Box Office: Mall Cop Teaches Tinseltown to Market?
Everyone knows that movies are the most sought form of entertainment there is to offer these days. Even in a recession, the Box-Office revenue is up 15% year to year according to a recent article from AdAge.
Why not, makes sense that the film industry is recession proof because consumers would rather go to a movie then spend any on anything else “fun to do.”
Ad Age thinks there is something more to it than just that and the surge can be looked at through 3 of this year’s biggest hits, Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Sony) - $143 million domestically, Taken (Fox) $140 million domestically and Fast & Furious (Universal) $ 71 million opening weekend - have all grossed more than $350 million combined which was a massive surprise to analysts and expectations from movie-moguls such as us and others.
So what does this all mean? How are lessons learned? Well AdAge, has looked at the movies and their marketing and say,
“Lesson 1 - Hit The Bricks - The comedy’s star, Kevin James, paid personal visits not only to the usual junkets in New York and L.A. but also…Dallas, Chicago, Miami, and Minneapolis. ‘Those markets that don’t usually get the big star every time…grass roots stuff are very helpful,’ says Jeff Blake, Sony Pictures Vice-Chairman.”
“Lesson 2 - Hire Hungry Talent w/Something to Prove - Despite a loyal following from King Of Queens and heavy promotion during reruns, Mr. James was still far from a slam-dunk on the silver screen…Mr. James worked on Christmas Day doing live interviews to hype during a LA Lakers game. Paul Blart opened 50% higher than expected at $39.2 million instead of the tracked $20 million”
“Lesson 3 - Break Taboos - James does a full day of press during the Super Bowl in Tampa, FL while Fox was readying its own Super Bowl surprise - one that would make for the highest grossing February in the history of movies. Fox took an unorthodox approach, opening Taken on Jan. 30, 48 hours before the country slid into its annual nachos and Buffalo wings coma…’movies are all about Friday night and the Super Bowl was on Sunday,’ says Tony Sella, co-president at 20th Century Fox.”
Fox knew that if its advertising worked that the film would garner some word of mouth - something we do well here at Fused Film, and they would take the money not just opening weekend but to the second week as well. Taken opened at just $25 million opening weekend but it stayed consistent and “its sixth weekend ended up being better than its fourth”, ultimately releasing Taken in February was the best move in itself.
“Lesson 4 - Sizzle Sells in Any Season - The three previous films in the franchise all opened in June, after the traditional summer action movie season was well under way. ‘But when looking at the calendar, we saw we could do as much or more business than we could do this summer,’ said Adam Fogelson, President of Marketing (Universal) ‘Spring Break is in full affect the first week of our release.’”
The result here that the opening weekend generated $71 million for the reuniting of the original series stars making that weekend the “biggest on record for April, a full 62% ahead of the same weekend last year.”
Ultimately as someone who loves marketing and advertising I find this article very interesting looking at the 3 most unlikely successes in this year’s early Box Office, because traditionally movies never do well from January to April, but all the release date shuffle proved to be something of genius for many studios.
I am picking on my (hopefully friend) at First Showing, Mr. Alex Billington only because he is smart and though no one could see Fox’s projection at the time, like myself Billington griped about the release date change of Taken to Jan. 30 saying,
“The other night I finally watched Taken, a film we’ve been following for over a year. I still remember watching the first trailer a year ago and nearly falling out of my chair when Liam Neeson says, “I will find you. And I will kill you.” At the time, Fox had scheduled Taken to hit theaters on September 19th this year. But sometime since then, they moved it all the way to January 30th. Now after finally seeing it, and confirming that it is an absolutely fantastic movie, I’m wondering why Fox is screwing over a potential hit. They’re burying one of the best action movies of this year (and next) and I don’t know why!”
At least Billington admits he “doesn’t know why,” at the time reading his article and clammering myself, neither did I, but they did anything but bury the film as the earlier lessons have taught us. I foresee Hollywood using these lessons in the coming year and Jan - April being a bigger time for movies, after all we got Watchmen in March (traditionally a film we’d see in late June) and Wolverine in April (X-Men were all released in May and July). I am starting to pay closer to attention to the release date shuffle and not underestimate tinseltown’s marketing prowess after all they are recession proof.
