If you were shopping in Target this weekend, you didn’t hear the sound of Christmas carols over the loudspeaker, rather the showstopper “Defying Gravity” from Universal‘s Wicked. But there’s more, for on the main throughfare at the Sunset Blvd location, is a standee of Wicked attire, from slippers to sweatshirts. Meanwhile over at their Starbucks,
Marketing
Today, Universal/Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy‘s is clocking past the $100M domestic mark, a box office milestone for the studio when it comes to its experimental theatrical day-and-date releases on its Peacock streaming service. That’s not only the highest that Uni has seen from a pic that’s been distributed via such means at the box
‘Barbenheimer‘ was completely unexpected, but the studio behind Barbie gladly leaned in, said Dana Nussbaum, EVP of worldwide marketing for Warner Bros. Pictures, calling the unusual double-feature frenzy one of a few unforseen and welcome twists while rolling out the Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster. “That was absolutely a surprise to us. But one that we found
“No one is really creating original sci-fi blockbusters anymore, it’s an endangered species.” Such was the wise insight from Gareth Edwards at the special screening of his latest movie The Creator last week. This from a filmmaker who has run the gamut from the half-million-budgeted 2010 indie Monsters to the $265 million-budgeted, billion-dollar-plus grossing Rogue
EXCLUSIVE: With the new animated version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Paramount has vibrantly revived the near 40-year-old Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird-conceived comic IP for another generation: As the pic barrels toward $100M at the global box office, Deadline hears from sources that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand is heading toward $1 billion+
Giant theater chain AMC Entertainment has promoted Ellen Copaken to SVP Marketing, effective immediately. She was also appointed to sit on the company’s management executive committee. Copaken joined AMC in February of as VP, Growth Strategy, and led the exhibitor’s AMC Perfectly Popcorn launch in more than 2,600 Walmart stores (and Walmart.com) ), delivering “sales
Several times in recent years, Sony has used the Cannes Film Festival to promote a key upcoming title, despite the movies not officially being involved in the event — see Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation in 2018, 2017’s The Emoji Movie and 2016’s The Angry Birds Movie. This year, the marketing team pulled out the
Digital and social media marketing chiefs of major studios said today they’re really hoping the threat of a U.S. government ban on Tiktok never materializes, so crucial has the platform become to launching films. They’d also like Elon Musk-owned Twitter to get itself together, since that’s also a key platform for Hollywood. “I don’t personally
While streamers typically get by on thrifty marketing budgets, pushing content largely on their menus, most motion picture studios, like Universal, still have all the superpowers in the world to blast a movie out of a canon. But here’s something to keep in mind as we detail Universal’s promo playbook below in propelling Illumination/Nintendo’s Super
The power of a wide theatrical release was realized this weekend by streamer Amazon in its pivot back to the big screen with MGM/United Artists Releasing’s Creed III. It easily minted the best opening ever for the Seattle-based parent, as well as for the Rocky franchise, with $58.6M domestic, $100.4M worldwide. While Amazon has snapped
EXCLUSIVE: Blumhouse revealed a new motion logo this weekend on their new horror movie, The Black Phone, which overpowered in its 3-day debut to $23.6 million. The new logo preceded the Scott Derrickson directed, produced and co-written film and it’s the studio’s first ever update to its motion logo. The logo was created by design studio
When it came to assembling the brand sponsors for Disney’s Cruella, it wasn’t about the dogs in the 101 Dalmatians live-action spinoff, or the swanky Panther De Ville car she drove in the 1990s Glenn Close movies, rather the glitz which the Emma Stone and Emma Thompson characters are all about. While recent brand campaigns for Disney+’s
EXCLUSIVE: The first online teaser trailer for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s third phase 4 movie Eternals has drawn an almighty 77 million global viewers in its first 24 hours since dropping Monday per social analytic sources. That’s the biggest online trailer drop for a Walt Disney and Marvel movie in the past 14 months of
EXCLUSIVE: Motion picture industry distribution veteran Jim Zak has been named SVP North America of Vista Group’s Numero and Maccs. He will be based in Los Angeles and report to Numero and Maccs chief executive and Numero co-founder Simon Burton. Zak will work across both Numero and Maccs, with primary responsibility for expanding the client
A major acceleration of Hollywood studio and travel advertising could inject up to 10% in incremental ad spending on national television in the second half of 2021, spending that won’t be present this year, according to the latest forecast by Group M. National TV ad spend will fall by 7.9% this year but next year
EXCLUSIVE: Despite the severe ratcheting down of movie theaters during the pandemic in recent weeks, Universal is standing strong with a robust global promotional campaign behind its DreamWorks Animation sequel The Croods: A New Age which opens today at 2,211 theaters. While the marketing spend on domestic wide releases has been in the single-digit range
What a great time not to be a movie marketer. Theaters half-closed, with COVID-19 again rising. Pipeline dried up. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asking, in a survey that was due last week, how the pandemic is affecting your craft. Or what’s left of it. But movie promoters on the whole are an
Talk about box-office drama. As the July 4 weekend unwinds, IFC’sThe Truth might be slugging it out with Homewrecker from Dark Star and The Outpost from Fathom for the honor of ranking somewhere in the 300s, near IFC’s own Wiener-Dog, among all-time Independence Day performers. (Who can say for sure, as release dates have become
When you’re doing a movie trailer launch nowadays and need to grab everyone’s attention, it helps to throw a concert. Universal’s trailer for F9 (aka Fast & Furious 9), since dropping its near four-minute trailer on Friday ahead of the Super Bowl, has clocked a massive 439.3 million global views across YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. And
We knew this was going to happen. By Oscar Sunday, if not before, Greta Gerwig’s feature revival of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women will cross $100M at the domestic box office, a huge 33% surge in its domestic tally since notching six Oscar noms on Jan. 13 including Best Picture. While Gerwig already demonstrated her flair
Danielle De Palma has been hired as Paramount Pictures’ EVP Domestic Marketing. She will report to Marc Weinstock, president of Worldwide Marketing & Distribution, and Mary Daily, co-president of Worldwide Marketing & Distribution. Previously, De Palma served as a senior executive at Apple in the video marketing team overseeing film and TV series marketing. She
Typically when it comes to raising the profile on a major studio horror film, studio’s will rest on the standard online trailer, or some sort of social media stunt. However, Warner Bros. has amassed around 35 global promotional partners for New Line’s Sept. 6 tentpole It: Chapter Two, which is arguably unprecedented for a R-rated
Universal is putting the brakes on the marketing of their Blumhouse release The Hunt in the wake of recent mass shootings which have taken the lives of 34 people in El Paso, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; and Gilroy, California. “Out of sensitivity to the attention on the country’s recent shooting tragedies, Universal Pictures and the filmmakers of The Hunt