Hey blog friends! I made a podcast with my friend Jared. In this week's episode, we talked about social media--what it is, what it does, and why it's going to be pretty important to the Box Office. Listen in and subcribe in iTunes.
Film in the United States began in the 1920s, when the first silent films hit the silver screens. Since that time, major film studios have developed as titans for worldwide cinema experiences, while independent films are featured at festivals celebrating the art of filmmaking and provide possible distribution.
Gotlieb in a March 2010 lecture at Western Kentucky University explained that movies rely on word of mouth communication. Further, he explained the effects of word of mouth are so powerful on the intent to see a movie that advertising for a movie may even become useless after an opening weekend. He contends that movie patrons want to know what their friends think about a movie more than any other influence on purchasing behavior. This is an obvious extension of the common “movie review” one can find in a newspaper. In the most present sense of the box office, the film industry has been analyzed with even larger reach online through movie reviews, blogs, and other forms of social media.
Tron is 1982 sci-fi film starring Jeff Bridges. It documents a story that takes place on the electronic world Clu. Finally, Disney will be releasing a 2010 remake called Tron Legacy. It has been interesting to see all of the blog world light up with cult fan-boys who can't wait to go see the film.
However, Disney wants to capture a large audience, and what better way to reach young people than releasing everything through Facebook. There, they've been introducing the story of Tron, including film screen-caps and the first trailer. Officially, though, the first trailer will be released in 3D on Friday before the much-anticipated Alice in Wonderland.
I think I need to take a moment and show everyone in a picture slideshow a bit of a story about social media and what studios are really hoping happens because of their work online. Essentially, social media is one of the best ways to provide a community of interaction. Interacting with something like a yet-to-be-released movie not only enhances the buzz about the movie for those who are already excited, but it also allows for studios to reach out to the curious or ignorant. So, let's say Disney Pictures is going to publish an advertisement on the right side of Facebook. The ad may be chosen only to display to Facebook users who have anything "Disney" related in their "About Me" section, including "Movies" or "Interests" sections. So, the advertisement for Tron would appear, and clicking on the ad would direct a user to the Facebook Fan Page. There, one could learn about the movie, find a description, list of actors and directors, maybe a link to the soundtrack that is going to be released, etc. But most importantly, there is the Facebook Wall. With this, users can interact with each other and develop a truly unique way to get excited about the movie. Think about the Harry Potter films for a second. With all of the blogs, Facebook groups, and more, there are entire communities built around specific characters, films, and features of the franchise. With all this interaction, communities truly impact the profit margin of film studios.
After the cool colors of Avatar (remember all the blue and bioluminescence?), I think audiences will be excited to see some neon in an out-of-this-world movie. The story from the trailer doesn't tell us much yet, but long-time fans are totally excited---especially with the newly designed lightcycles. I don't even need a picture to know that light-cycles are going to be pretty freaking awesome.
They enlisted a lot of major help for this upcoming movie, which I'm pretty excited about because this is obviously going to be visually stunning. Check out the trailer for the movie that has been out for a while, and I'd definitely recommend trying to find the new trailer online after Friday. Hopefully Friday's theatrical trailer will tell audiences about the story behind Tron and why in the first trailer there was a huge chase scene on these lightcycles. I'm so, very intrigued about these cycles.
