeaways [...]

New Juno poster

Fox Searchlight has released a new poster for Juno, the critically acclaimed film starring Michael Cera and Ellen Page. This new one-sheet carries over the striped background look - a reference to the shirt Page wears - from the first one, which made a swollen belly under that shirt the focus.
I wished I liked this [...]

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