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
Marketing
‘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
In the wake of the new Mean Girls movie segueing from streaming to a Jan. 12 theatrical release, Paramount is stoking the fanbase today, Oct. 3, which doubles as Mean Girls day and National Boyfriend day by launching the original 2004 movie on TikTok — in 23 parts. Paramount’s intent with to bring the Tina
“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
With this year’s domestic box office expected to rise to $9 billion, of course, the major studios are taking Super Bowl LVII ad spots seriously. The big game, which last year attracted 112M viewers, remains an enormous bullhorn when it comes to drawing attention to your tentpole, and this year, starting with Disney/Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man
In an age of streaming and Covid concerns when many older-skewing dramatic films find their way safely into homes, Sony Pictures rolled the dice on the Tom Hanks drama A Man Called Otto. It grossed $15.3 million in its third–weekend wide expansion over the four-day MLK weekend, well surpassing its $8M projection. The result surprised
EXCLUSIVE: James Wan has been labeled by fans for being responsible for killer doll movies, specifically his Conjuring franchise spinoff, Annabelle. “It’s funny, I really hadn’t done that yet,” says the horror auteur. And that was his prime reason to create M3GAN with screenwriter Akela Cooper. “In my previous doll movies — they don’t kill
EXCLUSIVE: Buttressing the $441.6M global opening of Avatar: The Way of Water this past weekend –the 11th best ever– is a curated promo partner campaign assembled by Disney; a lineup that reflects the eco-friendly and technologically advanced sensibilities of the James Cameron directed epic. All in, the value of media which advertisers paid for here
The fruits of Disney’s industry-reported $100M+ promotional partner campaign on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever have been yielded, not just in a November U.S./Canada box office opening record of $181.3M and 12.7M admissions but in stoking a diverse range of demographics including Black, Latino/Hispanic and older women to cinemas in droves this past weekend. The media
EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures is putting forth the biggest promotional campaign to date during the pandemic for any major studio wide release with Spider-Man: No Way Home; the global brand marketing value seeing $202M and a billion-plus reach. While that dollar figure is the second highest for a Sony webslinger movie after 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home
Imax has named former Lionsgate and Netflix publicity veteran Julie Fontaine as SVP Marketing in what is a newly created position at the large-format exhibitor. She will report directly to Imax chief marketing officer Denny Tu. Fontaine will oversee strategic marketing campaigns and creative for Imax’s global event features lineup as well as product and
At the exit to a gallery in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a display of opinions about the future of cinema. For example: “THE FUTURE OF CINEMA IS INCLUSION NOT EXCLUSION” –Kimberly Steward
Among film distribution executives in town, there’s a saying about Disney’s theatrical releases, in particular their Marvel titles: That they’re “five quad” movies. What does that mean? Essentially, the Marvel Cinematic Universe titles are known to overindex and perform well beyond the norms of a regular four quadrant demographic tentpole which is aimed at male
One thing is clear after we’ve endured a 19-month pandemic: The world now, more than ever, needs James Bond. And not just movie theaters, and concession industries, but an assortment of brands from Madison Avenue which have seen sales curtailed during lockdown, in particular the auto industry which continues to see production slowed due to
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: We have learned that motion picture industry distribution vet Jim Zak has been named the SVP, North America of Vista Group’s Numero and Maccs. Zak 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
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 their 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
Not to send everyone screaming for the exits, but it wouldn’t be out of the question if Warner Bros. moves Wonder Woman 1984 off its Christmas Day global theatrical release. Facts are facts whether former Vice President Joe Biden takes the U.S. Presidency tomorrow night or if President Donald Trump continues: New York City and Los
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
With Hollywood under orders to stay out of the office, away from theaters, off the set and especially at a safe social distance from those most germ-friendly of mass gatherings — film festivals — coronavirus suddenly has clarified a change that crept over movie culture in the decades just past. As recently as the late 1980s,