From Box Office to Home Office

You decided not to see Iron Man 2 in theaters, right?  Just too much of a hassle to get to the cinema?  By Iron Man 3, you may be able to see it opening weekend in your home.

In a statement released Friday, the MPAA, which is Hollywood studios' lobbying organization, explained that the FCC has decided to allow studios to release new movies to the home over a "secure line" at the same time they are released in theaters.

Check out this article.  There is a bunch of talk going on right now, and as this unfolds, it may be a major issue for movie theaters (and maybe even consumers).

One writer explained, "Once again, the greedy studios are ignoring the theater owners, despite the fact that there would be no film industry without them.  I hope this idea is stymied, because if the actual event of going to the movies ever dies, I'll be tremendously saddened."

However, I think it may be a good motivation for movie theaters to wake up! and start offering better services (and prices) for patrons.  Theaters desperately need to innovate, or they'll be second best very soon.


Really, honestly, when have you had an incredible experience at the movie theaters? Only at midnight showings that everyone is pumped to be in the theater for. At this point, the movies are a default thing to do when nothing else is going on. Moviegoers are tired of high prices, bad service, and even worse movie etiquette.

Analyzing Research - Intro

Here as an introduction to an article that I have begun writing.  It looks into research done by HP Labs.

Social Media and Hype - Unfulfilled Promises

Quite obviously, hype about a movie in social media can be a great thing.  It has propelled many movies to solid box office performance.  Rarely, however, does the hype not follow through.

That was the case, however, for movie Kick-Ass, released April 16.  Because of the positive buzz in social media, the movie was widely expected to open around $30 million, but it opened only at $19.8 million.  The movie was a hot topic on Twitter -- people were tweeting about the movie... but were too lazy to actually go see it.  One blogger wrote, "movie geeks were more excited to rave about [it] online than audiences were excited to see it."

So how do you avoid this pitfall?  Studios should ensure that their marketing campaigns will market to more than the fanboys.  Movies like Star Trek and Iron Man do well because they are marketed as movies with broad appeal.  These movies gross incredible dollars, but they have the same roots as Kick-Ass and Daredevil. 

Understanding that your target market is likely to go see the movie whether the ad campaign reaches them or not... should lead marketers to a more segmented marketing plan.  We should keep a lookout on movies like Tron and others which may fall victim to the hype of social media.

Podcast On It's Way

So, I'm in the middle of editing an hour-long Skype conversation I had with blogger Grady Smith. It's just for you guys! The hour long conversation needs to be whittled down to a shorter podcast. I'm really excited for you guys to hear it! This week, check out his Box Office Challenege--a fun, interactive YouTube game that tests your Box Office knowledge!

Paranormal Activity

Hey guys! Hope everything is going well for you! I recently recorded a vlog that I could embed here at Box Office PR. It provides you the background information you'll need to know about Paranormal Activity and its Box Office success. I'll be interviewing blogger Grady Smith and uploading it to the blog. We'll be talking about the movie and how Eventful, a social media site, was the only reason it was a success at the Box Office.

Social Media Podcast

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.

About the Box Office

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.