Blog 6-Marketing in Movies

Many reasons why movies are so successful are how effectively they are marketed and promoted to the public.  Every major Hollywood studio has a department that is entirely dedicated promotion for new movies being released mostly through advertisement.  These advertising campaigns include theatrical movie trailers, Internet advertisements, and billboards. The effectiveness of an advertisement campaign for a new Hollywood movie can determine how successful the movie becomes and how much profit they make.
One of the first marketing strategies a movie goes about is when they release it.  Many movies tend to come out during the summertime or holiday seasons since it is the most popular time for people to be going to the movies.  For major studio movies there is also a lot of pressure to make big money on it's opening weekend release. Many Hollywood studios will make 40 percent of their gross profits on the first week of release.  This importance to do well during a movie's opening week can relate back to our practice marketing groups. Our sales were the highest during our first week selling backpacks and has since declined. Therefore it was important that our backpacks sold well in the first week.
Many times a movies marketing strategy will first start with the opening trailer. The trailer is a way to spark interest in the moviegoer and to give a good idea of what the movie will be about.  After the trailer is released and buzz about the movie begins to stir, movie marketers begin to try and get press coverage to help further promote the movie. The main movie publicity tactic is to have journalists, reporters, and movie critics come to a special location to interview the cast and creators of the upcoming film.  Weeks before the movie is released, the promotion departments will do as much as they can to get as many advertisements and commercials out to the public to get people excited about the movie.  A lot of times advertisements for movies will also be placed on products such as bottles of Coca-Cola or a bag of Doritos.
There have been several movies that have had massive success thanks to great marketing campaigns.  The Harry Potter Series are movies that stand out to me.  The Harry Potter movie series is the highest grossing film franchise of all time grossing over 7.7 billion dollars worldwide.  By releasing all of the Harry Potter movies either during the summer time of the holiday season definitely helped bring a greater popularity to the movie franchise as well as many effective advertising campaigns.  The success of the Harry Potter has allowed the franchise to expand into other markets by creating Harry Potter merchandise, apparel, toys, video games, and much more.  Harry Potter also now has its own amusement park at Universal Studios called Harry Potter World.   The Star Wars movies are another example of a successful movie franchise that has been very successful in expanding into other markets.  Overall marketing and promotion is an extremely important part of the success behind a great Hollywood film.

Helpful links:

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-marketing2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_(film_series)