Lionsgate’s chief theatrical film marketer Tim Palen gets a flattering profile in “New Yorker,” which pegs his style as hard charging.
Palen blasts publicity at every opportunity and spares the subtleties. That’s in contrast to most other film marketers who choreograph cinema campaigns into segmented waves that grow increasingly larger.
“Many Hollywood marketers construct their campaigns in slow-motion groupthink,” notes the article by Tad Friend. “Palen strikes so quickly that one of his regular poster venders calls him ‘the Cobra.’ He believes that if you express a strong opinion, fast, others will fall in line… [Also,] Palen has always believed in being polarizing, always been willing to alienate much of the audience in order to motivate his core.”
Lionsgate is the only indie film distributor of any size—all the other independents are comparative pigmies. Lionsgate and Palen’s credits include “3:10 to Yuma,” the “Saw” slasher series and Best Picture Oscar-winner “Crash.” Palen is an accomplished photographer who personally shoots some photos used in some ad campaigns, which is unusual for a senior executive.
The “New Yorker” profile provides lots of personal touches and atmospherics. Palen wears a Prada shirt, a Prada suit and Prada shoes when on the red carpet at premieres.
Lionsgate spent $23 million to promote the satire on President George Bush “W.,” which was called a challenging because filmmaker Oliver Stone at points was sympathetic to Bush. The marketing went another direction by being emphasizing a savage negativity, including a photo of Josh Bolin as Bush sitting on a toilet in a pose of famed Rodin statute The Thinker.
Oliver Stone objected, but Palen went ahead with that creative approach anyway, and is quoted saying “I sympathize. Oliver Stone has the President taking a s***—how disrespectful. But from the marketing perspective we needed some teeth.”
The teeth was not a winner as the movie “W.” grossed just $25.5 million domestically, which is relatively weak considering its substantial ad spend.
Given that task of pulling audiences for romantic comedy “Good Luck Chuck” that critics dismissed, Palen decided to emphasize the tumbles and mishaps of star Jessica Alba. “We cheated it and got the film open, which was kind of a feat,” Palen is quoted as saying. “America likes cheese.”
The “New Yorker” article is a long read at 8,300 words and provides a summary of the state and history of movie marketing. In keeping with contemporary thinking, the article points out several examples where advertising isn’t honest about films, but raises just mild objections to such sleights of hand.
The article indicates that Palen is notorious in film marketing circles for being inclined to stretch material in the quest to attract audiences.
“Marketing to Moviegoers’” second edition notes that the Federal Trade Commission has come down hard on Hollywood promoting films with restrictive ratings to inappropriately young audiences, which was another manifestation of an “anything goes” mentality. The FTC crackdown curbed abuses in marketing to youth audiences.
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