posted 02-03-2008 09:57 PM                    

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"Hannah Montana" wins box office Super Bowl
Sunday February 3 3:06 PM ET

Walt Disney's 3-D movie "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" topped movie box offices, raking in $29 million for the biggest opening over a normally slow Super Bowl weekend, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

With professional football's championship game dominating the entertainment landscape, the 3-D movie of Cyrus' (aka Hannah Montana) 2007 singing tour brought teenage girls streaming into theaters with their parents, said Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group.

"We're looking at this and realizing we made a little piece of movie history," Zoradi said. "This has been a family movie, and we've had lots of parents exiting theaters saying, 'thank you because we couldn't get into any of her concerts."'

Supernatural thriller "The Eye," starring Jessica Alba, took the No. 2 slot at U.S. and Canadian box offices with a $13 million weekend. The No. 3 movie was romantic comedy "27 Dresses" with $8.4 million, according to industry tracker Media By Numbers.

Rounding out the top five were teen pregnancy comedy "Juno" at No. 4 with a weekend haul of $7.5 million, bringing its total ticket sales to $110 million. In the No. 5 position was last week's champ, action adventure "Meet the Spartans," with $7.1 million for the weekend and $28 million overall.

HANNAH'S HUGE HIT

Cyrus, the teenage daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, portrays the title character of Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel cable TV program of the same name. Hannah leads a typical teenage life by day, but has a secret singing career on weekends. The show is a hit with young viewers.

The concert movie's No. 1 performance was even more important in Hollywood for several reasons.

Sales of "Hannah" tickets, whose prices varied but were higher than normal at theaters across the country, came from screenings in about 680 locations and grossed an average of nearly $42,500 per theater, according to the Walt Disney Co. A typical No. 1 movie in wide release would open in about 3,000 theaters and average perhaps $7,000 per theater.

Based on the opening weekend's popularity, Disney said it is extending the movie from what had been a limited run ending this Thursday. Now, theaters will be able to play the movie as long as they like, a Disney spokeswoman said.

Also, elevating the importance of the "Hannah Montana" movie is the idea that new digital 3-D movies are seen as a growing industry trend because theater owners want to put new types of entertainment in their venues so they can compete for audiences against DVDs, video games and the Internet.

The format also allows live concerts like the Hannah Montana shows, or sporting events like football or basketball games, to be shown in theaters in 3-D. Promoters say watching events in this new 3-D format makes audiences feel like they are in the live venue.

For legions of Hannah Montana fans, that factor seemed to be especially important. Cyrus' concert tour late last year was a sell-out and among the hardest live act tickets to come by.

"These 3-D movies can really take you to a place you wouldn't normally go," said Michael Lewis, chief executive officer of the company Real D, whose 3-D technology is used in screening the "Hannah Montana" concert movie.

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posted 02-03-2008 10:24 PM                       

quote: posted article

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Now, theaters will be able to play the movie as long as they like

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I'm reminded of the "chambered filtered cigarette" example in the BOSE thread. The "limited one week only" tag certainly got people to buy the product (I can hear nagging tweens now, "But dad, this is only playing for seven days, we have to get tickets!), even though it ultimately was an empty sales pitch with nothing to back it up.

And do No.1 movies really come out in ONLY 3000 theatres these days? I thought that number was a bit low.

(Why is THIS the thread I've participated the most in recently? )

posted 02-07-2008 10:35 PM                    

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Hannah Montana Release: Savvy or Sneaky?

Wednesday February 6, 5:18 pm ET
By Jeremy Herron, AP Business Writer

Savvy or Sneaky? No Big Surprise When Disney Extends 'Hannah Montana' Limited Release

NEW YORK (AP) -- Hurry, hurry, hurry! The movie event of the year! One week only!

It's one of the oldest tricks in the marketing book -- the limited-time offer -- and The Walt Disney Co. worked it to perfection last weekend when tweens spent $31.3 million to see the studio's latest hit, "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert."

But now that the 3-D film's run has been extended, were parents duped into rushing their kids to the theater? Or was it just another case of Disney's marketing mastery?

Dan Smith, marketing professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, called the strategy "a legitimate tool."

"When you create that kind of buzz and combine it with scarcity, you're going to drive up demand," Smith said. "The model strikes me as not much different from a rock concert."

As most media companies are ceding control of when and where consumers can watch shows or listen to music, Disney is managing its content as tightly as ever. And based on the movie's results -- the "Hannah Montana" film set a record for any movie opening on a Super Bowl weekend -- people are falling over themselves to keep Disney's schedule.

"When you have a successful franchise, setting the time table and controlling the distribution just develops an appetite for more," said Michael Kupinski, media analyst and head of research at Noble Financial Group. "No one is as good at this as Disney."

The company rode the strength of its "Pirates of the Caribbean," "High School Musical" and "Hannah Montana" to a 9 percent increase in fourth-quarter revenue and better-than-expected earnings. Fees at its ESPN sports networks and higher visitors to Disney theme parks also boosted earnings. Disney shares rose $1.43, or 5 percent, to $31.50 Wednesday.

Robert Iger, Disney's president and chief executive, credited the company's focus on developing brands and producing content across its various media and theme park properties.

"Five years ago we could count upon only two major franchises, and today we have 10 vibrant, creative properties," Iger said in a conference call with Wall Street analysts.

"Hannah Montana" fits the mold perfectly. It started as a TV show on the Disney Channel and the concert tour generated $36 million in ticket revenue last year. The movie has already grossed more than five times the $7 million the company said it cost to make.

Disney plans to produce a third season of the TV show and may produce a feature film based on the show.

The company says it planned all along for a one-week run for the "Hannah Montana" film, envisioning it as an extension of the wildly popular concert tour that played to sold-out arenas across the country last year.

Disney has also used limited-time offers to sell anniversary or special versions of its iconic animated movies, from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" to "Pinocchio," and has changed the terms to meet demand.

The studio extended the "Hannah Montana" run on Saturday, giving theater operators the option to show the film for as long as they like. Disney said it responded to "astounding" demand on the opening weekend.

But the company also knew long ago the movie would be a smashing success.

Advance ticket sales were higher than for any movie that was not a sequel, and the fifth-highest ever, according to online ticket seller Fandango. In fact, it has been the top-selling movie at the service since the tickets went on sale Dec. 1.

Fandango alone sold more than $9 million in advance tickets for the weekend shows of "Hannah Montana," nearly a third of the total box office. Disney says it told theater operators well in advance the company would extend the run if demand was high.

The company says it wasn't trying to manufacture scarcity to drum up demand.

"We were trying to make it like an event, like a concert," said Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios, Motion Picture Group.

"If we were trying to make it scarce we would have had a more limited release," he said.

The movie ran on all of the country's 683 public screens equipped to handle 3D films, and averaged $45,534 per screen over the weekend. A typical blockbuster opens in 3,000 theaters and averages about $7,000 at each, according to industry statistics.

Most movies are released as broadly as possible, Smith said. "You want a large number of people to see it quickly just in case it doesn't fly," he said.

A trend that has alarmed studios is huge opening weekends that fade quickly after a blast of negative word of mouth. That makes the first weekend even more important, Smith said.

"By limiting the run, you can eliminate the effects of bad press by forcing anyone who's interested to see the movie right away," he said.

Apparently Disney won't need to worry about an abrupt falloff in ticket sales. "Hannah Montana" received an "A" grade from moviegoers polled by CinemaScore, and Fandango said advance sales remain strong for the movie into next week.

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posted 02-08-2008 10:13 AM                       

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But now that the 3-D film's run has been extended, were parents duped into rushing their kids to the theater?

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posted 02-10-2008 03:31 AM                       

quote: Brad Allen

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Digital 3D had nothing to do with it, it would have been just as big of success shown on a sheet in b/w on the side of a hippy bus

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