Lovely, Still is about just that desire. Martin Landau plays an older gentleman, Robert, who now lives all by himself. But one day a woman, Mary (Ellen Burstyn), enters his life and all of a sudden Robert finds himself pursuing a new romance, perhaps the first one in his life. So he seeks the help of the manager of the grocery store he works at (Adam Scott) while Mary is both encouraged and cautioned by her daughter (Elizabeth Banks) who she lives with across the street from Robert. These two people engaging in their own awkward but heartfelt courtship drives the movie, so let’s take a look at the marketing of it.

The Posters

The primary element on the movie’s one poster is at the bottom, a photo showing Landau and Burstyn dancing in the woods as the snow comes down around them. Both are smiling genuinely and warmly as they embrace, obviously completely in the moment and enjoying being there with the entirety of their being.

At the top we get the movie’s credits, a couple pull quotes from reviews of the movie that took place all the way back in 2008 and a bit of copy that tries to outline what the movie is about. It’s simple and elegant, looking more like a high-class Christmas card you’d get from your grandparents than anything else and, being so under-stated and simple, works to sell the movie pretty well.

The Trailers

The trailer starts out by listing the movie’s credentials as it relates to film festival appearances. But then we start to see Robert in his lonely abode. But then Mary asks him out to dinner and everything changes. Robert asks his manager for dating advice and we see plenty of shots of the two of them on their dating adventures as we see them sledding down a hill and doing other stuff, including inviting Mary’s daughter and Robert’s manager over for dinner.

But it’s clear that there are problems that come up as one of the scenes we’re shown has Mary defending her decision to her daughter and then her confronting Robert about some issue that’s arisen. We don’t see what that is but it’s clear at some point the address just what is at the root of this latter-years romance.

It’s a quiet and simple trailer without a lot of emotional fireworks save for that one scene. Instead it’s mostly about letting us get to know these characters and feeling comfortable with them. It works also as a showcase for Landau’s considerable talents and it’s clear this movie relies on them heavily.

Online

The movie’s official website opens with a page of pull quotes from various writer’s reviews of the movie, most of which are pulled from it’s 2008 Toronto Film Festival appearance. At least a couple of them actually have, then, links back to the full reviews so you can read them in their entirety if you wish.

More press quotes as well as a synopsis of the plot are found under the “About” section along with the full list of film festival’s it has appeared at.

Links to the movie’s Facebook and Twitter profiles are always there toward the top of the page but by visiting the “Social Networks” page on the site you can view the widgets for both those profiles and get a glimpse of the conversation there.

“Now Playing” shows where and when the movie is opening around the country. Finally, “Trailer” has just that.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

Nothing much here.

Media and Pubicity

Again, not a huge amount of material in this category. The director, Nicholas Fackler, has been out pounding the drums about the movie but outside of the 2008 Toronto Film Festival debut there hasn’t been a whole lot of press chatter about the movie.

Overall

Obviously would have liked to have seen more in the Advertising and Media sections but this is a small movie that, for whatever reason, has sat on the shelf for about two years before finally seeing a release. So it’s not surprising that those aren’t more robust.

But the elements that are there – particularly the trailer and the poster, both work very well to sell a movie that by all appearances deserves to be seen by a sizable audience. Both Landau and Burstyn seem to give fantastic heart-melting performances that, based on what’s shown, don’t veer into caricature or anything like that. So based on those two elements alone this is a good push for the movie.

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The term “professional,” though, is rarely, if ever used to describe that guy. But it’s exactly that word that describes the central character in Heartbreaker a new import from France. The movie tells the story of Alex, a gentleman who is particularly good at breaking up couples by swooping in and helping the woman realize she can do better than whomever she’s with. So he puts this talent to good use by hiring himself out to do just that, usually at the behest of the woman’s family who’s dissatisfied with her current beau.

During one such assignment he’s hired to disrupt the pending nuptials between Juliette, a wealthy heiress and her financier fiance. But the assignment comes loaded with potential pitfalls as not only does Alex wind up having to confront his past in the form of angry ex-boyfriends and creditors but he also confronts the fact that he may break his one hard and fast rule about such engagements, that he not fall in love with the woman in his sights.

The Posters

There’s not much to the poster. He is walking toward the camera, looking scruffy yet handsome and charming while she is in a photo behind him in front of a beautiful French coastal scene.

It’s not bad, but does fall victim to the design cliche of using hot pink for some of the text coloring, something that appears quite often in romantic comedies because…I don’t know, it’s supposed to be girly? Really not sure here but I see it a lot and using it here doesn’t really add anything to a so-so poster.

The Trailers

The trailer starts off with a bit of plot exposition – a wealthy business man doesn’t like the guy his daughter is about to marry – but then we get a bit of background on Alex, the titular Heartbreaker, including some scenes of him on previous assignments. But then he gets this gig and we see the cat and mouse game the two play as he attempts to learn everything he can about her and follow her as closely as possible and she resists the imposition. As the two continue though, things change and, as the voiceover says, he winds up breaking his only rule: Actually falling in love with his target.

It’s a light and bouncy trailer, a feeling that’s aided by the fact that it features not just “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing (this is actually a plot point) but also Wham’s “Wake Me Up.” So the amusing actions of those on screen are complimented by a lightweight soundtrack, all of which add up to an interesting trailer.

Online

The movie’s official website is a collage of photos, sticky notes and push pins on a map like the kind you’d see as part of a planning session.

In the upper left hand corner is a widget that has a rotating stream of (presumably curated) Twitter updates about the movie.

The “Photos” section has about 14 stills from the movie and you can download a high-quality version of the movie’s banner by clicking on that image just below the “Photos” area.

The “Are You a Heartbreaker?” section is a quiz for women to take so they can see if their man is really as bad as they might suspect he is. Similarly, the “One of your friends…” section is something for women to use to warn a friend that they’re going out with or married to a complete twit.

Moving over to the left, the “Events” section has information on the movie’s appearance at a couple film festivals as well as Q&As the cast and crew has appeared at in advance of the film’s European release, which was a couple months prior to its appearance in the U.S.

“Interviews” has video interviews with the movie’s cast and “The Team” has information on the characters in the story and background on who they are and what role they play in this adventure.

“The Assignment” then is a synopsis of the movie’s story.

The video player at the bottom opens what amounts to the Video section of the site, with the trailer, a teaser (that is nowhere else in the movie’s American marketing) and a coupled of extended clips from the film.

The movie’s Facebook page has plenty of updates on various promotional activity, photos from the movie and various events related to it and more.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

Nothing that I’ve seen in any regard.

Media and Publicity

The film made a couple of festival appearances on this side of the Atlantic, one at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and one at the City of Lights, City of Angels film series in Los Angeles.

Other than that there wasn’t much. About the only other discussion in the press of the movie was the announcement, right around the time of Tribeca, that the movie would be Americanized in the near future.

Overall

It’s a charming campaign for what appears to be quite a charming movie. The marketing coasts along heavily on the fact that we’re watching a huckster and basically a con-man who works his charm on the ladies and so it’s natural that carries over into the campaign, where the effect is to make the audience smile and be swept up in the emotion of it all.

While I’m not a huge fan of the poster since, as I said, I don’t really care for its use of Romantic Comedy Pink #352 in the title and other copy, I do really like the trailer and feel like it can go along way to sell the movie to people who might be looking for a different take on the rom-com genre, or at least something that doesn’t have the woman walking into a light pole or the guy taking a kick to the groin.

I would have liked to have seen more in the Advertising and Publicity areas but understand that this is a small import and so it’s not receiving a huge push. But what there is works more often than it doesn’t.

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But the news that the summer of 2010 so far has seen a six percent drop in ticket sales from the same period in 2009 (Hollywood Reporter, 8/31/10) means that there’s obviously a disconnect between the campaigns Hollywood is running and what the audiences are looking for.

Any other year this statistic would probably be accompanied by a similar one showing that box-office dollar totals were down as well, but this is the year of the 3D takeover and the higher ticket price from those presentations actually has dollars down just one percent between May 7th and Labor Day of this year. That difference matches up nicely with the 4.5 percent increase in ticket prices compared to last year.

So it seems that the marketing campaigns that were run for this year’s crop of summer films has failed to connect with audiences. For whatever reasons the movies just couldn’t make the case strongly enough that they were worth people’s time and money.

More specifically, many franchises couldn’t make the case that they were worth people’s time and money. The narratives that have run through the industry trade press were that movies such as Iron Man 2, Shrek Forever After, Sex and the City 2 and other sequels while more original fare including Inception, Despicable Me and Grown Ups performed above expectations.

But all these movies ran at least halfway decent campaigns. And the traditional thinking has long been that sequels don’t need to be marketed as heavily as the originals since they come with brand perception built in.

And maybe that’s the root of the problem. Hollywood has relied perhaps a bit too heavily on that existing brand perception and the assumption that the audience just needs to be aware of the movie to be interested. So they green-light sequels thinking they’ll be able to take it easy on marketing. Now, though, that combination is backfiring.

Which is why the notion of relying on 3D and its higher ticked prices to prop up movies that would otherwise flounder is ridiculous. There’s already a 3D backlash well underway as people realize it’s just not worth the extra $3 a ticket to see their kids fiddle with the glasses for 90 minutes. That trend will only increase over time, which means the studios will have to go back to actually drawing as big a crowd as possible to their movies and not counting on people to show up just because and then paying more when they do.

This also comes at a time when it’s hard to figure out what some movies’ release patterns actually are. For the last two or three weeks I’ve been able to go see Despicable Me at both the first-run theater ($7.50 or more a ticket) or the second-run house ($3 a ticket). So some of these movies probably could have made more money if this clear price differentiator hadn’t been in play.

When it comes down to it any sort of marketing campaign is judged most clearly on how the produce performs in the retail market. Someone said just that in response to my Scott Pilgrim column, when I said I liked the campaign but then the movie fizzled at the box-office. But more than dollars it’s important to look at units sold. That goes for movies as much as it does toothpaste. And by that measure this has apparently been a poorly marketed summer movie season.

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Making a long-distance relationship work is the premise of Going the Distance, a new romantic comedy starring Justin Long (he’s a Mac) and Drew Barrymore. The two meet in New York City and begin seeing each other, really enjoying each other’s company and definitely feeling a spark. But then she has to move to San Francisco just six weeks after they begin dating. Determined not to let the miles come between them, though, they decide to keep it going with all the inherent problems such an arrangement creates.

The Posters

The movie’s one poster isn’t all that interesting but it does show more or less exactly what the audience can expect from the film. Long and Barrymore are making goggly eyes at each other as they stand there about to make out against a brick wall. On that wall has been painted a scene combining the two locations they’re going to be living in, SF and NYC as a way to set the audience’s expectations for where the story takes place.

It’s a bright poster that makes it clear that all you can really expect from the movie is a light, funny movie with a couple of actors who rely heavily on charm to see them through. So in that respect, despite whatever design shortcoming there might be, it works.

The Trailers

The first trailer starts off on the first date between the main couple, where he’s charming and funny and she’s just eating it up, something seemingly designed to confirm to the men in the audience that it’s true when women say they’re looking for a guy with a good sense of humor despite the fact that’s totally not true and all of them really just care about…

…I may be veering off course here.

The rest of the trailer shows them deciding to stick it out despite the distance and then encountering all the problems that go with that, including annoying friends, a busy-body sister the pent up frustrations of not having your significant other near to you.

But despite the sometimes serious looks on the character’s faces, the trailer never really loses its upbeat tone. There are still lots of shots of having fun and joking around and the music that plays over all that keeps things on a light note.

A second trailer was released that hit many of the same notes but used different scenes and a different arrangement of the narrative to do so.

We see clips from many of the scenes we did in the first trailer but different excerpts from those scenes. We also get a lot more of the interaction between Garratt (Long) and his friends, something that I’m interpreting to mean the studio is going after guys and trying to sell this as amusing for them as well as mushy for the ladies.

The key component of this trailer is that it really shows off Charlie Day as one of Long’s friends. Based on this he apparently steals every scene he’s in.

Online

The official site opens with a recreation of the poster’s key art and then begins playing the second trailer automatically.

First up in terms of content is the “Synopsis,” which gives visitors a nice overview of the movie’s story, not that there are a lot of twists and turns that were hinted at in the trailers. But it’s decently written and then talks about not only the movie but the credits of the director and more.

“Photos” has about 18 stills from the movie, including a couple of behind the scenes shots. “Video” has both trailers, two TV Spots and a video for the song “If You Run” by Boxer Rebellion, one of the songs on the soundtrack as well as a behind the scenes video from the shooting of that video.

There’s information on the cast and crew as well as some Production Notes under the “Cast and Filmmakers” section, which is surprisingly robust considering some of the efforts I’ve seen on sites of late.

“Downloads” is where you’ll find a handful of Wallpapers and Icons to grab if you so choose. “Soundtrack” has information and samples of the songs on the movie’s soundtrack, obviously. Finally, “Partners/Sweepstakes” has information on companies that have partnered with the movie for promotional purposes as well as links to sites that were giving away prize packs of movie merchandise.

There’s also quite a lot on the site in terms of fun activities.

“DJ Your Hook-Up” lets you select what kind of whoopee you’d like to make and where and then gives you a playlist of songs you can play or then buy.

“Getting to Know You” lets you fill in the answer to a question like the kid you’d be asked on a first date or rate the answers provided by others.

“Date Planner” is actually a Facebook app that lets you create a special date with the person you’re away from.

Lastly, the “Long Distance Relationship Quiz” lets you see if you’re the type of person who could survive such an arrangement.

The movie’s Facebook page is pretty good, with lots updates on where and when the cast would be appearing on their promotional outings as well as photos, videos and the other details that have become standard on these pages.

Advertising and Cross Promotions

The movie certainly didn’t lack for TV advertising, with at least two or three spots running in regular rotation, all of which were variations on the themes of the trailers, showing the couple meeting, deciding not to split just because one of them was leaving and then getting into all sorts of hijinks, including trying to get it on on her sister’s table, a gag the trailers and commercials come back to often.

Listed on the site are a number of companies, raining from Shuttle Computer, which is running a sweepstakes giving away one of their ultra-slim PCs to Skype, which sells itself as being able to connect far-apart people over VOIP and video chat.

Also included here Sprint, Southwest Airline and Arden B., which is running a promoting giving away movie tickets with $75 purchases.

Other than Arden B. and Shuttle there’s no information on specific promotions given on the websites of the companies.

Media and Publicity

The cast, especially Long and Barrymore, have been going gangbusters on the promotional circuit raising awareness of the movie, but there hasn’t really been a wave of publicity about the movie that was designed to cut through the clutter. I would imagine by virtue of its strong advertising campaign and other activities there’s high enough awareness of the movie in the target audience but from what I’ve seen there haven’t been a lot of press stories run.

Overall

A completely pleasant and charming campaign for a movie that I suspect is completely pleasant and charming. Your mileage may vary depending your particular tolerance for the romantic comedy genre in general, the level of your animosity toward Justin Long and other factors. But looking at it from top to bottom it’s not a bad push for a movie that has the potential to pick up the audience that felt disappointed by The Switch a couple weeks ago.

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While overall spending dropped some sectors saw increases, especially outdoor advertising, which grew from $48.9 million in the same period of 2009 to $58.9 million this year. Digital was also up slightly (about $1.2 million) as was national spot radio.

But major cuts were made to TV of all stripes, from national to the spot market to cable. That may have something to do with the face that DVR-based time-shifting is happening more and more, making those TV spots less attractive because they’re less effective. Other media buys, then, are being sought to take the place of TV advertising not only because of the DVR but also because audience fragmentation makes it harder to reach people.

Hampp’s AdAge story also contains a number of interesting quotes from media executives, either movie marketers, digital marketers or publisher CEOs. Their takes on what’s most effective right now varies and, unsurprisingly, seems to be reflective of what their job is. So some consider TV to still be the most effective outlet for mass reach while others can’t emphasize digital executions enough.

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His character in this week’s new release, The American, seems to bear more than a little resemblance to Bingham. In this movie, though, he plays a contract killer who works on his own much of the time. When he tries to take a vacation from the killing he winds up in a small Italian village where he tries to find some piece, befriending a priest and beginning a love affair with a beautiful woman. But the violence he’s perpetrated all his life follows him to this idyllic location and he finds himself not the hunter but the hunted.

The Posters

The poster is a wonderfully retro affair with its minimal use of color and other design elements. Clooney is front and center, running toward the camera with gun and in hand and a very stern look on his face. The combination of those two things and the loose suit he’s wearing give the audience the impression that he’s a spy or some other sort of similar operative. And the large woman’s face that forms the background makes it clear there’s a woman involved in the plot who, it can be safely assumed, is going to make life difficult for Clooney’s character.

The Trailers

The trailer is all about making Clooney seem as cool and collected as possible and it works on that front as well as presenting a compelling case for seeing the movie. We start out eavesdropping on a phone call between Clooney and someone else. Clooney wants out of his life, which we later see involves lots of violence, but he’s convinced to take one last job. So it’s off to Italy where we assume he’s stalking his prey but where he also meets not only a couple of beautiful ladies – who likely aren’t what they seem to be -but also an old priest who he strikes up a friendship with. It’s clear there’s danger in the air Clooney navigates around Europe and we see lots of high-power rifles being aimed and then lowered for any number of reasons.

We also get quite a bit of background on Clooney’s character, with his employer stating that he as a long list of enemies, a sequence showing him cleaning his weapon (not a metaphor) while the priest talks about him having the hands of a craftsman and other such hints. All in all it’s an effective trailer that does a good job of showing the movie as being a character study, albeit one with lots of action, sex and intrigue.

A second, much-shorter trailer – it was only 48 seconds long – really boiled the movie down to its essence: Clooney is some sort of high-precision assassin with someone gunning for him, a couple lovely ladies in the mix and a priest who he has an unusual friendship with. It’s awfully short, not much longer than a TV commercial, and so doesn’t break any new ground or really do much of anything that’s interesting other than show off those core three or so main selling points.

Online

The movie’s official website is actually quite a nice production.

The first content section is “The Story” and is where you’ll find a good overview of the movie’s plot and who all the characters are. Information on the people who portray those characters and then those behind the camera can be found under “Cast & Crew.”

There are about 20 stills from the movie, including a few with director Corbijn, in the “Photos” section. “Videos” has both trailers, a handful of TV Spots and some extended clips as well as a featurette.

More information on the movie can be found in “In Depth,” which has some Focus-produced articles that turn the spotlight on Clooney and Corbijn especially. There’s also the “News & Press” blog for the movie that has links to stories about the movie, a blog that confirms what I’ll say later that there wasn’t exactly a ton of press around the movie.

The official site also hosted a blog written by Corbijn that has him sharing updates from the set, talking about working with the actors and other anecdotes. Not surprisingly it features plenty of photos taken by Corbijn, all of which of course look great.

The movie’s Facebook page is pretty good as well, with plenty of updates about the movie’s marketing and other actives, with lots of people commenting that they’re excited about the movie coming out.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

For a movie that has a distinctly artistic feeling it was a little surprising to see a handful of TV spots created. I guess it shouldn’t have been considering Clooney is the star here. The spots present Clooney as some sort of mysterious character who has a troubling secret but the chase scenes seem to be an attempt to give it a Bourne-esque feel for the audience who might be more inclined to see him as an international man of mystery than as a troubled retiring assassin.

Media and Publicity

The movie got a bit of publicity but not the kind that preceded Up in the Air or some of Clooney’s other movies. Some of the bigger stories (outside of those about Clooney’s love life and other personal matters) included a look at just how vastly European the movie’s production truly was (Los Angeles Times, 8/29/10) and then, just before release, the fact that Clooney was awarded the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award (Hollywood Reporter, 7/21/10) for his efforts in that area, including the recent “Hope for Haiti” campaign.

Overall

There’s a lot to like about this campaign, mostly in the realm of its efficiency. What I mean by that is that each component of the campaign does a lot without there being a lot. So that one poster really makes an impact that you don’t notice there’s just the one. Likewise with the trailers – you don’t need that second one since the first does a good job of highlighting the major selling points of the movie without overdoing it.

The website is focused not on flash and sizzle but instead on just showing off what it’s going to take to sell the movie. While there may not be a lot of extras there is lots of information about the movie in the form of news stories and other write-ups that add depth to the marketing. So while it’s not the biggest scale of marketing – though there was plenty of TV advertising done in the last couple of weeks prior to release – it does convey its key messages pretty well. All that remains is to see if the right audience was listening.

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(And no, I’m not counting matinee/evening show differentiations here. I’m talking about walking up to the window and having a choice between Price A and Price B for the same product depending on how you want it presented.)

According to The Wrap, average admission price is up about five percent this year, thanks largely to 3D, which costs you more at the ticket window. But, as this story (Hollywood Reporter, 8/26/10) speculates, there’s a consumer backlash that’s going to hit now or going to hit later, mostly because the Hollywood studios have been converting all sorts of garbage into 3D and then expecting people to pay more for it.

But if Hollywood and their business partners in the exhibition industry are serious about maintaining this pricing model they’re going to have to do what every other consumer industry does: Make it part of the marketing and then occasionally run price-based promotions.

3D presentation is already part of most movie’s marketing campaigns. Any film getting the third-dimensional treatment will have that prominently displayed on the posters, in the trailers and everywhere else.

But exhibitors are going to have to get in the game here and begin making the case for why seeing it in 3D is worth the extra coin. More than that, they’re going to have to start incentivizing this behavior with the good movies so that it carries over into the not-so-good releases. And to do so they’re going to have to adopt some of the same price promotion strategies that other retailers do. Otherwise 3D will die on the exhibition side of the equation long before all the planned 3D movies hit screens.

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After reviewing the marketing campaign for Brief Interviews With Hideous Men I came away with the sense that the movie would be an uncomfortable viewing experience. While many aspects of the campaign came off as comedic – especially the trailer, which featured clips of some of the interviews, many of which seemed to be funny – it more or less came off as a black comedy of sorts.

But the movie itself is much darker than that, truly showing the characters in it – especially the men – to be hideous. There aren’t more than one or two real laugh-out-loud moments in the running time. Instead there are plenty of moments that will make you squirm uncomfortably in your chair.

Many of those moments come from the same scenes that seemed more straight-forwardly funny when excerpted in the trailer. But in their entirety and with the context of what’s fully being said they come off as a lot less charming and likable, which is the entire point of the movie.

The major issues between the campaign and the actual film come in that many traditional narrative structures are thrown out in the movie that appear to be pretty standard in the trailer and rest of the marketing. Recollections of a character seem to be blend into one another and it’s unclear at various points whether what we’re seeing is actually happening. But in the trailers all this looks very cut and dried.

Did the campaign misrepresent the movie? Not intentionally. But with a movie that explores such ugly subject matter and is setup in a less than traditional way in terms of story-telling, it’s only natural that some nuances are going to be lost in the marketing. In some cases, such as this one, what’s lost is a lot of context, which can lead to a jarring experience for the viewer.

That’s why the press campaign for movies like this are so important for people to be clued in to. I had a better sense of the movie’s true tone from my reading of some of the reviews and other buzz that came out of its Sundance Film Festival appearance than I did from watching the trailer.

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But one of the things I find interesting about the THR story is that the efforts that previously might have gone to TV advertising are instead being directed at online engagement platforms such as Facebook. It’s interesting because so many of those Facebook pages 1) Become outlets for distributing TV spots and 2) have very little actual engagement going on in terms of actual two-way conversations.

The other point that stands out for me is the one about marketers needing to reevaluate the timing of the TV spots they continue to run. Conventional wisdom for movies has always been that the Thursday before a movie opens is the sweet spot (that’s why Thursday has traditionally been home to some of TV’s most popular shows) but now that’s changing. If shows recorded on Thursday aren’t being watched until Sunday then maybe spots need to run earlier.

The reality is that online marketing is great at converting intention but raising awareness is still achieved more often than not through TV for the majority of the audience. That can be true or untrue depending on the movie and its target audience. But while the expectations for what TV advertising can or cannot accomplish might be shifting I’d be surprised to see it disappear or meaningfully diminish in the foreseeable future.

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While it’s tempting to continue the hand-wringing over Pilgrim’s fate, which, as the AdAge story about social media buzz makes clear, was expected to be bigger based on clues such as excited Twitter mentions and anticipatory Facebook updates, doing so is also an exercise in futility. That’s largely because it’s not the case that this is a bad year for geeks, which is the headline THR assigns to its story. It’s more because the scale of the movies that are being created for niche audiences are outsized compared with those audiences.

The Wrap, in its piece, is right when it says that the movie didn’t fit in to any one genre. Instead it was a mish-mosh of a handful of ideas from different genres, all put together into something wholly unique. But instead of appealing to all the fans from all the source genres it wound up appealing only to those who found that original mix interesting and appealing.

Where the problem wound up occurring is that most of those who have their own movie blogs were in that group. But the percentage of Pilgrim fans in the movie blog community happened to be far greater than the percentage who were likely to “get it” in the general audience. That’s what then caused the outsized hype for the movie before its disappointing opening weekend.

So then we have a problem of scale, one that’s been plaguing Hollywood for the last four or five years. The big movies are REALLY BIG but even those studio productions that are more or less assured to have a limited target audience have budgets – not including the subsequent marketing – that are north of $30 million. So when opening weekend is then $5 million, things get a little dicey.

If movies such as this were treated a bit differently – mainly by being given budgets that were in line with realistic expectations and then release patterns that allowed the movie to live up to whatever potential it truly has – there might be more successes.

There are always going to be movies like Snakes on a Plane and Scott Pilgrim that have great word of mouth but then go on to completely stall upon release. But these can be minimized by evaluating the scale some movies are produced on and then making sure that the movie is hitting as many people as possible to maximize its chances of success.

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