Movie Studios on Twitter

I’ve tried to put together a comprehensive list of movie studios who have a presence on Twitter as well as a brief look at how they’re being used by those studios. If I’m missing any please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll update this list as I become aware of them.

Disney Pictures: http://twitter.com/disneypictures – Mostly promotional posts regarding upcoming Disney movies but there’s also quite a bit of calls for people to respond to polls as well as plenty of responses to people’s questions and replies to folks who are talking about Disney movies.

Disney/Pixar: http://twitter.com/DisneyPixar – Seems to be lots of interaction with both the audience at large and the other movie studio accounts that are run by Disney, from the @DisneyPictures account to the @MiramaxFilms profile. Very loose and fun, completely matching the studio’s perceived brand personality.

Either/Or Films: http://twitter.com/EitherOrFilms – Maintained by Kris McLaughlin, the studio’s director of marketing, this is very conversational. The studio is promoting its film The Sensation of Sight but mostly it’s just a back and forth dialogue with her followers about movies in general, with an occasional mention of the movie thrown in the stream.

First Look Studios: http://twitter.com/1stlookstudios – Mostly about the studio’s movies and what’s being released but with a very human voice. Good amount of feedback and conversation to the followers of the profile. There isn’t an author identified and I think that would have made it even better.

Focus Features: http://twitter.com/focusmovies – All about the movie’s slate of theatrical and DVD releases, including mentions of new trailers, in-person appearances and other things along those lines. But there are no replies that I could see so there’s no conversation happening. Despite the 400+ people following their updates the studio is only following 15 people, most of which are other studios. So it’s talking and keeping an eye on the competition but not listening.

Fox Searchlight: http://twitter.com/foxsearchlight – Started out as FSLPictures but changed to something more branded in late March. Also has an out-of-whack followers/following ratio (800+ to 161) but there is a bit more conversation happening with some of its followers. Mostly about pushing people to new marketing materials and information on DVDs, but they also have run a contest for its Twitter followers and that’s kind of cool.

IFC Films: http://twitter.com/IFCFilms – Similarly disproportionate followers/following numbers and not very much conversation. In fact the only “@” reply I saw was to IFCNews, another IFC-owned profile. The updates are written in a pretty non-corporate way, though, which makes me think there’s a single person maintaining the profile. Most all those updates, though, are about the latest materials coming from the studio.

Lionsgate Movies: http://twitter.com/lionsgatemovies – Links out a lot to the various sites that are debuting new posters or trailers or what have you for the studio’s new releases, as well as promoting the official sites for those films. Re-tweets of announcements from those sites about new material mixed in with some replies to requests for help or other questions from fans. The profile tends to be adjusted to whatever the movie-of-the-moment is, with the background image and the link in the profile changing accordingly.

Magnolia Pictures: http://twitter.com/magnoliapics – Very conversational and very informal attitude, but that doesn’t mean they’re toning down the promotional focus. Two things I find interesting are that they use hashtags heavily, applying them to the names of the movies it’s promoting and that a lot of updates are bylined, with “Jared” signing off on them. That gives the updates a much more personal touch since you realize there is actually a human being doing the writing.

Maple Pictures: http://twitter.com/MaplePictures – A very good conversation that’s going on between the studio and some of its followers. Updates are filled with not only information on movies but also contests and other items designed to get people talking and interacting with the profile writer. Lots or replies and reactions to people’s updates and feedback on their movies.

MGM Studios: http://twitter.com/MGM_Studios – The feed goes dark for significant stretches – including the entire month of May – when there’s nothing MGM is actively promoting. And after April it seems to have undergone some sort of shift from being very conversational to all promotional, with no @ replies after June 3rd. It’s pretty heavy on MGM’s TV productions, but that’s to be expected since that’s where a lot of their activity is.

Miramax Films: http://twitter.com/MiramaxFilms – One of the best of the bunch, the writer of this profile has definitely made an effort to become part of the community by getting into conversations with the editors and writers for movie and entertainment blogs who are also on Twitter. They acknowledge re-tweets and play along with hashtag memes and generally seem to be having a good time. They promote their own stuff to be sure but otherwise they’re there to connect with influencers and that’s working pretty well.

NuImage Films: http://twitter.com/NuImageFilms – A surprising lack of news about the studio’s own releases, instead they seem to fill in the gaps with general movie news and other information that’s going to be interesting to their audience. Nu Image owns Millennium Films.

Overture Films: http://twitter.com/OvertureFilms – Overture likes to setup separate Twitter accounts for most of their movies and so their official studio feed is mostly re-tweets from those other profiles. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s very little in the way of other communication, making for a largely one-sided conversation here.

Paramount Pictures: http://twitter.com/paramountpics – Strictly promotional, pointing to new material that’s been released in the campaigns for their upcoming movies and current DVD releases. They are really good, though, about changing their avatar to match whatever movie is about to come out.

Principle Pictures: http://twitter.com/PrinciplePics – Very little mention of the movies they’re working on or promoting. Instead it’s almost all about various news stories and human rights issues, which is in keeping with the company’s mission to raise awareness of those issues. Plenty of conversation along those lines.

Rogue Pictures: http://twitter.com/RoguePictures – Not extraordinarily active – they’ve been silent since May 27th – and mostly one-sided promotional conversations, pointing to trailers, posters and news stories about their new movies.

Sony Pictures: http://twitter.com/SonyPictures – Again, mostly promotional and made up in large part of re-tweets from the profiles they set up for their individual movies. Those profiles also tend to make up the bulk of their #followfriday recommendations. They do run a lot of contests on Twitter, though, offering t-shirts and other incentives for interaction or responses of some sort.

Strand Releasing: http://twitter.com/strandreleasing – Lots of promotional updates about the shingle’s new releases, as well as updates about DVD sales on some of their titles and more. Little in the way of conversation but there are some RTs of posts by others mentioning Strand movies.

Universal Pictures: http://twitter.com/UniversalPics – Like Sony’s, it’s almost all promotional tweets, with the occasional re-tweet from YahooMovies or somewhere like that of a new trailer, poster or other material. Plenty of links out to sites that are debuting that content but there’s no interaction or conversation that I saw in the recent history.

Warner Bros. Pictures: http://twitter.com/wbpictures – Also almost solely promotional and one-sided. There are, though, a lot of folks who work at Warner Bros. in the marketing department who are on Twitter who are all about the interaction with the community so that makes up for a lot of the problems with this one.

Weinstein Company: http://twitter.com/WeinsteinFilms – Infrequently updated and almost solely promotional in nature, there’s an uncomfortably high use of the caps lock key in the updates as they push out information about the studio’s high profile theatrical and home video releases.