I interrupt your regularly scheduled Young Adult
film posting to talk about another block-buster movie that has dominated theaters
everywhere! This weekend, I finally got around to watching
"Interstellar", a Christopher Nolan directed film that I haven't
stopped hearing about since it came out two months ago. My review? Absolutely
incredible. Nolan's mind bending time-space warp film had it all- brilliant
performances by Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, mind blowing plot
twists, and beautifully done CGI, so realistic that I wouldn't be surprised if
Nolan actually went to Saturn to film. However, I'm not here to just review the
film, so let's move on to the interesting part.
Interestingly enough, I first heard about "Interstellar"
when AMC Theaters and Paramount Pictures made a daring marketing move-
announcing an unlimited ticket to watch "Interstellar". Whether
anyone actually buys one is irrelevant, for the inspired movie publicity behind
this offer has already done its job. Why? What could they possible gain from
announcing this unlimited ticket? The answer isn't to literally sell more of
these tickets, but rather, the message it conveys- "Interstellar" is
a movie worth watching more than once. AMC
Theaters executive vice president and chief content and programming officer
Elizabeth Frank even proves this point by saying “Christopher Nolan has
created a masterpiece that movie fans are saying gets better every time they
see it."
Paramount is committed to the
marketing of this movie the likes of which we haven't seen for a while.
Usually, the studios push for maybe a week or two of a barrage of publicity up
to the opening weekend, and then- radio silence. With "Interstellar",
the team is not slowing down. The $47 million dollar opening for Nolan's film
was spectacular, and the studio is betting that the afterburn will keep the
film relevant for weeks after opening weekend. Repeat viewers are needed for
this to happen, so the message of the unlimited ticket is clear. Watch
Interstellar multiple times, for it is that
good.
Dickey, J. (2014, November 17).
Unlimited 'Interstellar' ticket offer is just brilliant marketing. Retrieved
January 9, 2015, from http://mashable.com/2014/11/17/unlimited-interstellar-ticket/
This is a cool concept Rebecca and I had never heard of it before. I agree that it is brilliant, in that it doesn't cost them anymore money to allow viewers to view it multiple times (the theaters are still running, whether you're there or not) but it creates an incentive to watch it again and therefore it is brilliant marketing. There's always talk about increasing movie ticket prices, and I know first hand the expensiveness makes me think twice about which movie to watch in theaters and which to wait for, but with a ticket that has unlimited use, I wouldn't mind paying the price as much.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really cool post, Rebecca! I loved your style of writing and the fact that you started it off with your own opinion while at the same time incorporating the actually information from the article. This is a really interesting marketing strategy because the film studios are counting on the fact that by increasing the amount of people they can get to watch the movie (but not pay for it), word-of-mouth will make other people watch it as well.
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