A New York Times article reveals that People magazine let actress Angelina Jolie tailor the celebrity magazine’s future coverage of her as part of a deal for exclusive baby pictures. People – owned by Time Warner Inc. – denies that allegation in the story. It’s not hard to believe film stars and their publicists call the shots with celebrity media – TV shows, magazines and … [Read more...] about Angelina Jolie Stage-Manages People?
Fans Make “Twilight” Merchandise
Movie-themed merchandise for the film adaptation of “Twilight” gets a promotional lift on website CafePress, which offers direct to consumer sales of tee-shirts, buttons, stationary, posters and the like. Customers can select a surprisingly large number of Twilight-themed images that appear on various products, citing 6,000 products. Separately, the soundtrack … [Read more...] about Fans Make “Twilight” Merchandise
007’s ‘Quantum’ Overflows With Commercialization
The next James Bond 007 spy thriller comes packed with merchandise, product placement, marketing promotions and some complaints of overdoing it on the commercialization front. But a reality is that fans of the spy-thriller movies seem to enjoy the product glitz in overdrive. Some pundits in the UK suggest product placement and promotional tie-ins for “Quantum of Solace” are … [Read more...] about 007’s ‘Quantum’ Overflows With Commercialization
Oliver Stone Film Nabs P&A Funding
Oliver Stone’s “W.” movie about President George W. Bush cobbled together $30 million in financing from overseas sources because investors in the U.S. found the project uncommercial. A “Wall Street Journal” article notes that an Australian company – Omnilab Media – invested another $25 million to pay for marketing costs-referred to as prints-and-advertising (or … [Read more...] about Oliver Stone Film Nabs P&A Funding
Financing Set for Digital Cinema
Four major studios and the biggest independent agreed this week to help fund a consortium of movie theater owners to convert to electronic digital film projection to replace mechanical projectors. Digital cinema has been stalled for a decade, because of questions if the technology was not ready, making movie companies unwilling to invest in what could be soon-obsolete … [Read more...] about Financing Set for Digital Cinema
‘Eagle Eye’ Flies in Mobile Marketing
Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks breaks new ground with an elaborate, interactive cell phone campaign for mystery thriller “Eagle Eye,” a PG 13-rated movie. This is an early use of smart cell phones as a multi-media platform, coming months after Apple introduced its revolutionary iPhone. The Paramount/DreamWorks campaign “aims to build additional buzz about, and boost overall … [Read more...] about ‘Eagle Eye’ Flies in Mobile Marketing
Actress Sued for Withholding Publicity
It’s not often that a film company sues an actor over not drumming up enough publicity for a film, but Paris Hilton isn’t just any actress. The Hollywood celebrity-circuit regular and sometime movie star is being sued by small producer – Worldwide Entertainment Group – which alleges she didn’t fulfill promotional obligations for “National Lampoon’s Pledge This!” This film … [Read more...] about Actress Sued for Withholding Publicity
Confessions of a Trailer Wizard
Benedict Coulter, who is head of creative marketing agency Trailer Park, booms film marketing messages in crafting movie trailers. While being obvious on some elements, Coulter will simultaneously present some mysteries to entice audiences with some not-fully-explained wrinkles. Trailer Park is largest of Hollywood’s 30 ad agency boutiques making two-minute previews … [Read more...] about Confessions of a Trailer Wizard
‘Dark Knight’ Baffles Film Ratings
Warner Bros. latest Batman adaptation, “The Dark Knight,” is a genre bender that baffles audience classification, and may impact film ratings going forward. Further, its comic-book-to-silver-screen arc makes it ideal for a new print graphic novel to promote the film and special clips screening in Imax theaters. But its console video game adaption was abandoned and won’t be … [Read more...] about ‘Dark Knight’ Baffles Film Ratings
Documentaries in Collapse
It’s always amazing to see industry insiders forgeting that it’s moviegoer behavior that runs the business. The documentary sector is suffering a meltdown because insiders like highly-partisan content like anti-Iraq war critique “Fahrenheit 9/11,” ignoring industry wisdom that it’s an outlier from this rule of thumb. Political films with an angry bent have a long history of … [Read more...] about Documentaries in Collapse