Home arrow Marketing and Distribution arrow The Theatrical Opening
The Theatrical Opening PDF Print E-mail
User Rating: / 0
Marie-Claude Poulin   
Every producer dreams of a theatrical premiere. Whatever the size of their project’s budget, they all hope to be the exception – the next ‘Blair Witch’ or ‘Big Fat Greek Wedding’.

And yes, it is possible, but in today’s crowded market place, it will take a lot of convincing. First the producer has to convince a distributor that his/her film will make it, and then the distributor has to convince the exhibitors. For that to happen, the distributor will have to feel strongly enough about the picture to spend money to market it theatrically, confident that the return on investment will be realized.

You want to involve a distributor in your project as early as possible, because successful marketing for a theatrical release starts with casting and production. At this stage, it’s a pre awareness campaign – mostly publicity, to attract journalists’ attention (in the cast, subject matter, shooting location and progress, etc.) and awaken the interest of your target audience.

The key to a successful campaign

Identifying your target audience is key, and the sooner you do it, the better. You need to know who these people are, and how to reach them.  Once you have analyzed their demographics, you can develop the stages and component parts of your marketing strategy.

These elements include:
  • release date, locations and size,
  • campaign size and elements,
  • promotional partners,
  • press and publicity, and
  • relationship with exhibitors.

The release

When, where and how you release the film can have great impact on its success.  Think about such variables as:
  • festivals,
  • availability of appropriate theatres,
  • your film’s competition,
  • the U.S. release date, and
  • release scale – wide (for commercial films), platform (for more sophisticated films or subject matter, e.g. Water, The Pianist, and Crash), or limited (for auteur films).
Given your target audience,  would this film benefit from a festival screening? And what about timing… Is it a summer film – or, if it’s a family film, should you time it for spring break? Keep your competition in mind, because that’s part of the context for your own release, and might give you some interesting counter-programming possibilities. For example, if the right screens are available, you might consider releasing an upscale commercial film (e.g. Crash) in the summer, when it will stand out against all the studio blockbusters.

 
< Previous Article   Next Article >
Reel Stories reelstories-marketdistbutton1 reelstories-marketdistbutton2 reelstories-marketdistbutton3 reelstories-prodbutton6