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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: "Snakes on a Plane" marketing
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Pravin Ratnam
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 844
From: Atlanta, GA,USA
Registered: Sep 2002
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posted 08-21-2006 02:52 PM
If it was PG rated, it wouldnt have gotten the same internet hype. It would have gained a few more families but lost a lot of the people who went precisely because they played up the R Rating factor and wanted to hear Jackson say "motherfuckin snakes on this motherfuckin plane".
Usually if an R rating keeps away the kids, you would at least some kids try to sneak in or come with an older brother. I didn't see any of that in the two auditoriums I looked at(after my showing, I walked into the next screen out of curiosity). I just don't think your average moviegoer felt like watching this. Also many probably feel like this is a movie they would rather watch on video. The studio should have found a way to communicate to the moviegoer that this is home video level cheesy fun but not exactly the same kind of cheesy enertainment, but more fun in a theater full of crowds. I don't think the internet hype failed. Newline just failed to build any extra audience on their own.
Newline is saying that their only disappointment was it didnt do better than the tracking. Well someone must have f'd up the tracking because they did release it in a meganumber of screens. Someone is trying to cover their ass at Newline.
They should have done sneaks in selected areas in the previous week to build some regular momentum so people might bring their friends along. I know people in my auditorium had a hell of a time. The folks in the next auditorium were not. So they should have seeded this release and included audience reactions in their ads. Releasing this movie in such a large number of screens indisriminately in every kind of region was silly. While I was shocked that Hollywood 24(a lot of young folk, and a lot of African Americans go there) didnt have bigger crowds, I am not surprised at all by the low turnouts in the northern Atlanta suburbs. That was just a waste of prints.
No guarantee my suggestions would have worked, but at least it would not hurt. If you go to aintitcool.com, the Alamo knew how to run the movie. They played up the whole audience participation thing with rubber snakes and Samuel Jackson beer. It wouldnt have worked in your typical multiplex, but theaters in selected areas (not the suburban ones) in Atlanta should have put in a tiny bit of effort to make patrons know that this would be the place to watch the movie. I know a few people who saw the movie in suburban multiplexes who regretted watching the movie there after I told them of my audience reaction at Atlantic Station. NewLine would have been better off going with a higher average and less screens (with probably the same overall gross) for this movie to spin the opening weekend differently and build better press.
Another thing to note: Maybe Samuel Jackson is just cooler for those of us who went to college in the 90s than for the "You got Served" and "Step Up" youth crowd now. So the campy appeal of the movie combined with the Samuel Jackson factor was overestimated by some of us and it was just not enough to pull in even the urban crowd in Atlanta. So maybe it's also a generational thing when it comes to assume the "coolness" and "camp" factors? People who work in theaters on an everyday basis may be in better touch with their customer tastes to comment on this.
Also women seemed to be against going to this movie. It's not like the J-Horror movies which seem to attract a lot of women. The only people who didnt seem to like the movie were a couple of women at my screening. They were bitching at their boyfriends after the movie about how stupid it was.
Anyway, this is what it boils down to. It still made 15M which is really not that far off mark for this genre. Quentin and Robert Rodriguez movies dont make huge grosses, even in the first week, despite even more hype. Maybe better marketing would have had it at 25M if they got some of the summer movie action fans in bigger numbers. But all said and done, regardless of the marketing, this was no 100M movie. And not every movie we enjoy will be a 100M movie. This is not the kind of movie you release on 3500 plus screens. By doing so, NewLine guaranteed itself a letdown.
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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 08-22-2006 05:06 PM
The best marketing ever (considering no-one got hurt!):
http://www.gambling911.com/Snakes-on-a-Plane-082206.html
Deadly rattlesnakes released at theatre showing "Snakes on a Plane"
Two live diamondback rattlesnakes were released in an Arizona movie theater during a showing of the new film "Snakes on a Plane," according to Local 6 News.
Authorities said pranksters released the young venomous rattlesnakes in a dark theater at the AMC Desert Ridge near Tatum and Loop 101 in Phoenix.
The two snakes caused a panic in the dark theater, according to the report.
"That to me is very scary," herpetological association representative Tom Whiting said. "I would hate to be watching a movie about snakes and have a rattlesnake bite me."
Wranglers were called to collect the snakes, the report said.
No one was injured in the incident and, so far, the culprits have not been caught.
Officials believe the snakes were smuggled into the theater in backpacks.
"This thing is under someone's chair and they go to sit and they just push your foot in the air and startle it -- obviously all they got to do is startle this thing," Phoenix Herpetological Society spokesman Daniel Marchand said. "It's dark. They can't see you, you know that well. If it's scared, boom it strikes."
The snakes were released into the desert.
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