ANTI-OBAMA DOCUMENTARY NOW NO. 2 POLITICAL DOC EVER

On the weekend following President Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, the anti-Obama documentary 2016: Obama’s America became the second-highest-grossing political documentary ever, behind only Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Its weekend take of $3.3 million brought its total gross to $26.2 million and pushed it past Moore’s other documentaries, 2007’s Sicko with $24.5 […]

TWILIGHT CAST ON VMA SPECIAL — SANS STEWART

It is not the first time a scandal has affected a studio’s marketing campaign, but Lionsgate is almost certainly finding it both challenging and awkward dealing with the one involving Twilight stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. The studio scored a major coup this week by managing to persuade the producers of the MTV Video […]

REPORT: THE INTERNET POSES NO CHALLENGE TO TV — YET

The notion that the Internet is drawing viewers away from traditional TV is more myth than reality, the president of TVB, the broadcast industry marketing trade group, suggested on Tuesday. Speaking at the SNL Kagan TV and Radio Finance Summit in New York, Steve Lanzano unveiled his group’s latest study indicating that Internet video amounts […]

DISNEY LATEST TO JOIN BAN-THE-SUGAR-AND-FAT LEAGUE

Disney chief Robert Iger has unveiled what it calls “Magic of Healthy Living” guidelines to be applied to all of its broadcast and cable programs. In effect, the guidelines will bar makers of sugary and fat-laden products from buying ads on Disney programs. However, the ban does not take effect until 2015. Several companies that […]

WILL THE AVENGERS STEAL HARRY POTTER’S MAGIC?

There is only one question for box office pundits to wrestle with this weekend — not which film will wind up as No. 1 — it goes without saying that The Avengers is a shoo-in for that spot — but will the movie set an all-time opening-weekend record? To do so it has to beat […]

ANALYST: HYPE DOESN’T HELP LOUSY TV SHOWS

Appraising the new shows of 2011-12 at midseason, veteran media analyst Brad Adgate of Horizon Media has found that some of the shows that were the most heavily hyped prior to their debut flopped while other little-noticed entries became hits. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Adgate singled out NBC’s The Playboy Club […]

BET STUDY SLAMS STUDIOS FOR BLACK MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

Studios attempting to target African-Americans in their ad campaigns are making a mistake by focusing narrowly on films that feature African-Americans or on storylines that might be especially relevant to black moviegoers, according to a study conducted for BET Networks. The study, “REEL FACTS: A Movie Goer Consumption Study,” observes that African-Americans are bigger movie […]

STUDIOS NOW PROMOTING THEIR TRAILERS, SIGNS

Talk about buzzkill! Britain’s Guardian newspaper has lampooned the current marketing campaign for Friday’s release of The Avengers. It notes that the studio has been stridently promoting its own promo for the movie — a poster. “It is, without question, the most exciting picture of four empty chairs that the world has ever seen,” the […]

PROMOTION: THE X FACTOR FOR THE X FACTOR?

Fox TV has gone to what was described as unprecedented expense to fly at least one promotion executive from 145 of its 210 affiliates to Los Angeles to discuss plans for the launch of the U.S. version of The X Factor, produced by and featuring Simon Cowell as one of the judges, Broadcasting & Cable […]

127 HOURS PRESENTS MARKETING NIGHTMARE

In times past, publicists for studios releasing horror movies would make the most of reports that audience members had fainted, vomited, suffered heart attacks or fled theaters in panic during intense sequences. They’ve been doing that at advance screenings of 127 Hours, too — but the studio, Fox Searchlight, is at work trying to play […]

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