Why Hollywood can't promote the idea of moviegoing
Filed under: Box Office, Movie Marketing
It's just resolutely silly to compare Hollywood to Broadway, but in a Hollywood Reporter piece in which he does just that, Gregg Kilday makes a valid point: whereas Broadway producers have banded together for years to promote the very notion of going to see a Broadway show (any Broadway show), "Hollywood spends millions of dollars hawking individual movies, but
precious little attention is spent to selling the notion of moviegoing
itself." Not only is he right on, but this obviously needs to be taken further. You might pick up the Avenue Q cast album or a Miss Saigon poster, but essentially, going to see a Broadway show is an endgame experience. Meanwhile, more and more, Hollywood films exist as commericals for other products: video games, toy tie ins, DVD - and, ultimately sequels, which advertise a whole new set of ancillaries, and keep the cycle going. So when it might involve the admission that the movie itself is probably not even the ultimate product for sale, promoting the idea of moviegoing ends up being tricky business.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-12-2005 @ 6:16PM
David Hudson said...
You define the distinction perfectly, Karina.
But here's a funny thing your entry calls to mind. In Europe, theaters (often with some sort of governmental subsidies, naturally) have been promoting moviegoing - just as a generic, across-the-board experience - for years. In the late 80s, I'd see these ads in Germany, "Come on, let's go to the movies!" In many cities, too, theaters would band together to post city-wide schedules of whatever was playing - anywhere and everywhere in the city - on posters plastered everywhere.
Interestingly, I'm seeing a whole lot less of both. The chains, especially in Berlin, are becoming more competitive and less interested in cooperation.
But I think that, in part, the impulse for that sort of cooperation when it was still in full swing was tied to a sense of support for each European national cinema, be it French, Italian, German, etc. Even as the theaters and the various governmental agencies that supported local film agencies must have been aware that Hollywood would always claim the overwhelming slice of the market share, if there was enough moviegoing *in general* going on, the local, national cinema could at least survive as well.
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8-13-2005 @ 8:17PM
Film Cynic said...
The problem is that Hollywood could care less whether or not we go to the movies as long as we keep buying videos and watch movies on television, both of which make them more money. Perhaps the North American Theatre Organization (NATO) can begin campaigning not just for advertisements encouraging the experience, but also making that experience better. They definitely need to wake up and develop a quality standard to be met by its members. I've worked for enough theatre chains to know how little they worry about the customer once they leave the concession stand.
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