Marketing A Film: The Old Way

Ever since Jaws grossed over $7 million on just 409 screens on a June weekend in 1975, the measure of the marketing success for a feature length film has been Box Office Gross for the opening weekend.

Today films produced in Hollywood are judged by their ability to bring in customers during the all important first weekend. The Box Office Gross for the opening weekend is a key measure of success in large part because that figure is used as a predictor of the total revenue that can be earned by that particular title. For example, future revenue from pay-per-view, DVD release, sale to cable outlets, international rights, etc. are all predicted based on the first weekend in the theaters.

Studios routinely spend tens of millions of dollars in the days just before a film opens in theaters, all in a concerted effort to maximize interest in the target audience.

The intense push to goose the opening weekend revenue has given rise to a secretive research business that attempts to quantify the anticipation for a particular title. The studios pay a division of Nielsen Entertainment known as NRG for "tracking" which measures audience "Awareness" and "Interest" in their films (via surveys of likely moviegoers conducted by telephone in the days leading up to a film's theatrical release). Based on NRG tracking, the studios can adjust their spending or their advertising in the final days before a film hits the theaters and they can even decide to move the release of a film if the race to be first choice has apparently been won by a competitor's film.

Marketing a film so that it becomes the first choice of a target audience on a particular weekend can be a hugely expensive exercise. In 2007, the last year for which data was released by the 6 major studios, the average cost of marketing a studio movie was just under $36 million dollars.

Here are the methods typically employed by the studios to market their films:

Television and radio
Advertisements on broadcast television and radio.
Publicity: Appearances by stars on television talkshows, entertainment news programs, etc.
Paid broadcasts: For example, airing a behind-the-scenes documentary.
Trailers in movie theaters and on DVDs.
Print Media
Paid ads in newspapers and magazines.
Publicity: Appearances by stars on magazine covers and in print articles
Merchandising
Promotional giveaways: For example, drink cups at fast food chains
Co-branding that links ads for a product with a film's release.
Outdoor and Other Advertising
Billboards
Posters
In theater Cardboard Displays (known as Standups)
In Theater Ads
Trailers and behind-the-scenes shorts
Internet
Websites
Viral marketing