Marketing to Moviegoers: A Handbook of Strategies Used by Major Studios and Independents [Paperback]

Robert Marich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2005

"Marketing to Moviegoers" is the essential guide to film marketing. Although there are many resources available about how to make a film, there are few about how to get your film seen once it's made and none that reveal the closely-guarded marketing secrets of the major motion picture studios. The author goes right to the source and provides data, quotes, and insights from high profile industry professionals and information on market research that the major studios don't want the moviegoing public to know.

This book will be indispensable for film marketing executives, consumer product marketers, students, and people new to the filmmaking field. It provides practical data, such as templates for advertising campaigns of different sizes, solutions, and an insight into the complicated movie marketing process. Armed with the strategies that Hollywood professionals would prefer not to share, film professionals and marketing professionals alike will have a leg up in this complicated business.

*Learn how to get your film seen by the public
*Learn how to inspire confidence in and generate excitement among investors and distributors
*Find practical solutions and strategies that you can apply to your own film
*Learn the secret strategies of the major studios, and find out information on market research that the studios don't want the moviegoing public to know

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bob Marich is one of the most respected trade journalists covering the movie industry today. "Marketing to Moviegoers" is a distillation of his wide-ranging knowledge that touches all the key issues in a breezy, quick-reading style." Ira Mayer,
Publisher, Entertainment Marketing Letter & The Licensing Letter

"...An excellently-written, deeply researched manual which every producer should read." Screen Finance Newsletter

"I am using 'Marketing To Moviegoers' in a graduate Producers Program class that I teach at UCLA. The graduate students use it to design marketing positioning statements for their required thesis project reports. 'Marketing to Moviegoers' provides a cogent and extremely pragmatic discussion of studio marketing practices."
- Denise Mann, Associate Professor and Head, UCLA Producers Program

"This is an excellently-written, deeply research manual which every producer should read. It takes the reader though every facet of the marketing campaign from research to product placement to how much money the studio pockets when its film is playing in your local multiplex."
- Screen Finance, 19-year-old London-based fortnightly newsletter.

Book Description

Learn the secrets to how Hollywood studios develop a marketing plan for each film to generate buzz among investors, distributors, and the moviegoing public.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press (May 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240806875
• ISBN-13: 978-0240806877
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #968,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've got 25 years experience covering the movie business from a financial perspective, which gave me a background to write "Marketing to Moviegoers: Second Edition" from SIU Press. I have journalist articles published in Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Advertising Age, Los Angeles Times and Forbes. I am currently writing a "coffee table" book on romance movies "More Than Just A Kiss" for White Star Publishing and otherwise work as a media finance analyst.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What A Blessing This Book Is., November 4, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Marketing to Moviegoers: A Handbook of Strategies Used by Major Studios and Independents (Paperback)

Marketing is not only a powerful force in the movie business, but a financially formidable one as well. Consider: it cost $98 million ON AVERAGE to make and market and studio film in 2004, with marketing costs accounting for about $35 million. This book examines the entire process in fascinating detail that I can vouch for. I personally have over 30 years experience covering the film business for trade publications Variety, Moving Pictures and The Hollywood Reporter. "Marketing To Moviegoers" covers creative strategies, marketing placements, test screenings, the tortuous process of producing trailers, billing, media buying, the role of "free" publicity, and on and on. It's all here, crystallized in accessible terms with nary a trace of Hollywood insider gobbledygook. "Marketing To Moviegoers" is sorely needed since the press and other books give short shrift to the job of how to lure theater ticket buyers "into the tent."

Frank Segers

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Text Book for Professionals and Fans, October 30, 2005

By 

D Lowell "Our Man in Hollywood" (Beverly Hills, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marketing to Moviegoers: A Handbook of Strategies Used by Major Studios and Independents (Paperback)

Robert Marich's handbook on Movie Marketing is comprehensive, complex and at the same time riveting.

The analysis he presents is tremendously thorough, detailed and informative and clearly reveals the author as both an astute insider and a fan of the movies. Marich provides a unique glimpse into the enormous complexity of movie marketing with tremendous detail at the many layers and levels played by economics, psychology, technology and plain old `dumb luck'. The movie industry, we are reminded, is a tremendous locomotive that pulls a trillion dollar train from television and radio advertising, to merchandising and music, home video and DVD sales.

The book is written for both industry experts, film students, and professionals who can extract the lessons of Hollywood marketing for their own markets and corporate needs. Marich's painstaking research shows in the amount of raw data he provides to introduce the many facets of movie marketing. Marich opens up a fascinating, behind-the-scenes world that not only permeates and creates American culture and Pop culture, but is the leading export of American ideas and trends worldwide.

"Marketing to Moviegoers" is not simply about the movies, but provide insights into the dramatic forces that have changed American culture for the past 30 years. In many ways Marich has provided his own Future Shock by demonstrating demographic shifts, the growing importance of the Internet, the fragmentation of television viewing, the social implications of increased cell phone use, viral marketing patterns via e-mail, and the emergence of electronic cinema. The book is written as a primer and is a useful text book. It only misses a forward looking conclusion, for Marich has told us where the industry has been and demonstrates with tremendous knowledge where it is now, but has only teased of what this means for the future.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Inside Track on How Movies Are Marketed, March 9, 2006

By 

R. Zahradnik - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marketing to Moviegoers: A Handbook of Strategies Used by Major Studios and Independents (Paperback)

As London bureau chief of The Hollywood Reporter, I covered the whole range of movie marketing strategies, from bad to brilliant. Bob Marich gives those who market movies and those with an interest in the film business a great inside look at how it's done, from market research to promotions and publicity to distribution. He covers major studio releases, movies distributed by indies, and foreign-language films. This is a great read for anyone who cares about how movies reach the ticket buying public.