Casual-dining chain Applebee’s Grill + Bar offers a free movie ticket to “Jungle Cruise” for every $25 in meals purchased, as the restaurant chain mounts its first direct movie tie-in. It’s also a milestone for cinema gradually returning to a post-pandemic normal with a movie hooked up with consumer marketer for a joint promotion.
Up to four movie tickets are offered per meal transaction; cinema tickets are valued at up to $15 each. Rules state that tickets must be redeemed by “Sept. 30, 2021, or when ‘Disney’s Jungle Cruise’ is no longer in theaters, whichever comes first.”
“Jungle Cruise” is the PG-13-rated family film based on a theme park ride that Walt Disney Studios will premiere in theaters July 30. The family film starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt will also be available on a premium video-on-demand (P-VOD) via Disney+ as a $30 two-day rental parallel to cinema release.
The cinema promotion is a three-way corporate affair with Disney as “Jungle Cruise” distributor, ticket fulfillment by Fandango that is owned by Universal Pictures-parent Comcast and Applebee’s, which is owned by NYSE-listed Dine Brands Global.
Restaurant tie-in promotions have been on hiatus across the industry with the Covid-19 closures. “With friends and family reuniting this summer, we’re collaborating with Disney to bring back the family-favorite tradition of dinner and a movie,” Applebee’s chief marketing officer Joel Yashinsky says in a press release. Applebee’s adds that it expect to mount other entertainment marketing initiatives going forward, as “Jungle Cruise” is a first in the movie category.
In the few tie-ins recently, in March, Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s mounted a promotion with Warner Bros. Pictures for “Godzilla vs. Kong”; and in December Burger King tied to “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” in Germany.
Most movie promotions are with fast-food chains, but Applebee’s is casual dining that is defined as full service with waiters at tables in a relaxed, informal atmosphere. There are 1,705 Applebee’s restaurants worldwide of which 1,600 are in the United States. Its parent is the Glendale, Cal.-based Dine Brands, which also owns IHOP (International House of Pancakes). Applebee’s is thought to be the largest restaurant system in the casual dining category and the 15th largest across all categories in the United States.
The P-VOD window with a $30 online rental for “Jungle Cruise” is controversial; merging release windows is known as going “day and date.” The similar P-VOD availability of Disney’s blockbuster “Black Widow” earlier this month was blamed by the main movie theater trade group for a sharp second-weekend decline in boxoffice sales. A press release by the National Assn. of Theatre Owners (NATO) asserts the theatrical day-and-date Disney+ model “ignores that Premiere Access revenue is not new-found money, but was pulled forward from a more traditional P-VOD window” for “Black Widow,” reports NATO. Premiere Access is a Disney brand name.
NATO also stated that P-VOD opens the door for more sophisticated movie piracy, since online copying is sharper and clearer than any videoing off a cinema screen in an auditorium.
‘Jungle Cruise’ Star Gets Drink at Applebee’s
Applebee’s Grill + Bar offers a discounted-price margarita cocktail connected to a star of “Jungle Cruise,” but an email blast July 22 to consumers curiously doesn’t plug the movie.
The email blast is headlined “Premium Drinks at a Great Price” and cites Teremana Blue Aloha Margarita is just $7 at Applebee’s. Teremana is the liquor brand launched by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who is named in the restaurant chain’s email blast.
Johnson stars in “Jungle Cruise” and Applebee’s restaurants have a tie-in promotion with the family adventure movie, though not mentioned in the email.
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