Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S1E09 - Movie Marketing

Episode Date: March 4, 2012

This week, we explore the critical importance of movie trailers to a film's success. Hollywood now spends an average of $32 million per movie to advertise. But trailers have changed dramatically over the years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan. You just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. new year new me season is here and honestly we're already over it enter felix the health care company helping canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year weight loss is more than just diet and exercise it can be about tackling genetics hormones metabolism felix

gets it they connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 1, 2012. you're not you when you're hungry you're under the influence with terry o'reilly physics it's a road where'd it go nowhere that's the point you are incredible we can do whatever we want. Yeah! Oh, God! Snake!

Once we bury him, this is all going to go away. The body, It's gone. The movie Zizek's Road was an independent thriller shot in 2006. It starred Leo Grillo as an accountant named Grant, Katherine Heigl as a woman named Marissa, and Tom Sizemore as Marissa's boyfriend, Joey. Put this all behind you right now and go. This isn't your idea. It's his. Joey. Grant, the accountant, has a bad marriage and takes off for Vegas to do work for some clients. While there, he meets this seductive woman named Marissa and has a week-long affair with her. But then Marissa's boyfriend Joey shows up and tries to kill the two lovers.

But the accountant gets the upper hand in the ensuing fight and kills Joey. Grant and Marissa then take his body to Zissix Road and bury it there in the desert. But the next day, the body goes missing. And something is suddenly trying to kill the accountant and the woman. No! The movie was written and directed by John Penny,

and the budget was $1.3 million. In order to qualify for independent film status with the Screen Actors Guild, it had to run in at least one U.S. theater before it could be distributed internationally. So, it opened in the Highland Park Village Theater in Dallas, Texas on February 26, 2006. It ran for one week. Total box office receipts? $30. Actually, that's incorrect.

One of the six patrons that actually paid to see the film was the movie's makeup girl who had brought a friend. So she was given a refund by the director. Total U.S. box office receipts? $20. It ranks as one of the lowest box office takes in movie history. Welcome to the world of motion pictures. Sometimes you get a movie like Avatar that brings in $2.7 billion worldwide. Or Harry Potter Deathly Hallows, which brings in $91 million in a single day. Or sometimes you get a movie like Proud American,

which opened in 750 theaters and only made $96,000, or $128 per theater. And sometimes you get Zizek's Road. Yes, it's true, once in a while a sleeper movie that was made for a small budget suddenly catches fire. Like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was made for $140,000 and ended up making $26 million. But that is the exception to the rule.

For in most cases, the success of a movie depends first and foremost on the marketing. And when it comes to movie marketing, two things count above all. The Oscars and movie trailers. And how those two elements influence a movie's

destiny is a very interesting story. You're under the influence. Adweek magazine noted recently that the genius of modern Hollywood lies not just in its ability to make movies, but to create weekly audiences for them. Back in the pre-TV days, a full two-thirds of North Americans were moviegoers.

Even as late as 1948, nearly 100 million people went to their local movie theaters every week without any national advertising to prod them. Then came television in the 50s and color TV in the 60s, and theaters suddenly had a fight on their hands. Today, Hollywood can count on less than 10% of the population seeing any given movie,

and attracting that 10% requires huge, multi-million dollar ad campaigns. Those ad campaigns must draw people to the 39,000 screens across North America

and hope that audience is in the mood for lots of popcorn and soda pop. Because without the concession stand, most multiplexes would be out of business. Advertising movies is not for the faint of heart.

In 2010, studios spent an average $32 million in advertising per film in wide release. Most of it spent airing movie trailers on television. As one studio marketing chief said to Adweek magazine, despite all the talk about using the internet and stunts and hype, the only real tool for pushing millions of people into movie theaters on opening weekend is TV commercials. To buy a single TV commercial to reach a big, audience like Sunday Night Football for instance, it can cost as much as $340,000.

So very quickly, you can see how $32 million doesn't go very far. Research has shown that studios need 7 ads per program to be sure of reaching any audience. So do the math. 7 commercials at $340,000 each is about $2.3 million. And that's just buying one high-profile program.

You have to buy about 600 commercials on cable TV just to reach 50% of your target audience, says the CEO of a top US media agency in primetime studios are still buying 100 to 150 commercials just to reach that 50% and you can't do that overnight but studios do follow a strategy they first target FM G's or frequent moviegoers FM GGs are concentrated in three demographics, young adults, teens, and children. Teens and children are the most desirable audience of all because they go to movies weekly,

especially in the summer. Second, studios try to find affordable programs. The good news is that teens and kids can be found with less expensive shows, some of which can be purchased for $30,000 per commercial. Then, there's the big ad. Ladies and gentlemen,

your hosts for the evening, James Franco and Anne Hathaway. The Academy Awards. This year, ABC is charging between $1.6 and $.7 million dollars for a 30 second commercial during the broadcast the high watermark for the Oscars was in 2008 when spots went for about 1.8 million dollars there is a reason why the Oscar show continues to be such a big ticket item for advertisers it is one of the few programs that

viewers tend to watch live meaning there is a much lower chance of fast forwarding through commercials the only other programming that can make that claim is live sports very few people tape sports events with the majority preferring to see it unfold in real time. That's why the most desirable program on television is the Super Bowl. In 2012, it delivered a record TV audience of over 111 million, overtaking 2011's record audience, which had overtaken the last episode of MASH for the biggest audience ever, a record MASH had held for 28 years.

Because of the size of that audience, each 30-second Super Bowl commercial costs upwards of $3 million. The Oscars are sometimes referred to as the Super Bowl for women. It also delivers one of the few mass audience events left on television, and it's one of the biggest influences when it comes to movie marketing. It's interesting to note that the viewership for the Oscar telecast is dictated by the popularity of the Best Picture nominees. In 1998, over 55 million tuned in to see the blockbuster Titanic take home Best Picture. Yet in 2011, only 38 million watched as the more artier film, The King's Speech, took the honor.

Last year, Hyundai was the exclusive automotive advertiser and the biggest spender on the Oscar broadcast with seven commercials. But it also went down in history for having one of the most interesting backstories. Jeff Bridges is Hyundai's spokesperson. Instant gratification has us in a stranglehold. So much so that we don't want to fix things anymore. Just replace them. Don't like your nose? Get a new one. Don't like your job? Get a new one. Don't like your spouse?

Get a new one. Whatever happened to commitment? To standing by our decisions? The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has an odd rule. It effectively prohibits sponsors from running commercials during the show that feature any of the night's nominees or presenters. I guess it's too much hype inside a show built on hype. The problem for Hyundai was that Jeff Bridges

was also a Best Actor nominee for the movie Crazy Heart. So, in order to comply with the Academy's criteria, Hyundai shot seven commercials with seven other Hollywood actors doing the voiceovers, all from a list provided by Jeff Bridges himself. They included Kim Basinger. The 375 horsepower Hyundai Genesis has a more effective braking performance than the Lexus GS460. Richard Dreyfuss.

This year, 3 million young adults out there will get their driver's license. Better get yourself a safe car. David Duchovny. What if we made luxury available to everyone? Would it still be called luxury? Catherine Keener. Dot com said,

Hyundai just might take over the world with this thing. Michael Madsen. If you could drive any car, would you choose yours? The all-new Hyundai Sonata. Mandy Patinkin. Inside the 2010 Hyundai Genesis,

you'll find audio technology by Lexicon. and Martin Sheen. The Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama is one of the most technologically advanced factories in the world. A Best Picture win can add anywhere from $20 to $40 million at the box office. But aside from the giant ad that is the Oscars, the most powerful way to advertise a movie is, without a doubt, the movie trailer. And we'll be right back.

New year, new me. Season is here and honestly, we're already over it. Enter Felix, the healthcare company helping Canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year. Weight loss is more than just diet and exercise. It can be about tackling genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix gets it. They connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at felix.ca.

That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives? Available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list. The movie trailer has been called the third great American art form. Remarkably, trailers were originally created to drive audiences out of theaters. In the early days of film, it was such a wonder to audiences that they would sit in theaters all day, mesmerized by the magic of cinema.

The problem was that a second wave of new paying customers couldn't get in. So studios created boring trailers that would trail the films so the audience would get restless and leave. But soon, as the novelty of cinema began to wear off, studios realized they now had to appeal to audiences that had become more discerning. So they took movie trailers and assigned them the opposite task, to attract audiences. Once, he was programmed to destroy the future.

I don't know what it's like to try to kill one of these things. Now his mission... Get down! ...is to protect it. Mom! Come with me if you want to live. You're really real. His loyalty is to a child.

Who sent you? You did. 35 years from now, and his enemy... He's a Terminator like you, right? Not like me. Is the deadliest machine ever built. Can it be destroyed? Unknown. This time, there are two.

Terminator 2. You just can't go around killing people. Why? One of the biggest dilemmas of movie trailer marketing is how much of the story do you give away? It's a very delicate balance. Where is that fine line between giving enough of a tease that a moviegoer's curiosity is piqued, but not giving away so much that the public feels it has just seen the movie? In action films, that answer is easy. Take Vin Diesel's movie Fast Five.

All the trailer had to do was show the stars, the stunts, a few scantily clad women, and the slightest hint of a plot. Is all this really necessary to apprehend two men? One's a former federal officer who spent five years in deep cover. The other one's a professional criminal. Escaped prison twice. We find them, we take them as a team, and we bring them back.

And above all else, we don't ever, ever let them get in the cars. In high-torque action films, you don't have to give much away to attract an audience. But other trailers have given away a lot. The trailer for Contagion, for example, gave away the fact that star Gwyneth Paltrow dies early in the film. Unfortunately, she did die. Right. Can I go talk to her? Mr. Armoff, your wife is dead. What are you talking about?

What happened to her? To give away the fact a major star dies early in a movie is a very rare thing in a trailer. Usually, studios go to great lengths to hide a fact like that in a storyline. But this decision was made to attract more moviegoers, not less. The studio's belief being that the more the audience knew,

the more they would want to see the story. New year, new me. Season is here and honestly, we're already over it. Enter Felix, the healthcare company helping Canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year. Weight loss is more than just diet and exercise it can be about tackling genetics hormones metabolism felix gets it they connect you with licensed health care practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help

and a little extra support start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. In the movie Arlington Road, made in 1999, Jeff Bridges starred as a university professor who teaches a class in terrorism. A new neighbor, Tim Robbins, moves into the house next door, and he seems nice enough. Cheryl, this is Brooke. Hi.

It's really nice to meet you, too. What kind of work do you do? I'm a structural engineer. But soon, Bridges begins to suspect his new next-door neighbor is a terrorist. He's changed his name. To the name of a person who died the day before? Yeah, why?

You died the person you were. But is Robbins just a nice guy or is he a terrorist hiding in plain sight? There is a blueprint in his house he does not want me to see. Michael, you let yourself out. Something is being planned.

Our house is your house. Is Bridges on to something or has his teaching made him paranoid? Do you have something on this guy or not? Because if this is all you got, you need to stop teaching that class because it's getting inside your head. That's the core tension of the movie. But the trailer reveals, in no uncertain terms, that Robbins is a terrorist. If you stay for good name, you'll have him back. Grant!

If you don't calm down... There's a bomb in the van! Stand by. Grant's in there! Stop it! I don't know that I can guarantee his safety. That's a pretty big giveaway. So, the question remains. What's the tipping point of Plot Giveaway

versus Plot Secrets? Maybe the best story of a spoiler trailer is for the movie Castaway. It starred Tom Hanks as a FedEx executive named Chuck Noland, who is flying from Russia to Memphis trying to get back in time to spend New Year's Eve with his fiancée, played by Helen Hunt.

But the plane crashes somewhere over the South Pacific, and Chuck is washed up on a deserted island where he lives alone for four years before he is eventually rescued. The movie was directed by Robert Zemeckis, who had done Forrest Gump with Hanks six years before. When it came time to do the movie trailer, Hanks and Zemeckis created one that shows Hanks' character Chuck Nolan promising his fiancée that he will be back in time for New Year's Eve. I will be here New Year's Eve, I promise. Then we see him kiss his fiancée goodbye and get on the FedEx plane.

Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. I love you. I love you too. I'll be right back. We see him doing business in Russia. Then he gets back on the plane to come home. I absolutely positively have to get to Memphis tonight.

We'll do our best. But the plane hits severe weather and crashes. Fire! Engine one! Then we see him in the rough ocean, immediately after impact, trying to survive. He manages to grab a lifeboat and eventually washes up on the shore of a deserted island in the South Pacific. A line appears on the screen that says, His journey begins, just as Hank's character realizes that he is marooned. Anybody!

Then the film's title, Cast Away, comes up. No other information, no typical movie voiceover. They hoped that trailer would be enough of a tease to attract moviegoers. But the feedback was that people weren't sure they wanted to sit through a two-hour movie about one man all alone on an island.

The appetite to see a Robinson Crusoe movie was just not there. You can sympathize with Zemeckis. How do you sell a two-and-a-half-hour movie where a large portion of screen time is spent with one single actor talking to a volleyball on a desert island? So, a second trailer was created, but this one was different, because it gave away the entire storyline, from the first shot to the last shot. It showed Hank's character Chuck Nolan not only being marooned, but being rescued.

I would rather take my chance out there on the ocean than to stay here and die. We were lost for four years. We had a funeral, a coffin. What was in it? Then we see Chuck knocking on his fiancée's door, which she opens to discover Nolan standing there, older, thinner, after four long years. A line appears on the screen that says,

Where do you start when you have to start over? Immediately, internet websites began buzzing with complaints that the trailer gave away too much. Even actress Helen Hunt weighed in. I love Castaway. I loved making it, but I hate the trailer, she said angrily. Not only did she object to so many of the plot points being given away, she argued that so many of the movie's unique visuals were exposed, spoiling their later impact.

But director Robert Zemeckis defended the trailer. He felt that the main audience for the film, Men Under 25, approach a movie the same way they approach a hamburger stand. They want to know what they're getting before they plunk their money down.

Said Zemeckis, there's a McDonald's on every street corner and none of them is losing money. The problem, of course, is the size of the investment studios have in big films and the lack of patience for turning a profit. DreamWorks had $80 million invested in Castaway. With the film, both the studio and the director believed the spoiler movie trailer was a necessary marketing strategy to bring in the core movie goer.

As Zemeckis noted, if he had made a movie for only $5 or $10 million, he could take more risks. He wouldn't have had to give so much away in the trailer because there would be fewer dollars at stake. He feels movie studios are responding to the same marketing pressures that mandate disclaimers at the end of automotive commercials, small print on cell phone ads, and ingredient lists on packaged foods

that consumers simply demand to know what they're buying. Tom Hanks, who is also the producer of Castaway, non-packaged foods, that consumers simply demand to know what they're buying. Tom Hanks, who is also the producer of Castaway, doesn't like the marketing pressures put on him these days. As he said in an interview with the Star Tribune, good quality films don't have a chance anymore. You have to win instantly. He cites the fact that the 1967 film classic Bonnie and Clyde opened in just three theaters and played there until it was able to build up an audience.

Now, you open in 3,000 theaters, and if it doesn't do well in the first week, it's gone. Welcome to movie marketing in the 21st century. How much do you give away to create an effective advertising campaign? Are we moving into a new era where studios have to give away movie endings to attract an audience. According to Jonah Lehrer, a writer for Wired magazine, they do. He believes that wanting surprise endings is a relatively recent phenomenon,

that even ancient Greek audiences knew how tragedies would end. In an experiment done by UC San Diego, researchers gave readers a series of short stories with surprises. And in almost every case, the stories were deemed more pleasurable when they were given spoilers ahead of time. Lehrer insists the mind is a prediction machine, that it wants to know outcomes ahead of time,

that it's built into our DNA to be prepared. And a surprisingly high percentage of people read the last five pages of a novel before they begin. But movie critic Roger Ebert disagrees. He said he would have preferred knowing much less about Castaway on his way into the theater, that Chuck Nolan's survival should have been left as an open question. Therein lies the marketing dilemma.

Does ruining the surprise ruin the movie, or does it influence more people to see the movie? Studios spend about $3.5 billion advertising movies each year, so there's a lot riding on that question. It all comes down to, what's the give for the get? And that answer is changing in a world that's under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Hello, I'd like to file a complaint about the radio show Under the Influence. It was the episode about movie marketing. The host, Terry O'Reilly, was complaining that movies give away the whole storyline in trailers,

and then he went and told us that Gwyneth Paltrow dies in Contagion. I haven't seen that yet, thank you very much. And then he goes and tells us that Tom Hanks gets rescued in Castaway. No point cracking that one open now, is there? I'm so mad I could spit. Under the Influence was produced by Pirate Toronto and New York. New year, new me. Season is here, and honestly, we're already over it.

Enter Felix, the healthcare company helping Canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year. Weight loss is more than just diet and exercise. It can be about tackling genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix gets it. They connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who will create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support.

Start your visit today at Felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A.